Not only a visionary architect, urban planner and theorist of modernity, but also a painter and sculptor, Le Corbusier (1887-1965) made a profound impression on the 20th century in dramatically changing architecture and the way it is «inhabited». His international career flourished long before globalisation made its appearance.

Modulor is an architectural notion invented by Le Corbusier in 1944. A standardised human form used to conceive the structure and the size of housing unities designed by the architect, it was to enable an optimum comfort in the man/living-space relationship. Here, the Modulor reproduces a large-format collage made in 1950 that offers a poetical and allegorical vision of this concept and its inspirations.

The work :
Le Corbusier, Le Modulor, 1950
Encre de Chine et collage de papiers gouachés et découpés,
70 x 54 cm
Collection Centre Pompidou, Musée national d'art moderne
© Centre Pompidou / Dist. RMN-GP/ Ph. Migeat
© FLC, ADAGP, Paris 2015