Project 1 - Anthropometry

The intent of the first project is to create a personal understanding of space through the investigation of your own physical condition. Has a counter top ever felt too high? Have ceilings ever felt too low? Has anything ever felt out of reach? Have you ever repositioned your body to fit through a tight space?

. . : : Consider: The Gentle Giant : : . .
Extra bonus if you can identify the tune that the town band is playing in this clip!

Throughout history, architects have attempted to document and standardize their design practices to accommodate the average human form in terms of mathematical proportions, geometric measure and visual representations. Vitruvius’ de Architectura (c. 25 BC) inspired Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic Vitruvian Man (1487), the iconic visual representation of man inscribed within a circle and a square. The same proportions have been reconsidered by Leone Battista Alberti and more recently by Le Corbusier in his canonical work Le Modular.

Leonardo Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man

Le Corbusier's Le Modular Diagram utilizes graphic devices as a vector for understanding human proportion.

In popular culture, aberrations from these average measurements are fodder for sensational stories that captivate our imagination.

. . : : Consider: The 7 1/2th Floor : : . .
. . : : Consider: Derek Zoolander : : . .

Sometimes in reality, structures and buildings are designed without consideration for human scale. As architects, we cannot always design for a specific individual, so it becomes our responsibility to understand the average human condition. Your task in this first project is to gain a sensitivity and understanding of what it means to design for the human form. First you will obtain an understanding your own and then you will understand what it means to design for others.