ISO 2848 (''Building construction – Modular coordination – Principles and rules)'' is an

international standard international standard is a technical standard developed by one or more international standards organizations. International standards are available for consideration and use worldwide. The most prominent such organization is the International Or ...

for the construction industry that describes the aims of modular coordination and gives the rules to be used in establishing the dimensions and positioning of buildings and their components.

Overview

ISO 2848:1984, published by

International Organization for Standardization The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ) is an international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Membership requirements are given in Ar ...

, is an ISO standard used by the construction industry. Adherence to the standard means that major dimensions such as grid lines on drawings, distances between wall centres or surfaces, widths of shelves and kitchen components are multiples of the basic module.

Definitions

ISO 2848 it is based on multiples of 300 mm and 600 mm. As dimensions increase, preference is given to lengths which are multiples of 3 (see ), 6, 12, 15, 30 and 60 basic modules. For smaller dimensions, the submodular increments M (see ) and M are preferred. The numbers 300 and 600 were chosen because they are

preferred number In industrial design, preferred numbers (also called preferred values or preferred series) are standard guidelines for choosing exact product dimensions within a given set of constraints. Product developers must choose numerous lengths, distance ...

s due to their large number of divisors – any multiple can be evenly divided into 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 25, 30, etc., making them easy to use in

mental arithmetic Mental calculation consists of arithmetical calculations using only the human brain, with no help from any supplies (such as pencil and paper) or devices such as a calculator. People may use mental calculation when computing tools are not availab ...

. This system is known as "modular coordination". A related standard is

British Standard British Standards (BS) are the standards produced by the BSI Group which is incorporated under a royal charter and which is formally designated as the national standards body (NSB) for the UK. The BSI Group produces British Standards under the a ...

6750.

Basic module

The underlying unit of size given in ISO 2848 for modular coordination is the 'basic module'. The 'basic module' is represented in the standards by the letter M, and has two standard definitions. For metric countries it is defined as , making it equivalent to the

decimeter The decimetre (symbol dm) or decimeter (American English) is a unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), equal to one tenth of a metre, ten centimetres, 100 millimetres or 3.937 inches. The common non-SI metric unit of volume, ...

in SI. For countries using imperial units, the module is defined as .

References

{{ISO standards Construction standards #02848

Overview

Definitions

Basic module

Further reading

References