A module (Latin ''modulus'', a measure) is a term that was in use among Roman architects, corresponding to the semidiameter of the column at its base. The term was first set forth by

Vitruvius Vitruvius (; c. 80–70 BC – after c. 15 BC) was a Roman architect and engineer during the 1st century BC, known for his multi-volume work entitled '' De architectura''. He originated the idea that all buildings should have three attribut ...

(book iv.3), and was employed by architects in the

Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the trans ...

to determine the relative proportions of the various parts of the

Classical orders An order in architecture is a certain assemblage of parts subject to uniform established proportions, regulated by the office that each part has to perform. Coming down to the present from Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman civilization, the arch ...

. The module was divided by the 16th century theorists into thirty parts, called minutes, allowing for much greater precision than was thought necessary by Vitruvius, whose subdivision was usually six parts. When illustrating Palladio, the British architect Isaac Ware (''The Four Books of Andrea Palladio's Architecture'', London 1738; ''illustration, right'') laid out the

Doric order The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of c ...

as an exercise in modular construction. The module he selected was a full column diameter taken at the base. He set his columns, 15 modules tall, at an intercolumniation of 5½ modules. His architrave and frieze, without the cornice, is equal to one module. The tendency in Beaux-Arts architectural training was similarly to adopt the whole columnar diameter as the module when determining the height of the column or entablature or any of their subdivisions. Thus module can be extended to mean more generally a unitary part that gives the measuring unit for the whole. In education, for example, lessons may be divided into modules.

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vitruvian Module Architectural theory