module, in architecture, an arbitrary unit adopted to regulate the dimensions, proportions, or construction of the parts of a building. A number of modules, based on the diameter of a column, were used in determining the proportions of the order in Classical architecture. In Japanese architecture, room sizes were determined by combinations of rice mats called tatami (q.v.), which were three feet by six feet (a little less than one metre by two metres). In modern architecture, design modules may be used to organize the proportioning and dimensioning of plans. The metre has proved useful for this purpose; Frank Lloyd Wright used a 4-foot (1.3-metre) rectilinear or diagonal grid; and Le Corbusier developed and widely published an additive proportioning system named by him the Modulor.
Modules can also serve as the basis for coordinating the dimensions of the various materials and pieces of equipment to be assembled in the course of constructing a building. The purpose is to assure that all of the elements will go together without wasteful cutting and fitting at the building site and to lower costs by permitting quantity production and distribution of modular products with the assurance that they can be incorporated into any building plan. Concrete, either precast or prestressed, is frequently used to produce modules that can be assembled in a variety of designs; they may include plumbing, channeling, electric wiring, heating units, and other equipment. Modular construction has been widely favoured for low-cost housing, school construction, and other purposes.
An increasing amount of attention was devoted to modules after the development in the 1930s of the Bemis 4-inch (10-centimetre in Europe) cubical module. In the 1950s an effort was made to combine into a single “number pattern” several of these modular systems to offer the designer a larger range of approved dimensions. Most architects and producers of building materials continued, however, to use modules based on their own special needs and interests.