The Modulor system itself is a rather confusing combination of human proportions, the golden ratio, and the Fibonacci sequence. The math becomes fairly complicated, but the general concept is that a structure built for human habitation should start with the proportions of the humans themselves. Le Corbusier based his very first Modulor system on the measurements of what he perceived to be a typical “French height” of 1.75 meters or 5 feet 8 inches tall, but ultimately, he decided that, because this was to be an international system, the “ideal man” should instead measure a bit taller, at 6 feet or 1.83 meters tall. (As he wrote in The Modulor: “Have you never noticed that in English detective novels, the good-looking men, such as the policemen, are always six feet tall?”)

Both the symbol and basis of the Modulor method of measurement is a muscular, six-foot-tall man with a wasp-like waist and an arm stretched above his head.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4072596&forum_id=2#36771060)