TEFAF New York opens this week, and Galerie Patrick Seguin returns to the fair for the fifth time, bringing more unseen work by French modernist architecture master Jean Prouvé. This year, French gallerist and collector Seguin will bring 12 projects to his stand – two of which have never been on display for the public before.

Explore TEFAF New York’s Galerie Patrick Seguin display on Jean Prouvé

Indeed, Villa Lopez (1953) and the Valençaude school (1954) are two of Prouvé's lesser-known works, which have not been shared widely or seen much since their initial conception in the 20th century. They join ten more works at the stand: the SCAL pavilion (1940), the BCC house (1941), the 6x6, 6x9 emergency housing units (1944) and 8x8 reconstruction unit (1945), the Carnac vacation house (1946), the Better Days house (1956), and school and office buildings such as the Croismare glassmaking school (1948) and the Maxéville design office (1948).

The projects are showcased in a way that highlights 'the consistency of the constructive system developed by Jean Prouvé', the gallery explains in its statement. The architecture's capacity to adapt, both in terms of scale and function, was key in the French modernist's thinking.

Prouvé believed that 'there is no difference between the construction of a piece of furniture and a house', states the gallery. At the heart of the stand, among the amazing structures designed by the architect, is a rarely seen table. The piece, a 3.3m-long element, was originally designed in 1952 for the Antony Cité Universitaire student residences on the outskirts of Paris.

The table's large scale is a key focal point for the stand. Titled ‘Centrale’ table, it is made out of folded steel and was designed in the 1950s – a representation of Prouvé's material explorations and a true collector's item.

TEFAF New York runs 14-19 May 2026 at the Park Avenue Armory, New York

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Having trained in Nancy within a milieu of metalworking, Jean Prouvé preferred the title constructeur, which accounts for the name of Fondation CAB’s exhibition: not Jean Prouvé, architecte, but inventeur de maisons (‘Jean Prouvé, Inventor of Houses’ runs until 31 October 2026)

Designed in 1944, the 6x6 demountable house belongs to the first phase of France’s reconstruction, when bomb damage across Lorraine and Alsace left hundreds of thousands without shelter and the newly established Ministry of Reconstruction and Urbanism began commissioning housing that could be produced quickly and in volume. Prouvé’s answer was a house that could be brought in parts and raised by hand, without disturbing the ground more than necessary.

Jean Prouvé at Fondation CAB

At Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Fondation CAB occupies a midcentury building, a Mediterranean modernist villa. Its programme brings together minimal and conceptual art with 20th-century design – and it has a Jean Prouvé 6x6 house in the garden; the exhibition, organised with Laffanour Galerie Downtown, positions the 6x6 demountable house as part of a longer sequence of making and construction.

Inside, a chronological wall sets out Prouvé’s work with the clarity of a workshop record: forged iron doors for the 1925 Exposition des Arts Décoratifs; entrance grilles produced for Robert Mallet-Stevens; the founding of the Ateliers Jean Prouvé in Nancy in 1931; the Maison du Peuple in Clichy (1935), where folded steel sheet becomes structural; wartime barracks and the axial frames developed for SCAL in Issoire (1940); the aluminium structures of the Maison Tropicale (1949), with a double roof and brise-soleil regulating air before it enters the interior; and, later, the modular petrol stations developed for Total (1969-70).

Prouvé’s 6x6 demountable solution for emergency shelter reduced the house to a frame and a set of panels, dimensioned for easy transport and assembly; it could be put up in a day by three people, or four if you wanted to move quickly. Prouvé furnished his houses as carefully as he made them, not as an afterthought but to suggest how a life might be enjoyed inside them; his father, Victor Prouvé, belonged to the École de Nancy, and functional things, in his view, still had to please the eye.

Hubert Bonnet, founder of Fondation CAB (whose programme extends into Les Maisons CAB as a set of houses and rooms available for stays), describes the attraction: 'What first struck me about him was this rare ability to reconcile constructive rigour with formal clarity. In Prouvé’s work, the structure never hides; it becomes the very language of the object or the architecture. That honesty, almost radical, spoke to me immediately.'

A second Prouvé house from 1958 is being prepared for installation at Clos Saint-François in Saint-Paul de Vence, a property that includes a 19th-century farmhouse formerly owned by the family behind La Colombe d’Or and is now part of Les Maisons CAB’s network of places to stay. The house is the first prototype in a series developed with Claude Prouvé between 1958 and 1962, with the Maison Gauthier among its later examples.

Bonnet describes that continuity in terms close to Prouvé’s own: 'Over time, that attraction became a conviction. His approach –at once industrial, functional, and deeply human – resonates strongly with the way I conceive places. It is not simply about design, but about a way of thinking through use, durability and precision.'

'Within the houses we present today through Fondation CAB, this influence is present in a natural way. Not as a fixed reference, but as a spirit,' he concludes. That spirit has less to do with homage than with taking art and design out from behind glass, widening its company.

More than 70 years after the 6x6 house was first assembled, the force of Prouvé’s work still speaks to a desire for self-reliance, especially at a moment when so much of daily life is engineered and outsourced for ease and low resistance. Bonnet’s wager feels unexpectedly exact: that people still want contact with things that ask something of them, and forms of hospitality that return art and design to the grain of ordinary life.

What Les Maisons CAB offers, in that sense, is not fantasy but re-entry; a chance to sleep, sit and eat among works meant for lived experience. In Saint-Paul-de-Vence, that promise runs from the Prouvé house in the garden to Charles Zana’s guest rooms and the restaurant, into Charlotte Perriand’s furniture.

One highlight of 2025’s European Fine Art Foundation (TEFAF) fair in New York (9-13 May) will be a jewel of post-war French architectural history: two yellow steel frames, resembling massive upside-down tuning forks, each standing 3m tall. They were fabricated in 1947-1948 as part of the Croismare Professional Training School for Glassmakers, the largest demountable structure ever built by French designer and self-taught architect Jean Prouvé. Design dealer Patrick Seguin, who has championed Prouvé’s legacy since the late 1980s (with projects in recent years including the showcasing of Prouvé's House of Better Days in Paris in 2024, and the installation of demountable house at Château La Coste in 2019) and owns the world’s biggest collection of his architecture, is featuring Croismare along with nine other Prouvé buildings at the fair.

After the Second World War, France needed to rebuild, and quickly. Prouvé, who trained as a metal craftsman, had developed an ingenious system for making small, demountable buildings with load-bearing portal frames, for purposes ranging from military barracks to refugee housing. The nomadic quality of his buildings also reflected his embrace of environmentalism, seeking to make what he called ‘architecture that leaves no trace on the landscape’.

Discover Croismare school, Jean Prouvé’s largest demountable structure

One of Prouvé’s friends was master glassmaker Paul Daum, a member of the French resistance who died in a concentration camp in 1944. Prouvé and the Glassmakers’ Union honoured Daum’s wish to ensure the industry’s future by building a training centre for young apprentices. Despite Croismare’s impressive size (8m x 32m plus awnings), Seguin says, ‘There is no difference between the construction principles of Prouvé’s 6 x 6 house and this monumental building.’ The former could be assembled by three people in a day, while Croismare took six men one week to construct, armed with little more than a screwdriver and ladder.

Croismare contains all the fundamentals of Prouvé architecture. Its interior is traversed by a succession of portal frames, six yellow and one green, marking the separation between classroom and refectory (an adjoining dormitory now belongs to a collector). Jointed central beams connect the portals along the length of the ceiling, while floor-to-ceiling glazed doors offer light and expansive views of the landscape.

In 1953, Croismare was closed, and the building was abandoned until the 1990s, when Seguin and his partner, Philippe Jousse, acquired it. After the two dealers parted ways in 2000, Jousse kept Croismare. He started restorations, including replacing a stone section with wood panels identical to the others, and removing the dropped ceiling to expose the remarkable skeleton of Prouvé’s work. Seguin bought Croismare from Jousse four years ago and continued its meticulous restoration, from retouching the paint on the portal frames to replacing the poured concrete base with a portable system of Ductal concrete blocks (first developed by Jean Nouvel for another Prouvé structure).

Seguin recalls Pritzker Prize laureate Richard Rogers once saying, ‘If we taught architecture at high school, Prouvé would be the best person to do it’, since his methods were so elegant and simple to understand. Prouvé made no distinction between constructing furniture or buildings: form equalled function. Seguin holds up an archival photo of a 1953 building for which Prouvé built a metal awning, comparing it to a photo of his ‘Compas’ table. ‘All that’s missing is the chairs.’

It’s impossible to guess who might buy Croismare; in the past, Prouvé’s buildings have been snapped up by collectors from Azzedine Alaïa to Richard Prince. A new book by Seguin’s gallery, Jean Prouvé: From Furniture to Architecture, The Laurence and Patrick Seguin Collection, offers a look at how the couple live with Prouvé’s works. It contains photos of their apartment in Paris, where midcentury chairs and tables exist happily alongside artworks by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Wade Guyton, and their home in the south of France, where Prouvé houses are scattered around the property, as modern as ever.

TEFAF New York is on show from 9-13 May at the Park Avenue Armory

Video credit: Jean Prouvé, Croismare school, 1948 © Galerie Patrick Seguin (2025), Réalisation Le visiomatique

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This article appears in the May 2025 issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on newsstands from 3 April, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

In Paris in February 1956, a prototype prefabricated house designed by French architect Jean Prouvé opened to the public for three weeks on the banks of the Seine. Amidst a post-war housing crisis, the Maison Les Jours Meilleurs, or House of Better Days, was a direct response to an appeal by activist Abbé Pierre for urgent homeless relief in Paris during the brutally cold winter of 1954, which saw widespread suffering and the tragic death of a mother and baby. 

Now, 70 years on, an exhibition at Galerie Patrick Seguin in Paris is exploring the house and its social history through deconstructed architectural elements, archive material and the opportunity for the public, once again, to step inside the house – this time in virtual reality (back in 2012, the gallery released an animation of archive imagery and computer graphics that detailed the construction of Maison Les Jours Meilleurs).

The House of Better Days at Galerie Patrick Seguin

Even with VR headsets beckoning, the exhibition’s pièce de résistance is the very real, load-bearing core of the Maison Les Jours Meilleurs. The finely crafted, sculptural piece of steel was an innovative multi-tasker (greatly admired by Le Corbusier); it supported the building, carried plumbing and ventilation, hid a compact bathroom and revealed a neat kitchen. 

At the heart of Prouvé’s concept, it shows that – even though this efficient, low-cost house built of industrial materials including aluminium roof panels and a plywood façade could be constructed within seven hours by two people – precision and craft were not lost.

Though the Maison Les Jours Meilleurs was modest at 57 sq m for a family of four, the virtual reality experience helps to communicate the quality of its interior; such as the warmth of its beech wood interior panels (also displayed in the gallery as a comparison) and sliding windows framing cinematic views of the Seine in the 1950s. 

Back in 1956, an impressive 96 per cent of visitors approved of the interiors (with 59.8 per cent claiming interest in purchase). Today, achieving a sense of texture and depth virtually was the result of a painstaking collaboration between gallerist Patrick Seguin, VR experience architects Double Geste and architectural visualisers Le Visiomatique, who describe it as a process of ‘reverse archaeology’.

It is through newspaper cuttings, magazine covers and construction photographs that the social history of the house can be better understood, as both a product of its context and the humanist ambitions of its creators, Prouvé and Abbé Pierre. 

Prouvé had been working on ‘emergency’ architecture for many years prior; developing the axial portal frame system patented in 1939, then responding to a government brief for post-war housing in eastern France in 1944. In Paris, Abbé Pierre founded the Emmaüs group, also known as the Compagnons Bâtisseurs, or Companion Builders, dedicated to tackling housing and poverty; and tirelessly raised funds through a campaign with washing powder brand Persil to raise more than two million francs to commission Prouvé.

While designed with optimism for a better future, only five Maison Les Jours Meilleurs were ever built – after failing to meet planning restrictions, a proud Prouvé refused to alter his designs. Yet gallerist Patrick Seguin believes there is much to be learnt from the house and its story, commending architects such as Shigeru Ban who continue to work on humanist approaches to emergency architecture today and in this vein, he’s open-minded to see where the virtual maison might travel next.

Maison Les Jours Meilleurs, 1956’, Galerie Patrick Seguin, 14 March – 20 April 2024

Galerie Patrick Seguin, 5 rue des Taillandiers, 75011 Paris

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Milan's Expo is still one month away, but the very first pavilion dedicated to the universal exhibition - and the only one that will be located in the city centre -  has opened its doors inside Milan's Triennale Design Museum. Entitled 'Arts & Foods: Rituals since 1851', the exhibition takes on the Expo's overarching theme of sustainable food but peers at it with an artistic lens. And the results are, in a word, delectable.

Curated by Germano Celant, the prolific artistic director of the Prada Foundation and curator of Milan's Fondazione Aldo Rossi, the exhibition sprawls across the entire 7,000 square metres of the museum, including its outdoor garden. It's like a never-ending feast of food-related objects, tools, paintings, installations, rooms and ambiences from 1851 to the present.

The first room of the exhibition, dedicated to the period between 1851 and 1948, is the most densely packed, cohesively designed and powerfully conceived. It features a fascinating mix of antique cooking tools, kitchen furniture and butcher stations to real Florentine bars from the early 20th century that have been painstakingly reconstructed, bottle-by-bottle. A magnificent collection of antique silverware, loaned by Milan's famous G. Lorenzi cutlery company, is on show, as are thoughtful portraits of chefs by Monet and Manet and an array of mid-century kitchen accessories.

Other rooms are dedicated to the 1950s, 60s and 70s, as well as to contemporary art's dealings with food. It's a tribute to Celant's profile that he's managed to wrangle top works by major artists such as Andy Warhol ('The Last Supper' and his infamous Campbell's soup cans), Jeff Koons, Cindy Sherman, Tom Sachs, Marc Quinn and Urs Fischer (whose 'Bread House' smells just a little bit stale after nearly 10 years of circulation), even though their assembly makes less impact than the first historical room. No matter; Paul McCarthy's giant, inflatable ketchup bottle, which has been planted in the centre of the Triennale's lush park like a plastic skyscraper, makes up for it.

Also noteworthy is Gaetano Pesce's site-specific installation (the only one in the whole museum) which features giant pieces of kitchenware on a glass floor along with a group of actors chatting, cooking and fighting (what kitchen hasn't seen that?), all visible by nosy viewers looking up from the floor beneath.

This ambitious exhibit shines the spotlight on Milan's Triennale, shaking up this sometimes sleepy institution just in time for the Expo. Not only is the green garden in full aperitivo action but it also has water in its fountains for the first time in 50 years, thanks to the restoration of Giorgio de Chirico's 'Bagni Misteriosi'.  In tandem with the brimming activity is a proper - and long overdue - restaurant opening up on the museum's first floor that features a balcony overlooking the park.

ADDRESS

Triennale di Milano
Viale Alemagna 6
Milan 20121

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When Artcurial was born in 2002, the world wasn’t lacking auction houses, yet there existed ‘an opportunity to rock the boat and push the boundaries,' says Fabien Naudan, Artcurial’s co-founder and vice president. Part of the Dassault Group with its origins in the aircraft industry, Artcurial compares to its heavyweight competitors like ‘a customised private jet that can land anywhere to an aircraft that carries 300 passengers across the Atlantic.’ It may not be the place to put out the world’s most expensive painting, but it’s certainly a go-to address if you want your piece to be associated with a fascinating story and a unique experience.

Artcurial’s DNA is a constant search for new, cross-over concepts and dialogues — while never exploiting a successful idea until it’s squeezed dry. As a result, an Artcurial sale becomes a cultural case study, like last year’s C.R.E.A.M, an overview of the three decades of urban culture in the U.S. As a side effect, the world of design opens up to new audiences; one good example is the 2006 ‘Black’ sale that showcased black items in an all-black interior and where a customer who claimed to ‘hate design' has purchased some armchairs by design icon Joe Colombo.

The principle of offering new perspectives on familiar things applies to both one-off and annual sales like those focused on French, Scandinavian and Italian design. The sale on 19 November, putting out a selection of French and Italian items, is no exception.

Studio BBPR – the architects behind Milan’s emblematic Velasca Tower – are among Artcurial’s Italian headliners. Auctioned tomorrow will be two ceiling lights from BBPR’s only project in India. A true forerunner of the postmodernist approach, the fixture is based on their 1962 piece produced by Italian company Arteluce and assembled from various-sized versions of a lamp designed by the company’s founder Gino Sarfatti.

Another unique piece is a chandelier that was designed by Jean Royère for the Iran House at the Cité internationale universitaire in Paris. One of the boldest structural designs of the 1960s, the Iran House was spearheaded by the Shah of Iran and intended as student accommodation for his country’s future elite. André Bloc and Claude Parent were in charge of the architectural project, while Jean Royère — who had previously received private commissions from the Shah and his spouse — has outfitted the director's apartment on the top floor, where this chandelier occupied the central position.

Charlotte Perriand’s sideboard ‘En forme’ reminds of the designer’s connection with Japan. Invited to advice on developing the country’s industrial design, Perriand discovered the Japanese philosophy of life that has resonated with her own creative stance and profoundly influenced her subsequent work.

There is also an interesting take on the furniture with enhanced functionality, like Jean Prouvé’s triplet of tip-up seats or a bed based on his original design for a university residence and incorporating a bedside table and a bookshelf. The armchairs by Augusto Romano have armrests that morph into mini-shelves to tuck away a 1940s ashtray, a book, or a 2019 iPhone. A display case by Carlo Scarpa offers a glimpse of the architect’s game-changing contribution to the design of museum exhibitions.

Works by Ingo Maurer stand out in the impressive selection of lighting pieces. An installation in which luminous objects made from sheets of copper and gold-leafed paper populate a large copper-clad table pays homage to the late master’s lifelong exploration of reflections and shadows.

INFORMATION

‘Design Italien’ and ‘Design’ auctions will be held on 19 November. artcurial.com

The French gallerist and dealer Patrick Seguin started collecting examples of Jean Prouvé’s ‘demountable’ housing in 1991, and since then has built up a large collection of these remarkable structures. Prouvé developed and patented the idea of his prefabricated house in the late 1930s, but it didn’t go into production until the end of the Second World War, when the French government commissioned 800 units to provide temporary shelter for those who had been left homeless by bombing. In the event only around 400 were made, most of which were subsequently destroyed or abandoned as the state constructed permanent homes.

Seguin has rescued many of these rusting shells, built without insulation or bathrooms, and in 2015 he commissioned Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners to make one of the original houses liveable, by adding electricity, hot water, a kitchen and a bathroom. Initially on show in the Renzo Piano-designed pavilion at the Château la Coste in Provence, the Prouvé/Rogers building has now been added as an extra suite for the hotel itself, and a select group of art collectors, artists and architects will be invited to enjoy the experience of staying in an original Prouvé house.

The interior of Room 30, as it will be known, has been kitted out with art and design objets from Seguin’s personal collection, while for those not lucky enough to be invited to stay, the Piano pavilion will host a parallel exhibition of Prouvé’s furniture, as well as associated art such as a Calder sculpture and a Léger watercolour that were formerly owned by Prouvé himself. Saving a design icon from undeserved obscurity, Seguin and Chateau La Coste offer a truly unprecedented opportunity to spend time in a uniquely designed and significant piece of architecture; a chance for the visitor to appreciate its design value as well as the structure's beginning and long history.

INFORMATION
’Jean Prouvé, l’âme du métal’ will be on show at Chateau La Coste until 5 March 2019. For more information, visit the Galerie Patrick Seguin website

This summer sees the third open-air exhibition of lightweight architecture and sculpture at the Friche d’Escalette in Marseille. The park (a former lead mine) and its exhibits are privately owned by Éric Touchaleaume, a collector and dealer of the Fab Four – Jean Prouvé, Pierre Jeanneret, Charlotte Perriand and Le Corbusier. Touchaleaume’s dream was to restore this abandoned industrial heritage site to its former beauty, juxtaposing the works of architects and sculptors of the 20th century against the brick remains of the abandoned mine.

This year’s exhibition is entitled ‘Jean Prouvé North-South – In Praise of Simplicity’ and features two of Prouvé’s most iconic prefabricated houses, the ‘North’, Pavillon de Lorraine, and the ‘South’, Bungalow du Cameroun, both exquisite examples of his signature ingenuity and unique aesthetic.

The Pavillon de Lorraine was commissioned by Prouvé’s atelier immediately after the liberation of France by Raoul Dautry, minister for reconstruction, for Lorraine families whose homes had been destroyed by bombing during the Second World War. Several hundred units were produced, and this is one of just 20 of them to have survived. This model has been exhibited in Miami, Los Angeles and Shanghai and is particularly noteworthy for Prouvé and Jeanneret’s ingenious ceiling gantry crane, whose especially compact design was created as a response to the shortage of steel during the war.

The Bungalow du Cameroun is a single module residential design for tropical wet zones, built to house a teacher or to be used as a classroom (double modules were made for families). The particular structure is one of the very few not to have suffered damage from the extremes of a tropical climate, termites and looting over half a century of wear and tear.

In terms of the art included in the show, this year, Touchaleaume shines a spotlight on overlooked sculptors of the 20th and 21st centuries, including Parvine Curie, François Stahly, Gérard Lardeur, Shamaï Haber and Costas Coulentianos. The works were selected for their ability to resonate with the architecture, nature and landscape of the site.

Wear sturdy shoes for the steep climb on loose gravel, and take a wide-brimmed hat to protect from the scalp-searing heat. Follow up this cultural immersion with a plunge into the crystal clear Med from the little stone pier just across the road. And bring a picnic.

ADDRESS

La Friche De l'Escalette
Parc de sculpture et d’architecture légère
Route des Goudes, impasse de l’Escalette
13008 Marseille
France

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‘I have a strong credo that an exhibition must embody real objects,’ says curator Matthieu Poirier prefacing a walkthrough of ‘The Brutal Play’, in which works from Carl Andre, Donald Judd and Robert Morris occupy the Fondation CAB in Brussels. ‘These objects remind the viewers of their own bodies.’

The prolific contemporary curator who divides his time between the Belgian capital and Paris was given carte blanche by the non-profit contemporary art space (conceived by the ultra-private collector, Hubert Bonnet) to select works that bear witness to the visceral and material impact of minimalist forms. Even before arriving inside to the airy, 1930s-era warehouse converted by Olivier Dwek, visitors are confronted with a circle of inhospitable steel rebar erected by Karsten Födinger that obstructs the usual open entry. If not interactive, these works impose themselves through their volume and mass.

Which is not to say that that Poirier has selected them to make some highly formal statement, hence the show’s title. ‘We hear it as a game on brutalism, or else a play in the theatrical sense; and I like both those aspects because these sculptures take up space but they require that you move around them. They all imply free choreography on the part of the viewer; you’re not standing in front of a painting, you’re involved,’ he explains.

Visitors will quickly notice that the works are pretty much monochrome in nature. ‘There’s no makeup,’ he quips. ‘There is no pigment, as this is not about painting.’ As such, the overall statement feels coherent and elemental. The fact that a Demountable House (1944) from Jean Prouvé is permanently installed at the centre of the gallery establishes both a fixed point of departure and a decisive link between these structural works and architecture. ‘Another way to speak about minimalist sculpture is to put emphasis on the resonance between architecture and sculpture,’ Poirier confirms, noting how the genre began to emerge in the 1950s.

Accordingly, Roman Arch (2004) from Morris stands out as simultaneously symbolic and non-representational but can be appreciated simply by the way each oak block precariously remains in place. Andre’s 8 x 8 Cedar Solid comprising 64 blocks rising 90 cm high could delineate a small room or else just a cluster of tightly-packed monoliths.

He expresses considerable delight when showing off a series of small, freestanding blocky wood sculptures conceived by Rodchenko in 1920-21. Technically replicas, they have been accepted as originals. ‘That’s the logic of the artist — to make something that is essentially systematic,’ he says.

From here, it’s not a huge leap to the late German artist, Charlotte Posenenske, who Poirier considers a protagonist of this subject matter. Whereas her Square Tubes multiples appear deliberately disruptive within Prouvé’s house, her series of galvanised air ducts coexists with the gallery’s architecture when situated flush to the wall; and the contrast underscores Poirier’s own hand in shaping how visitors perceive differences in materiality – even when the artist source is the same.

Interestingly, he also makes a point to show the vulnerability of the objects. A sarcophagus that Kilian Rüthemann carved on site from a giant block of foam has been stationed outside on a small terrace since the start of the show. Whereas concrete is impenetrable to the elements, its porous composition soaks up rainwater and gradually discolours yet remains resilient.

Then there is V, Ramon Feller’s concrete slab weighing one tonne and shaped as the title suggests, which has been hoisted from the ground by steel cables that lead to an electric motor. Over the course of the show, it has been rising ever so slowly from the ground and is programmed to self-destruct, or break, on the closing day. The added kinetic element in addition to the motor’s subtle hum introduce one final dimension to a multi-dimensional show.

Imagine, if you can, the constant force the motor must fight to lift the piece so incrementally. ‘Here, you really get the sense of time slowing down,’ says Poirier. ‘Everything today is about acceleration; I like deceleration – and the idea that this exhibition takes you out of the world.’ Except, of course, this would be discounting the reality of gravity, which as this play’s anti-hero, seems to exert an even stronger presence in the midst of such assertive, timeless forms.

INFORMATION

‘The Brutal Play’ is on view until 26 May. For more information, visit the Fondation CAB website

ADDRESS

Fondation CAB
32-24 rue Borrens
1050 Brussels

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Ardent admirers and collectors of Jean Prouvé, Charlotte Perriand, Serge Mouille and Le Corbusier will already know that Laffanour Galerie Downtown Paris stands out for its superior selection of 20th-century furniture and decorative objects. At the annual Biennale des Antiquaires – freshly branded La Biennale Paris – the Left Bank gallery once again staged an immersive and inspired arrangement of its collection, this time with a few noteworthy additions.

With faux structural columns in high-gloss bluish grey placed throughout the booth, visitors immediately sense the shift from the Beaux-Arts expanse of the Grand Palais to a modern architectural style and scale. The space, despite its brief six-day run, feels permanent. ‘What I love with the columns is the reference to Le Corbusier but at the same time, also a reference to the classicism of Greece, which he was actually referencing, too,’ François Laffanour told us.

The dark palette continues along the left wall where a Perriand bookcase is complemented by her ‘Forme Libre’ table and armchairs, the latter newly reupholstered in graphic cowhide. Laffanour says this ensemble suggests ‘great rigour and elegance’, adding that ‘here, you see the most beautiful of Perriand’s works; there’s obvious simplicity as well as luxury even though the materials that are not at all luxurious’.

To the right, a grouping of chairs and a sofa by Pierre Jeanneret appear in the same cowhide, with further punch provided by Prouvé’s ‘Bahut’ console panelled in red. Hanging directly above is a unique Le Corbusier tapestry filled with expressive shapes including a geometric plot of primary colours, decoupage-style bodies, a pair of footprints and a meandering rope. Titled ‘Trace des pas dans la nuit’ (‘Trace of footprints in the night’), it is listed by the Fondation Le Corbusier but was never commercialised.

Workmanship aside, the large format and dynamic composition make it as visually impactful as anything in the booth. But just a little further on, a bookcase from Prouvé is, in its own way, equally remarkable. Commissioned in 1951 to furnish the Villa Dollander in southeastern France, it features three green steel beams staggered with shelves, the lowest one swooping outward to function as a desk. Laffanour notes a ‘poetry’ to the design, pointing out how Prouvé has ‘humanised’ an otherwise utilitarian form.

The effect of an enlarged Le Corbusier print along one back wall and a floor-to-ceiling mirror on the other seemingly expands the space beyond its 92 sq m and visitors may wish they could, indeed, proceed further. Instead, they might find themselves lingering over a rare polychrome wood sculpture, Ozon Opus I, conceived by the architect in 1947 with the help of Joseph Savina, a cabinetmaker from Brittany.

The assemblage seems dream-like and widely open to interpretation, yet there’s no denying a similarity between the rising blue mass and his distinctive ship-inspired chimney of the Cité Radieuse in Marseille. And even though Le Corbusier himself was not a sculptor, the piece, according to Laffanour, holds significance within his canon. ‘I consider it a very important piece; what you see is so original – a little surrealist, a little cubist. It’s truly extraordinary. I was eager to show this because as a counterpoint to the furniture that is well-balanced, this presents a notion that is sculptural yet also mental,’ he explains, noting how it brings dimension to the abstracted, cubist aspects that Le Corbusier had pursued in his earlier purist paintings with Amédée Ozenfant.

This version, with its name referring to the Pyrenean village where Le Corbusier lived for a short time in 1940, is one of three and belonged to Savina himself. Apparently, the architect intended to make a larger version, no doubt amplifying the strangeness. Yet at this size, the sculpture feels contained and satisfying – an impression that could just as easily apply to Galerie Downtown’s booth, as well.

INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Laffanour Galerie Downtown Paris website 

ADDRESS

Laffanour Galerie Downtown Paris
18 Rue de Seine
75006 Paris

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TELEPHONE

33.1 46 33 82 41

Éric Touchaleaume is a Paris-based antique collector with a profound attachment to Marseille and to Jean Prouvé. In 2011, he bought la Friche l'Escalette, a disused lead mine in the National Parc des Calanques south of Marseille. This unique industrial heritage site was the perfect backdrop to Touchaleaume's project: to create a private cultural park to share his passion for contemporary sculpture and Jean Prouvé's lightweight architecture. The park opens this summer with its key exhibit, Prouvé's 1958 steel-frame prototype of the 'Tropical Habitat for Cameroun'; the first time it's ever been exhibited.

Touchaleaume discovered the prototype by pure chance. He was travelling through Cameroon in search of one of the architect's tropical school buildings, where he crisscrossed the country for two months, only to find most of the structures derelict or demolished. Despondent, he was driving through the Yaoundé suburbs to see the German missions when he chanced upon some school buildings with their aluminium roofs still intact. One was slightly taller than the rest.

'I instantly recognised Prouvé's famous prototype with eight wave panels instead of the usual seven of the standard models. After some intense negotiation with the village chiefs, I was told it was all or nothing,' he recalls. 'I then became the proud owner of five Prouvé houses including the original prototype.'

Some were dismantled to provide parts to reconstruct the prototype following the archival blueprint. Posts, girders and purlins are made in Prouvé’s signature technique of folded sheet steel. For economy, the metal frame was replaced by locally sourced okan, an insect-repellant African teak so dense it has to be cut with a metal chainsaw.

The overhang of the parasol roof ensured protection from harsh sun and monsoon rains, while the space between the roof and the dropped ceiling combined with the perforated 'airplane wing' wall vents provide amazingly effective natural air conditioning, with the inside temperature up to 18°C cooler than outside – equally appreciated in the Mediterranean's summer heat.

INFORMATION

Guided visits are available until 30 September, by reservation only. For more information, visit the Friche l’Escalette website

Photography: Michael DePasquale / Martina Maffini

ADDRESS

La Friche l'Escalette 
Route des Goudes
Impasse de l'Escalette 
13008 Marseille

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For the third year, Design Miami/ Basel presented the large-scale projects of Design at Large, welcoming visitors to the South Hall of Messe Basel. 

Eschewing a traditional booth, the Design at Large initiative invites gallerists to take part in a curated project that explores different points of view on design. This year, publishing heiress Martina Mondadori took the helm of the project, focusing on the theme of nature and outdoor living, explored via an eclectic mix of structures and installations. 


Mondadori chose the theme of ‘Landscape’, she says, to ‘invite designers and galleries to confront themselves with the outdoors and re-imagine the space within gardens’. Mondadori cites inspirations such as 19th century British follies and Italian garden labyrinths as the starting points for her theme. The reactions from the nine participants were eclectic and diverse, proving that such a remit can excite and inspire creative ideas. 

Installed like a canopy at the very entrance to the fair were Tom Price’s 'PP Trees' (created in collaboration with Victor Hunt gallery), an eerie forest made of polypropylene pile that invites visitors to question attitudes towards plastic and nature. 

Inside the space, Galerie Patrick Seguin participated with the 1956 'School of Villejuif' by Jean Prouvé, a temporary emergency structure for the Parisian suburb which in true Prouvé fashion could be installed and dismantled in a short time. The prefab acted as an anchor in the large venue, with further installations dotted around it in the cavernous hall. These included Kengo Kuma’s 'Owan' pavilion, part of Galerie Philippe Gravier’s 'Small Nomad House Project', an initiative dedicated to the marriage of art and architecture. Nearby, Dimore Studio’s 'Verande' took a completely different approach; presented like an outdoors and indoors space at once, the tent was furnished with Britt Moran and Emiliano Salci’s outdoors collection hidden in a deep forest of palm trees and enlivened by blue curtains and a soft breeze produced by the ceiling fans. 

Nearby, two installations were presented in close conversation with each other: Masatoshi Izumi and Koichi Hara’s 'Stone Tea House Meditative Alcove' and Enea Landscape Architecture’s bamboo composition offered a corner of tranquil serenity. 

On the other side of the show, Dutch designer Kiki van Eijk’s 'Civilised Primitives', developed with Nilufar, was a collection of handcrafted objects in bronze that invited viewers to ponder about survival in the present world. The collection was displayed under a large Bedouin-style tent featuring an abstract watercolor motif by the designer, in collaboration with print specialist Exposize. 

Ron Arad’s 'Armadillo Tea Canopy', presented by Robbie Antonio’s Revolution Pre-Crafted Properties, is an independent shell structure for indoor or outdoor use, a multifunctional piece which can offer shelter as well as serve as a meditation space. The modular canopy is composed of five individual shells fixed together with exposed brackets and fixings, with the possibility of extending it by adding further elements. 

Visitors to the fair took full advantage of Alexandra Kehayoglou’s 'No Longer Creek' installation, created in collaboration with Artsy. The Argentine rug maker reimagined the now transfigured Raggio creek, north of Buenos Aires, and through her work brought back to life its vegetation. People could walk and rest on the large tapestry, immerse themselves in its landscape and interact with the piece – it is in fact a Design at Large tradition that visitors often have the chance to get up close and personal with the structures and installations on show, offering a more intimate experience with design and expanding its boundaries beyond the gallery walls. 

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Design Miami/Basel website

Until recently, in an industrial suburb of the French city of Nancy, a crowd of swingers held nightly orgies in a club called Le Bounty, unaware the building was a masterpiece of 20th-century architecture. Likewise, the great modernist Jean Prouvé probably never imagined that his Design Office in Maxéville would one day become a 'complexe de détente.'

One of the few people who had long wondered about the fate of this building was Patrick Seguin, the French design dealer who owns the world’s largest collection of Prouvé architecture – 23 houses. Seguin knew the Maxéville Design Office might still exist. He had driven by the original site where it had stood. And he had seen Le Bounty without realising that it was indeed the Prouvé structure – for it was now covered in blue aluminium siding and stuck on top of another building. Unrecognisable, it was hiding in plain sight.

But a few years ago, on a tip, Seguin decided to take a closer look. After contacting the building’s owner, he visited Le Bounty during the day. Ignoring the mirrored disco ball, the false ceiling, the leather club chairs and chequered curtains, Seguin zeroed in on two floor-to-ceiling arches covered in yellow wood. They looked boxier and less graceful than the portal frames Prouvé used as the backbone of his famous demountable houses – but still, Seguin says, 'I knew right away.'

He asked the building’s owner for permission to probe the structure and see 'what was under the carapace.' His team went around the building, drilling holes in the cladding, carefully investigating. 'We were surprised,' says Seguin. 'The whole building was there.' (Though two wall panels had been repurposed as a bar counter.) Not only that, the aluminium had actually protected it over the years. In 2014, Seguin bought it and moved it to one of his warehouses in Nancy.

A major centre for art nouveau, Nancy was also the birthplace of Prouvé, a metalworker and humanist who pioneered the use of folded sheet metal for furniture and architecture. In the 1940s, responding to France’s need for new housing after the war, he developed an ingenious system for prefabricated houses that could be assembled by two people in as little as a day. They were never mass-produced on the scale that Prouvé envisioned, and precious few have survived.

The Maxéville Design Office, which he realised in 1948, was unique. It used the same basic design as Prouvé's 8m x 12m Métropole House, with two load-bearing portal frames and an open interior plan. The addition of a deck and awning enlarged the surface area to 10m x 12m and made the gable roof asymmetrical, 6m long on one side and 4m on the other. Another particularity was the absence of aluminium – Prouvé used only steel for the frame and interchangeable pine panels for the walls. Bay windows in front allowed for plenty of natural light.

Ateliers Jean Prouvé had moved to Maxéville in 1947, installing this house as its design office in 1952. 'The office was a hive of activity,' says Seguin. 'All the decisions around design, creation, architecture, engineering and furniture were made here.' But the experience was relatively short-lived; when the company’s majority shareholder laid off 30 people in 1953, Prouvé disapproved and walked away. The factory was demolished, but the office survived, becoming a restaurant, a plumber’s office and, finally, Le Bounty.

This June at Design Miami/Basel, Seguin will unveil the Maxéville Design Office to the public for the first time, lovingly restored down to the last screw. Back in spring, a visit to Seguin’s warehouse revealed the house under renovation, a meticulous undertaking. Stripped down to its bones, nothing remained of the indignities it had faced as Le Bounty, aside from the name, which Seguin’s team affectionately adopted. The metal skeleton remained in excellent shape, the two portal frames in eggshell-white folded steel, the steel roof a champagne grey. The original pine panels, in poorer condition, were being replaced.

The structure had been the upper floor of a two-storey building. Seguin removed the bottom storey (which had no architectural interest) and wanted to be able to transport and reassemble the house anywhere. He had already faced this challenge with another Prouvé building, Ferembal, originally placed above a garage. For Ferembal, Seguin hired his friend, the Pritzker Prize-winning architect Jean Nouvel, to design a portable base. Nouvel’s response was an arrangement of blocks made from layered sheets of Ductal high-performance concrete that screwed to the steel grid under the floor. By adding or removing layers, builders could adapt the house to any terrain.

Nouvel’s regular collaborator, HW Architecture, has used the same system for the Maxéville Design Office – 12 layered Ductal blocks holding the frame up off the ground. Beyond this, its task was to return the house as closely as possible to its original state. Any changes were minor, such as expanding the entrance from one door to two. The architect overseeing the project, Jean-François Bourdet, finds he is constantly impressed by Prouvé's details: 'an extreme functionality that results in magnificent design.'

Prouvé had fallen out of fashion when Seguin first started dealing in design, in the late 1980s. Now his houses sell for millions. But putting Prouvé in the spotlight has always been a passion for Seguin as much as a business. He publicly exhibited two houses in the Tuileries Garden. He collaborated with Larry Gagosian to show Prouvé architecture alongside Calder mobiles and Chamberlain sculptures. Recently, he invited another Pritzker Prize laureate, Richard Rogers, to adapt a Prouvé house (W*196). He donated the 1969 Filling Station to this year’s AmfAR auction at Cannes, and has sold Prouvé structures to the world’s most discerning collectors; they now serve as everything from Azzedine Alaïa’s bedroom to a Korean tea house.

Whether or not the structures are fulfilling their original purpose, one thing is certain: Seguin has saved many from oblivion – or worse. 'The idea is to give them another destiny,' he says. 'We are giving them a second chance, a second life.'

As originally featured in the July 2016 issue of Wallpaper* (W*208)

INFORMATION

Design Miami/Basel runs from 14 – 19 June. For more information, visit Patrick Seguin’s website

Photography: Benjamin Schmuck

The eclectic, crafted work of British-born, Hong Kong-based designer Michael Young marries engineered technology with a sculpted artistic flair. Producing everything from industrial watches to functional furniture for the likes of Coalesse and Lasvit, in addition to special collections for various galleries, his sense of experimentation is imbued with East-meets-West influences.

Curator Maria Cristina Didero is investigating that experimentation with a fine tooth comb, focusing on his works in aluminium in an immersive installation at the Centre d’innovation et de design at Grand-Hornu in Boussu, Belgium.

It's ever so exciting when the subject of a solo exhibition magnifies one section of a designer’s oeuvre. Yet what is created here is even more special. Didero and Young present an accidental history, demonstrating the evolution of one chemical material. We see Young's work deconstructed in the 12 installation stands that take over the neoclassical space. His rock-style 'Oxygen' chairs from 2015 are displayed in their original moulding; while the more simplistic, recycled aluminium 'Chair 4A' is shown dismantled with each part spread across the wall.

The versatile quality of the material is also shown hanging from the ceiling. Scaled up against a 2.2kg weight is Young's 'Lessthanfive' chair for Coalesse, emulating the extremely light-weight quality of the metallic element.

Both Didero and Young took Grand-Hornu’s architectural silhouette as a starting point for the show. ‘It has been a very interesting journey up to this show,’ Didero explains. ‘The first time we visited Grand-Hornu we were very inspired by the architecture of this building.’ To wit, the works are cleverly set out in an L shape that relates to the symbol of the element itself (AL).

Yet what makes the exhibit a uniquely alluring experience is one particular added extra. In extension to Young’s pieces, there is a section dedicated to other designers' works in aluminium. Titled ‘The Crypt’, Young and Didero have recognised contributions from the likes Jean Prouvé, Charles and Ray Eames, Barber & Osgerby and Ross Lovegrove to the world of aluminium design. ‘We made a selection based only on our personal taste,’ Didero adds of the humble approach and collection.

‘AL(L) Projects with Aluminum’ is a rare moment in the limelight for the metal – the experimental industrial development of which is so effectively shown through the contemporary designers that have made it possible. The show presents those included in what Didero describes as a ‘collective, choral experience with the material’.

INFORMATION

’AL(L) Projects in Aluminium by Michael Young’ is on view until 29 May. For more information, please visit CID at Grand-Hornu’s website

ADDRESS

CID at Grand-Hornu
Site du Grand-Hornu
Rue Sainte-Louise, 82
7301 Hornu

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In the past few years, the creative conversation between Paris and London has been flourishing, and design galleries have become the central topic. With the unveiling of Parisian Galerie Kreo's London outpost last year and the UK-based Carpenters Workshop Gallery adding a Parisian space a few years earlier, there seems to be a healthy exchange of talent and business going on across the Channel. Modern art and design outpost Galerie Dutko opened its London doors earlier this month – and now it's been joined by Patrick Seguin’s Mayfair opening, perhaps the most anticipated new gallery on the scene.

Since 1989, Seguin has been a pioneer at bringing the works of Jean Prouvé, Charlotte Perriand, Le Corbusier and Jean Royère to a wider public, presenting and preserving an important design and architecture movement for over two decades. Its visionary design stance now comes to London, in a space designed by Leonardo Pelleriti, a London-based Italian architect who cut his teeth at Roger Stirk Harbour + Partners before co-founding Wimshurst Pelleriti earlier this year.

For his new gallery’s debut, Seguin presented two projects that give a significant introduction to his work, united under the 'Petites Machines D'Architecture' (or, 'Small Machines of Architecture') banner. Fresh from Design Miami/Basel, the '6x6 Demountable House' by Jean Prouvé is presented here through a series of sketches, photographs, models and a video illustrating its installation. Nearby, the French designer’s 'Temporary School of Villejuif' from 1956 is shown as part of the structure, as well as in a wealth of documents from the time. Smaller objects, such as a table used in the cafeteria and iconic Prouvé chairs, are also part of the display.

The presentation of both projects is a fitting way of introducing Seguin’s working methods to a London audience; his encyclopedic presentation of the background and painstaking documentation of their structural details form an important testament to a generation of designers and their contemporary legacy. Seguin calls this a ‘non-miss opportunity': ‘London has an extremely dynamic art scene with a large collector base,’ he says, ‘the British art market represents by itself 75 per cent of the European market.’ In its initial development stages, the London space will serve as a platform to display the development of his work on Prouvé’s architecture. ‘I am looking forward to reinforcing the bi-cultural nature of our gallery,’ he concludes, ‘and embracing the British gallery scene.’

ADDRESS

Galerie Patrick Seguin
45–47 Brook Street
Mayfair
London, W1K 4HN

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For the second time, Design Miami/ Basel presents a selection of large-scale works selected by a guest curator. After last year’s stint – curated by Barneys creative director Dennis Freedman, who presented a wide variety of multidisciplinary pieces – 2015's installment takes over the fair’s foyer, greeting visitors with a panoply of wonders selected by André Balazs.

Aptly titled 'Design at Large', the initiative aims to present large works of contemporary and historical design that don’t fit within the traditional fair booths. Balazs has focused on themes of prefabrication and demountability, presenting seven pieces that together create a conversation around the topics of sustainable design, luxury and flexibility.

Balazs' curatorial starting point was Jean Prouvé’s Total Filling Station, the 1969 work commissioned by the gas company Total. Balazs’ interest in Prouvé originated when he bought the Maison Tropicale a few years ago – a purchase instigated both by his interest in the building's design, but also in the notion of environmental sustainability it explored. ‘I think the reason Prouvé is in the show now is that we have come full circle,’ Balazs explains. ‘Prouvé is the original modern designer that mastered mass production, and at the same time it has now become collectible.’

The collection of works on show also includes Atelier Van Lieshout’s organically-shaped The Original Dwelling, Shigeru Ban’s Paper Tea House and Edouard François’ Flowerhouse. Three further pieces include Better Shelter, produced as a collaboration between the IKEA Foundation and UNHCR; a Volkswagen Campervan from the late 1960s; and Maidan by Bureau A, a shelter structure inspired by the protest community of Kiev's Maidan Square. The exhibition is accompanied by moodboards exploring each piece in further detail, and a timeline which gives context to the prefab concept.

The selection presents the fine dichotomy between conceptual sculptural design and more democratic, humanitarian design with a functional scope. For Balazs, the juxtaposition of the Ikea shelter with the Bureau A piece perfectly embodies this contrast: two pieces with similar shape, material and manufacturing methods that have opposite objectives – one an emergency dwelling, the other a political sculpture. 

‘Everything in the show,' he concludes, 'was meant to illustrate some of the conundrums facing this whole genre now.'

An invitation from gallerist Patrick Seguin to attend a design workshop with architect Richard Rogers is not one to be snifed at. Seguin – collector, dealer and world authority on Jean Prouvé – thought I may be interested to witness the final stages of a personal project he’d been working on with Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners. A project that would revitalise and give a second life to one of his Prouvé demountable houses.

So last September I made my way to RSHP’s studios in Hammersmith, London, to watch Seguin, Rogers, Ivan Harbour and Tadashi Arai wrestle with the finer details of form and function. The house in question, a humble six-metre-square structure of wood and steel, was one of a series created by Prouvé in 1944 to rehouse war victims in France. Similar ones are most often seen these days in museums or galleries, but the challenge for RSHP was to introduce contemporary comforts, adding plumbing and electricity, to make it usable as a modern holiday home while staying true to the pragmatic spirit of the original.

And there could be no one better than Rogers for this challenge. The similarities between his philosophy and Prouvé’s are clear. Both are champions of functionality and innovation, but more importantly, they share an undeniable sense of optimism for the power of architecture to bring about social change. I learned on my visit that their paths had, in fact, crossed back in 1971, when Rogers, together with Renzo Piano, had pitched for the Centre Pompidou in Paris. As president of the selection panel, Prouvé played an instrumental role in commissioning the building that came to revolutionise contemporary architecture. To see Rogers come full circle, transforming and breathing new life into the work of Prouvé was a special treat.

For the full story, pick up the July 2015 issue (W*196) - out now - or click here

Like its fashion siblings, Milan's design retail scene is dominated by Italian behemoths running their own single brand stores. Multi-brand shops specialising in a quality edit of contemporary design can be hard to find, which is why Spotti is one of the city's best-kept secrets.

Opened in 1986 by brothers Claudio and Mauro Spotti, the shop hangs quietly on the fringes of Milan's central shopping district and features a considered selection of new furniture, lighting and carpet designs jumbled seamlessly with iconic re-issues.

Inside, the shop's good mood and fresh scene are owed to its twice-yearly installations curated by Arianna Lelli Mami and Chiara di Pinto of local design firm Studiopepe. The latest incarnation, entitled 'Summer Tales', features a colourful mix of Kettal's outdoor 'Bitta' sofa (in a new rope version), 'Modernica Bubble' lamps and chairs by George Nelson, exclusive ceramic sculptures by Livia Polidoro and Adobe terracotta desktop accessories, all set against a canvas of tropical wallpaper by Cole & Son.

See all of Spotti’s past in-store collaborations with Studiopepe

The store first enlisted Studiopepe in 2009 because of their unconventionally Milanese approach to interiors. 'We knew that they could make a difference,' says Claudio Spotti, 'especially in a city where design is everywhere but it's often presented in a stiff way.' Lelli Mami's and di Pinto's first project involved transforming the store's interiors completely in white and since then has grown in scope to also include research of young designers and specially commissioned pieces.

For each seasonal store takeover, the studio is now given total creative control of Spotti's showroom design, window and product installations, reigned in only if there are new launches to include such as the Kvadrat and Raf Simons collaboration from this year's Salone del Mobile or Lina Bo Bardi's 'Bowl' Chair for Arper.

Spotti also offers interior design services for homes and offices, kitchens produced by Valcucine, and custom-made furniture under its eponymous label, including pieces designed by Studiopepe. The presentation of 'Summer Tales', which will run in-store throughout October, is the shop's tenth exhibit with Lelli Mami and di Pinto.

ADDRESS

Spotti Milano
Viale Piave, 27
20129 Milano
Italy

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Maison Metropole, Jean Prouvé's masterpiece of pop-up, nomadic housing was originally built for a competition held by France's Ministry of Education in 1949. The brief? Create a mass-producible rural school with classroom and teacher accommodation.  

Having already patented their 'portico principle' a decade earlier, the Ateliers Jean Prouvé won the contest with flying colors. The school has already enjoyed quite a bit of post-modern cheerleading but the teacher's house, originally constructed in Vantoux in 1948 and then fading into obscurity, will be mounted for the very first time on the roof of Turin's Lingotto rail track this week.

Starting at 3pm (GMT+1) on 21 March, Wallpaper.com will live stream every minute of the reconstruction, as four people build the 8x12 meter house over a three-day period, proving just how practical Prouvé's intelligent architecture can be.  

Here to explain the background of this live action build and why the house remains a modern object of acclaim today is major Prouvé collector Patrick Seguin. Since the 1980s, he and his wife Laurence have amassed over 100 pieces of Prouvé furniture, most of which they live with. Forty pieces from this private collection, including a rare armchair designed for the University dormitory of Nancy in 1932, and a light armchair created for the University of Antony in 1954, will go on view at Turin's esteemed Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli from 6 April.   

It's no coincidence that you are showing Prouvé's furniture designs together with his architecture. Tell us why.
Believing that 'in their construction, there is no difference between a piece of furniture and a house', Prouvé developed a 'constructional philosophy' based on functionality and rational fabrication. Answers found in one field are transposed to the other. Free of all artifice, the inner beauty of his works is a consequence of the perfect match of form and function.

Is the Maison Metropole a good example of Prouvé's design oeuvre?  
It perfectly illustrates his research on demountable architecture and nomadic housing. The goal was to produce innovative and affordable architecture. He was a pioneer in the mass production of buildings.  
 
Was Prouvé's fascination with nomadic homes rooted in a social/political agenda or purely architectural?   
In his view, mass production was more than just a quick way of coping with an emergency: it also embodied a determination to guarantee quality, shape and a new aesthetic. The Metropol House was an ideal answer to economical, ecological and social housing issues but it did not encounter the success it deserved.  

How many of these houses were actually produced back in the 1950s?
Fifteen examples of the Métropole House were built, mainly as part of the 'Sans Souci' housing estate at Meudon-la-Forêt.  

Tell us about the construction process. Could an average home-owner construct it today?
Prouvé's architecture is meant to be easily built. Indeed, all of the elements are prefabricated and can be assembled on site with only basic tools ; a ladder, a screwdriver, a hammer.  From there, anyone could build such a house.

The Metropole house was designed as a mass-producible rural school with classroom and teacher accommodation. Two of the structures were built: one in Vantoux in Moselle and the other in Bouqueval, near Paris. The building being reconstructed in Turin is the teachers' house (pictured), originally built in Vantoux. Collection Laurence and Patrick Seguin, 

The Metropole House is part of a vast collection of Prouvé works owned by gallerist Patrick Seguin and his wife Laurence. Forty pieces from their private collection - including this 'Antony' lightweight chair, designed in 1955 - will go on view at Turin's esteemed Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli from 6 April. Collection Laurence and Patrick Seguin, 

ADDRESS

Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli
Via Nizza, 230
10126 Turin
Italy

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An animation by Galerie Patrick Seguin, incorporating archival photographs and computer graphics, showing the design and construction of Jean Prouvé's Maison des Jours Meilleurs (1956)

The winter of 1954 was a particularly harsh one in France. Homeless people were dying in the streets. Abbé Pierre, France’s equivalent of Mother Teresa, made an appeal for donations to build emergency housing. Then he went to see Jean Prouvé, who had proven his skill in dire situations by developing small, prefabricated homes for displaced people after the war.

For the clergyman, Prouvé designed the 'Maison des Jours Meilleurs' - a house for better days. A few men equipped with simple tools could build the house in seven hours. It measured 57 square metres, with two bedrooms and a large living area.

A steel cylindrical element painted olive green contained a kitchen on one side and a bathroom on the other, and also held up the central roof beam. Beechwood panels fitted with windows slid around the periphery to make walls. When Le Corbusier saw it, he wrote: 'Jean Prouvé has built the handsomest house I know: the most perfect object for living in, the most sparkling thing ever constructed.' But the government never approved the project, and only five were ever built.

Three years ago, art dealer Patrick Seguin saw that a Maison des Jours Meilleurs was going up for auction in Nancy, Prouvé’s birthplace, and he snapped it up, believing it to be the last one still in existence. The French dealer has pretty much cornered the market on Prouvé architecture, and now owns around 15 modular houses, most of them unique or very rare. He meticulously restores each one before exhibiting it, often alongside archival photos and explanatory films, saying 'The educational aspect is very important to me.' In the past couple of years he has mounted two for display in the Tuileries gardens - the Ferembal office and the Métropole Aluminium house - and he will show the Métropole again in Basel this June.

A team of builders specialising in Prouvé made the trip from Nancy to Paris earlier this month to assemble the Maison des Jours Meilleurs in Seguin’s lofty gallery, where it will stay until the end of September (he plans to show it at the Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea next spring.) Though the gallery still earns the bulk of its revenue from furniture, Seguin is passionate about the houses - and the lengthy process of reconstructing them. Says the gallerist: 'It’s more exciting than buying a chair on Monday, photographing it Tuesday and selling it on Wednesday.'

ADDRESS

Galerie Patrick Seguin
5 rue des Taillandiers
75011, Paris

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