In honor of the 118th anniversary of the birth of the self-taught architect, PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA decided to analyze the main merits of Jean Prouvet.
Standard chair
Prouvé was born in the family of an artist. In his youth, he mastered the profession of art forging master. In 1923, Jean opened his first forge workshop in Nancy. He started with the production of wrought iron gates, fences and bars for windows. And since 1924, he has been designing furniture. He studied various metalworking techniques, soon abandoning wrought iron in favor of sheet steel.
Jean Prouvet in his workshop, 1917. Photo courtesy of the Center Pompidou and Adagp
Prouvé furniture, which was distinguished by functionality and the absence of unnecessary details, quickly gained a position on the market. One of the most famous designs created by Prouvé is his Chaise Standard. Prouvé considered that most of the weight of the sitter falls on the back legs, so in the Chaise Standard design, they are more massive than the front legs. If the latter are made of metal pipes, then for the former he used a folded steel sheet. The production of this chair is still carried out by the well-known company Vitra.
Construction houses
Jean believed that in design "there is no difference between a piece of furniture and a house" and developed his principle based on functionality and rational production. Such an unsophisticated aesthetic was combined with the doctrine of the Union des artistes modernes (Union of Modern Artists), one of the founders of which — along with Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand — was Prouvé.
In the 1930s–1950s, Jean Prouvé worked on prefabricated structures. During the Second World War, he designed a military barrack for the French army, which was assembled from kitchen stoves and bicycle frames. By the way, Prouvé was an activist of the French Resistance during the German occupation, and after the liberation of Nancy, he was elected mayor of the city.
After the end of the war, Prouvé engaged in the production of prefabricated houses for people who were left without a roof over their heads as a result of hostilities. Made of steel, wood, and aluminum, the components for Maison démontable (1944) could be easily shipped to remote areas and assembled in just a few hours. Moreover, a couple of people were enough to install such a structure, and after that the house was available for occupancy.
In 1947, Prouvé opened his own factory, where more advanced prefabricated structures were manufactured. His prefabricated house Maison Tropicale ("Tropical House") was designed to solve the problem of housing shortages in the French colonies in Africa. Prouvé made three prototypes of the Maison Tropicale at the turn of the 1940s and 1950s, one of which was sent to Niamey (Niger) and two to Brazzaville (Congo). For ease of transportation, all parts were flat and light.
Currently, houses designed by Jean Prouvé that have survived are sold at auctions.
Translucent facades
As a distinguished engineer, Jean Prouvé consulted many architects, including Le Corbusier, on the technical details of their projects. Prouvé made a significant contribution to the development of transparent facades, which are now used in thousands of office buildings around the world. He preferred aluminum structures because of its lightness and resistance to corrosion. In particular, Prouvé designed the facade for the CNIT building and the Tour Nobel in the Défense district of Paris, for the Headquarters of the French Communist Party designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer in the 19th arrondissement of the French capital.
Prouvé is considered to have influenced many contemporary architects and designers such as Norman Foster, Jean Nouvel and Renzo Piano.
