The architect and his time: Jean Prouvé, a builder (extract 4/8) 1975

Jean Prouvé: And of course what makes me furious is when people come and ask me to do a building’s facade.
Journalist: Right
JP: I have been cast as the inventor of the curtain wall.
Journalist: It’s true in fact
JP: Well, it probably is true. I think the first curtain walls were indeed made in my workshops, but real curtain walls. But I never imagined inventing a curtain wall, a facade. We composed a building structure, which was logically completed by a curtain wall.
Journalist: That’s it.
JP: So, the curtain wall installed between two concrete walls gives no satisfaction. It looks modern as they say. We make curtain walls. Which makes me shudder utterly. You know, I think that the big difference comes from grouping within a building organisation a factory somewhat comparable to a company. Within this company we composed assemblies, themselves composed of inseparable elements. And the rupture, distribution, led them to be separated and used in completely incoherent ways.