Jean Prouvé, emergency architecture and furniture for schools
Exhibition Moulin de la Tour, Le Muy, 21 March – 20 April 2024.
For this thematic exhibition, a 6x6m demountable house, designed by Jean Prouvé in 1944, has been assembled in front of the Moulin de la Tour and the Musée de la Libération.
In response to an order from the government at the end of the War, Jean Prouvé began designing temporary houses for the War homeless in Lorraine and Franche-Comté. Designed to be assembled in one day by just three people, these veritable “architectural feats”, made of light, prefabricated components in metal and wood, enabled homeless populations to stay in their villages.
In parallel, a selection of some of Jean Prouvé’s numerous other projects of demountable architecture will be shown inside the Moulin de la Tour, including the 6x9m and 8x8m houses, and the “House for Better Days” commissioned in 1956 by Abbé Pierre, demonstrating Jean Prouvé’s continuous research into prefabricated housing.
Of the opinion that “in their construction there is no difference between a piece of furniture and a house”, Jean Prouvé developed a “constructional philosophy” based on functionality and rational fabrication, which is seen in his furniture for schools, demonstrated by the amphitheater benches on which visitors can sit to watch the archival film footage assembled for the event.
Free and open to all, this didactic exhibition invites visitors into the work of Jean Prouvé – his social engagement and the resulting projects.
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