Jean Prouvé

Jean Prouvé:  Three Nomadic Structures, Arthur Ross Gallery, Columbia University, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, New York, April 12-May 10, 2002 and September 12, 2003-April 23, 2004

Jean Prouvé, 1901-1984:  Constructeur, Paris, 2001, p. 94 (for illustrations of the construction of a maison tropicale)
Laurence Allégret and Valérie Vaudou, eds., Jean Prouvé et Paris, Paris, 2001, p. 138 (for illustrations of the maison tropicale prototype)

In 1949, Prouvé and his brother won a competition staged by the French government to design inexpensive housing and administrative buildings for the French African colonies.  Their pre-fabricated buildings were to be packed into kits and shipped to various countries.  However, only three maisons tropicales were actually sent to Africa:  one to Niamey and two to Brazzaville. 

Approximately eight to ten porthole panels, including the ones offered here, were deemed surplus and never sent to Africa.  They remained at the Maxéville factory until it was closed in 1953 at which time they were acquired by one of Prouvé’s associates.

Another door is currently in the collection of the Vitra Design Museum.