Jean Prouve

Jean Prouve designed "The Tropical House" in 1949 as a prototype for inexpensive, easily assembled housing to transport to France's African colonies. Fabricated in the designer's French workshops, the components for the house were completed in 1951 and flown disassembled to Africa. The house was erected in the town of Brazzaville, Congo, where it remained for nearly 50 years. Jean Prouve: Tropical Houseis an in-depth look at the early French modernist's applied theories of prefabricated architecture. Copiously illustrated, this book studies the development of Prouve's demountable buildings and houses and includes never-before-seen archival materials from the extensive collections of the Centre Pompidou and the designer's estate. The final chapter traces architectural historian Robert Rubin's voyage of discovery as he restored and prepared an exhibition of this iconic experiment in prefabricated housing, along with an appendix of press articles from the period to position the work in its contemporary context.