Galerie Patrick Seguin Presents/ Jean Prouvé Demountable Architecture

Galerie Patrick Seguin presents an in-depth view of Jean Prouvé’s architecture, including archival photos and plans as well as contemporary images and videos, models, and texts, in order to contextualize Prouvé’s demountable houses as works of architectural history and therefore illustrate the relevance of his work today. Prouvé was a twentieth-century pioneer in the innovative production of furniture and architecture. Determined to be a man of his time, Prouvé explored all the current technical resources in metalworking, soon abandoning wrought iron for bent sheet steel. In the 1930s he produced metal joinery, his early furniture, architectural components, and knockdown buildings, all in small series. The same principles were applied to the making of furniture—often intended for the public sector—and to the architecture of the postwar boom.

Astute assembly systems for hard-wearing structures meant that furniture and buildings alike could be readily dismantled, moved about, and adapted. Today the Prouvé blend of avant-garde spirit and humanist concerns has lost none of its relevance.

Particularly specialized in Prouvé’s oeuvre, Galerie Patrick Seguin works to promote his furniture as well as his demountable houses. Today the gallery possesses the largest collection of these works of architecture, which were for the most part unique pieces or produced in very few numbers.