Jean Prouvé, Builder

If he thinks, draws and composes architecture from technical systems and details of its manufacture, if he constructs many buildings as much as he mass produces metallic furniture, Jean Prouvé who chooses to be of his time and without compromise, incarnates in the eyes of Le Corbusier the person who represents in a uniquely eloquent way the archetype of the “constructor” […] What I mean by this is that he is indissolubly architect and engineer, as a matter of fact, architect and constructor…”

While experimenting and appropriating all the techniques relating to metal (bending, assembling, etc.) Jean Prouvé created and perfected new components of architectural vocabulary: framework, stud, girder, interior portal frame, saw-tooth roof, shell roof, upright, curtain wall… It is clear that construction and its processes, it is in fact Prouvé’s constructive idea, sketched from 1933 and resulting from his training as an ironworker, which culminated in architecture.