Collection: Jean Prouve

A French architect and designer who played a major role in the industrialization of architectural production. His father was Victor Prouvé, a master of Art Nouveau. He was born in Paris in 1901. He did not have an architect's license, so he called himself a "constructeur" rather than an "architecte". He still has passionate fans all over the world, and some of his original vintage furniture can sell for tens of millions of yen at auction. After attending the School of Fine Arts in Nancy, a major center of Art Nouveau, for three years, he set up his own studio and produced and designed iron lamps and staircase railings. In 1925, he married the painter Madeleine Schott. In 1930, he became a founding member of the Union of Contemporary Artists (UAM) along with Le Corbusier and others. He worked with French architect Eugène Baudouin and others on his early masterpiece, the architectural work "House for the People of Clichy," and exhibited a bathroom he co-created with Le Corbusier and others at the 1937 Paris World's Fair. In 1944, he was elected mayor of Nancy, and held other public positions. While continuing to manufacture furniture, he also explored the potential of aluminum as a building material. He manufactured hundreds of prefabricated aluminum huts and sent them to Africa. As a pioneer in the use of aluminum as a building material, he is revered as a mentor by contemporary architects who are creating what is known as high-tech architecture. In 1957, he founded Jean Prouvé Construction. He moved his base of operations to Paris, where he taught at the Conservatoire National des Arts et des Arts et des Arts et des Arts for 13 years, remaining active until the end of his life. Many of his furniture works are now being reproduced by Vitra.