Jean Prouve began to design portable and demountable barracks for the French army during the Second World War. After the war, the French government commissioned Prouve to design inexpensive, effective housing for the newly homeless, prompting him to perfect his patented axial portal frame to build easily constructed demountable houses. Few of these groundbreaking structures were built, making them exceedingly rare today–prompting Galerie Patrick Seguin’s tireless efforts over the past 27 years to preserve and promote these important designs. The gallery owns the largest collection of Prouve’s demountables, 22 in total. This volume focuses on his 1956 Demountable House, and is luxuriously illustrated with archival and contemporary photographs.

Though lacking any formal education in architecture, Jean Prouve (1901-84) became one of the most influential architects of the 20th century, boldly experimenting with new building designs, materials and methods. His postwar work has left its mark everywhere, wrote Le Courbusier, decisively.