Jean Prouvé

Jean Prouvé was born in 1901 in Paris, learned the art of metal craftsmanship thanks to Emile Robert, Enghien and Szabo in Paris.      In 1924 he opened his own workshop in Nancy, and in 1925 he began producing his first furniture elements in bent sheet steel,  He was a founding member of the Union des Artistes Modernes (UAM) in 1930. The following year he created his own manufacturing company, Les Ateliers Jean Prouvé. In the 1930s, the company produced numerous furniture designs and some of the first prefabricated architectural elements, including components for the Maison du Peuple in Clichy (in collaboration with architects Beaudoin and Lods), whose steel and glass structure attracted great attention. He taught as a lecturer at the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers (CNAM) from 1957 to 1970. In 1971 he played a major role in selecting the design by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers for the the Centre Pompidou as chairman of the competition jury. Between 1980 and 1984, Prouvé again devoted himself to the further development of furniture of his own design. He died in Nancy in 1984. In many of his works, Jean Prouvé achieved the goal of combining functional requirements, honest use of materials and economic issues with the complex demands of mass production. Starting from 2002, in close collaboration with the Prouvé family, Vitra has devoted itself to reissuing several designs by this great builder.