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8x8 Demountable house, 1944

Assembly of houses 8 x 8 m. Partial view of the housing development with portal frame buildings from the Ateliers Jean Prouvé, Bezaumont, fall 1945.

Assembly of houses 8 x 8 m. Partial view of the housing development with portal frame buildings from the Ateliers Jean Prouvé, Bezaumont, fall 1945. © Fonds Jean Prouvé. Centre Pompidou – MNAM/CCI-Bibliothèque Kandinsky-Dist. RMN-Grand Palais.

Assembly of houses 8 x 8 m. Partial view of the housing development with portal frame buildings from the Ateliers Jean Prouvé, Bezaumont, fall 1945.

Assembly of houses 8 x 8 m. Partial view of the housing development with portal frame buildings from the Ateliers Jean Prouvé, Bezaumont, fall 1945. © Collection privée.

Assembly of houses 8 x 8 m. Partial view of the housing development with portal frame buildings from the Ateliers Jean Prouvé, Bezaumont, fall 1945.

Assembly of houses 8 x 8 m. Partial view of the housing development with portal frame buildings from the Ateliers Jean Prouvé, Bezaumont, fall 1945.

Ateliers Jean Prouvé. “Demountable houses 8x8, 8x12, etc. Cross section”. Patent no. 849.762. Plan no. 9479, October 1944.

Ateliers Jean Prouvé. “Demountable houses 8x8, 8x12, etc. Cross section”. Patent no. 849.762. Plan no. 9479, October 1944.

Ateliers Jean Prouvé. “Zellidja”, axial portal frame for the 8x8 houses designed for the mines in Zellidja, Morocco. Plan no. 9805, January 1946.

Ateliers Jean Prouvé. “Zellidja”, axial portal frame for the 8x8 houses designed for the mines in Zellidja, Morocco. Plan no. 9805, January 1946. © Fonds des Ateliers Jean Prouvé, Archives départementales de Meurthe-et-Moselle.

8x8 Demountable house. Prototype assembled during the summer for the Prouvé family’s vacation, Carnac, 1946.

8x8 Demountable house. Prototype assembled during the summer for the Prouvé family’s vacation, Carnac, 1946.

8x8 Demountable house. Prototype assembled during the summer for the Prouvé family’s vacation, Carnac, 1946.

8x8 Demountable house. Prototype assembled during the summer for the Prouvé family’s vacation, Carnac, 1946. © Fonds Jean Prouvé. Centre Pompidou – MNAM/CCI-Bibliothèque Kandinsky-Dist. RMN-Grand Palais.

8x8 Demountable house, Jean Prouvé’s office, Maxéville, ca. 1950.

8x8 Demountable house, Jean Prouvé’s office, Maxéville, ca. 1950.

8x8 Demountable house, Jean Prouvé’s office, Maxéville, ca. 1950.

8x8 Demountable house, Jean Prouvé’s office, Maxéville, ca. 1950. © Fonds Jean Prouvé. Centre Pompidou – MNAM/CCI-Bibliothèque Kandinsky-Dist. RMN-Grand Palais.

8x8 Demountable house, Jean Prouvé’s office, Maxéville, ca. 1950. Detail of the inverted-V interior portal frame.

8x8 Demountable house, Jean Prouvé’s office, Maxéville, ca. 1950. Detail of the inverted-V interior portal frame. © Fonds Jean Prouvé. Centre Pompidou – MNAM/CCI-Bibliothèque Kandinsky-Dist. RMN-Grand Palais.

8x8 Demountable house, 1944.

8x8 Demountable house, 1944. © Galerie Patrick Seguin.

8x8 Demountable house, 1944.

8x8 Demountable house, 1944. © Galerie Patrick Seguin.

8x8 Demountable house, Jean Prouvé’s office, reassembled ca. 1957 on his property on Rue Augustin Hacquard, Nancy.

8x8 Demountable house, Jean Prouvé’s office, reassembled ca. 1957 on his property on Rue Augustin Hacquard, Nancy. © Fonds Jean Prouvé. Centre Pompidou – MNAM/CCI-Bibliothèque Kandinsky-Dist. RMN-Grand Palais.

8x8 Demountable house. Assembly of the building, Permali/Bois Bakélisé plant, René Schvartz’s office, Maxéville, 1945.

8x8 Demountable house. Assembly of the building, Permali/Bois Bakélisé plant, René Schvartz’s office, Maxéville, 1945. © Fonds Jean Prouvé. Centre Pompidou – MNAM/CCI-Bibliothèque Kandinsky-Dist. RMN-Grand Palais.

8x8 Demountable house. Assembly of the building, Permali/Bois Bakélisé plant, René Schvartz’s office, Maxéville, 1945.

8x8 Demountable house. Assembly of the building, Permali/Bois Bakélisé plant, René Schvartz’s office, Maxéville, 1945.

8x8 Demountable house, 1944. Reassembled in Nancy, 2013.

8x8 Demountable house, 1944. Reassembled in Nancy, 2013. © Galerie Patrick Seguin.

8x8 Demountable house, 1944

Continuing his research into demountable houses, in 1938 Jean Prouvé came up with the structural principle of the axial portal frame, which he patented the following year. He decided to apply it via a module 8 meters (26.2 ft) wide: a size based on the capacity of the big bending press in his workshop, which machined 4-meter sheets of steel to produce the components for house frames and envelopes. This technical given meant a minimum area of 64 square meters (689 square feet) per module, offering a living space acceptable to both the occupant and the constructor with the occupant’s interests at heart. Early in the War Pierre Jeanneret applied the method to a project for lightweight buildings; thus did the Le Corbusier workshop abandon the Modulor for the Prouvé grid. Incorporating variations on the portal frame structure, these one and two-story buildings betray an adaptation to the shortage of metal that found its culmination in the engineers’ houses, made entirely of wood. In 1944–45 the need for temporary buildings gave the Ateliers Jean Prouvé the chance to employ the portal frame for houses for people left homeless by the War. At the same time, though, the Ministry of Reconstruction and Town Planning (MRU) reduced the grid to 6 meters (19.6 ft). A number of 8 x 8 meter (26.2 x 26.2 ft) houses were nonetheless produced as part of an urgent reconstruction operation headed by architects Jacques and Michel André. Not to be confused with the MRU order, this project had permits for larger quantities of metal, at the time subject to strict quotas. The load-bearing structure, using a specially redesigned portal frame, was made entirely of bent sheet steel, as were the floor joists and the roof, unusually made of slabs. This made clear the model’s potential for permanent dwellings, but it was only after several fruitless experiments and numerous studies and prototypes that in 1949 Jean Prouvé was finally able to begin manufacturing his Métropole house: light, economical and comfortable, entirely made of steel and aluminum, and based on an 8 meter (26.2 ft) grid.