The architect and his time: Jean Prouvé, a builder (extract 6/8) 1975

Jean Prouvé: I never had a style, I never made shapes, I made constructions. I found myself there in the average position of an architect who designs things, not knowing who will build them, nor how they will be built. And at that moment many things became clear to me. I have mentioned the word architect, so I should come back to Maxéville. Young architects, students from the Beaux Arts, no longer understanding anything of what they were being taught, sickened by their school, who had discovered what I was doing via magazines, came and offered to work in the factory. I thought that was a good thing. An architect leaving his school and finding work with a contractor was interesting. And for four years I had a steady flow of architects, including Joseph Belmont…
Journalist: with whom you still work
JP: Silvy, I had Swiss architects, South Americans, and they totally integrated into factory life. They had every day contact with the operatives and they don’t hide that they lived the best years of their life, unquestionably, there they learned what the life of an architect could be by working closely with execution, which confirmed my opinion that an architect should go back to being a man on a worksite much more than a man in an office.