Jean Prouvé

First built in 1944 to rehouse war victims in Lorraine, these houses only survived the postwar period in very limited numbers. Doubly involved in regeneration of the region – as a native of Nancy and a builder of genius – Jean Prouvé won an order for emergency housing from the Ministry of Reconstruction and Town Planning.

Readily transported and dismantled, his “shacks” made entirely of wood and metal (of which the latter was in very short supply) were a real architectural coup.