Design Miami/ recently launched the Design Miami/ Shop, an online marketplace that brings exceptional twentieth and twenty-first-century design directly to collectors in partnership with leading design galleries, 365 days a year.
Design Miami/ is the global forum for design. Occurring alongside the Art Basel fairs in Miami, Florida, each December and Basel, Switzerland, each June, It has become an important venue for collecting, exhibiting, discussing, and creating collectable designs. The site includes over 800 pieces from 52 international galleries, from works on paper starting at US$100 to exceptional historic works like a 6×6 Demountable House by Jean Prouvé listed at US$1,500,000 represented by Galerie Patrick Seguin, Paris, France.
Jean Prouvé and the Demountable House
In response to an order from the French state, at the end of World War II, Jean Prouvé began designing temporary houses for the homeless in Lorraine and Franche-Comté resulting in his famous 6×6 Demountable House. Fine-tuning his already patented axial portal frame, he saw a quick, economical and adaptable solution as an urgent priority.
The area of 6×6 meters laid down by the Ministry of Reconstruction and Town Planning and later enlarged to 6×9 metres was partitioned into three rooms immediately habitable on the day of assemblage. This meant that these country families did not have to move while the building was going on.
Designed to be rapidly assembled on the sites of destroyed homes and, if need be, demounted and moved elsewhere, these veritable architectural feats were made up of light, prefabricated components of metal and wood. Steel, subject to strict quotas at the time, was reserved for the bent steel skeleton, into which were inserted simple, standardized wood panels. Jean Prouvé would later develop and reapply this constructive principle to durable and lasting reconstruction.
If people understand, there is no reason to explain. If they don’t, there is no use explaining.
Jean Prouvé
Founded in 1989, Galerie Patrick Sequin is located in Paris’s Bastille district in a space, designed by Jean Nouvel. Since its opening, the gallery has brought the talents of French designers such as Jean Prouvé, Charlotte Perriand, Pierre Jeanneret, Le Cornusier and Jean Royère into the international spotlight.
