La Maison Tropicale Jean Prouvé 1949-1951NAOMI ORDONEZ ARCH 2310

Between 1949 and 1951, Jean Prouvé was commissioned to produce three prototype prefabricated tropical hous-es to address the shortage of housing and civic buildings in the French colonies of West Africa. Les Maisons Tropicales can be seen as the most elegant expression of Prouvé’s love of mobility. The ability to construct and dismantle was fundamental to Prouvé’s work and is evident in his design Set on concrete stills because of the sloping site, La Maison Tropicale consisted of a folded, sheet steel portal frame with fixed and sliding aluminium wall panels. In response to the hot climate an adjustable aluminium sunscreen surrounded the veranda and acted as an outer reflective skin. Blue glass portholes protected against UV rays and the double roof struc-ture provided natural ventilation. The design of the component parts was crucial. Flat, they could be tightly packed into a car-go plane for ease of transport. Light, they could be carried by just two men for ease of construction and not wider than 4m,

BEDROOM

BEDROOM

BEDROOM

RESTROOM

RESTROOM

PANTRY

KITCHEN

LIVING ROOM

MASSING DIAGRAM

CIRCULATION AND STRUCTURAL DIAGRAM

CLIMATE DATA

NORTH ELEVATION

LONGITUDINAL SECTION

EAST ELEVATION WEST ELEVATION

CROSS SECTION

ROOF PLAN

FLOOR PLAN

N I A M E Y, N I G E R