Design methodology for a school prototype: Jean Prouvé’s Jules Ferry School Group in Dieulouard, France, 1952–1953

Abstract

The catastrophic destruction of buildings in France during World War II demanded that reconstruction become one of the primary objectives in the immediate post-war period. This favoured a culture of experimentation, and created a context for Jean Prouvé to develop designs for school buildings. He developed these designs with a research-based process focusing on technical solutions and their prototypes, and with models whose fundamental premises were rapid and easy assembly-disassembly, lightness and economy. The constant correlation between the projected object and the object created in the workshop shaped the basis for the precision of his designs. This article analyses the methodology followed by Prouvé in the Jules Ferry School Group in Dieulouard, France (1952–1953), in the singular context of the post-war period, illustrating the route followed in developing the model rather than the aesthetics of the building. The prototype used in his schools, and the models generated from this system, demonstrate his architectural methods.