Tropical House
by TreeHugger on 04.23.05
One of the most remarkable experiments in prefabrication was Jean Prouve's Tropical House, designed and built in France and airlifted in 1951 to be assembled in Brazzaville, now the middle of a war zone. It has been rescued by Robert Rubin, who has supervised its restoration and re-assembly at the Yale art and Architecture building until June. Treehugger spoke with Rubin in November, and learned from him that the process assembly and dissassembly is hard on the house and its fittings, so this may be one of the very few chances to see this masterpiece. Prouve is under-appreciated, his work in building and furniture design is brilliant. A pilgrimage is in order. Thanks to ::archinet for the reminder. Read ::Robert Rubin's commentary by [LA]
In a similar vein is the restoration of Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion house - its also radical prefab accommodation.
Follow our link to see his restored house on display at the Henry Ford Museum - they have a web tour if you can't get there in person.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2004/12/richard_buckmin.php
Hi I want to point out that visiting that site allows you to see the house going up in real time on three live camera feeds. We've also included links to rough cuts of a documentary in progress about the house by filmmaker Randy Bell:
http://www.architecture.yale.edu/tropical_house/
and the feeds and daily movies are amazing!