Jean Prouvé's Maison Tropicale: The Poetics of the Colonial Object

In June 2007, Jean Prouvé’s prefabricated aluminium bungalow known as the Maison Tropicale was sold at auction in New York for $4,968,000 (see Figure 1). Prior to the sale, the Maison was displayed on the banks of the Seine in Paris, and following the sale, in front of London’s Tate Modern. While the multi-million dollar price tag attracted newspaper headlines, from a design perspective, critics highlighted Prouvé’s innovative design that used industrial technologies and prefabrication techniques. Indeed, a factory produced metallic house such as the Maison Tropicale seemed to embody Le Corbusier’s description of the modern house as a 'machine for living in.'