In the fall of 1939, as France was urgently preparing for the second World War, Jean Prouvé was asked to design a combat unit that could be constructed in just a few hours by a limited number of men. Prouvé stayed up all night completing the request, drawing upon a design of the same year for a demountable refectory. Within a week his brother Pierre Prouvé readied a prototype for presentation to General Dumontier, the director of École Polytechnique. Twenty examples were required immediately and two-hundred and seventy-five were ordered shortly after. It is not known precisely how many were made. During this period, Prouvé’s staff had been reduced from 120 to thirty as his factory workers were called to the battlefield, which may be why the barracks were produced elsewhere. The model was conceived in three sizes to accommodate various numbers of men: 4 x 4 meters, 4 x 6 meters and 4 x 12 meters. Its simple construction consisting of steel structural elements into which siding, windows and floorboards could be fitted allowed for easy transport and assembly. In 1940 the design was patented as “Baraque demountable,” brevet no. 865.235.

The present lot is based on the 1939 barrack, adapted by Robert Geck in 1943-1944 for use at the Ferembal factory in Nancy, France. The present lot is the only known surviving example of this historically important design.