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Miniatures Antony

Jean Prouvé, 1950

The architect, engineer and designer Jean Prouvé was intent both in his architectural and design work on employing highly-advanced metal working techniques to create innovative constructions and shapes. He played an influential role in developing a construction method for architecture based on lightweight prefabricated sections, and drew amongst other things on this knowledge of aircraft and car construction. In 1947, he set up his own company Ateliers Jean Prouvé, which not only produced these lightweight elements, but also his own furniture designs.

In 1955, Prouvé took part with the support of the French designer group Union des Artistes Modernes, in a competition for the furnishing of a student residence in Antony near Paris. Collaborating with Charlotte Perriand, he produced an exemplary furniture series for the leisure area, the cafeterias and a series of rooms in the student residence. His series included the chair shown here, which Prouvé had designed a similar version of for Strasbourg university as early as 1950.

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Miniatures Collection

For over two decades, the Vitra Design Museum has been making miniature replicas of milestones in furniture design from its collection. The Miniatures Collection encapsulates the entire history of industrial furniture design – moving from Historicism and Art Nouveau to the Bauhaus and New Objectivity, from Radical Design and Postmodernism all the way up to the present day. Exactly one sixth the size of the historical originals, the chairs are all true to scale and precisely recreate the smallest details of construction, material and colour. The high standard of authenticity even extends to the natural grain of the wood, the reproduction of screws and the elaborate handicraft techniques involved. This has made the miniatures into popular collector's items as well as ideal illustrative material for universities, design schools and architects.