PARIS — Galerie 54 here is adding a tropical touch to the Seine’s monument-lined banks.
The architecture and design gallery has reconstructed one of the three “Maisons Tropicales” or “tropical houses” by acclaimed French architect Jean Prouvé at the foot of the Pont Alexandre III near the Petite Palais.
“They are houses that have traveled and that will continue to travel,” said Galerie 54 art historian, Martial Vigo. “Galerie 54 purchased all three of the Prouvé prototypes in 2000 and brought them back to Paris.”
Dubbed the Maison de Brazzaville, the house was originally designed in 1951 to solve infrastructure shortages in France’s colonial territory in Africa.
Almost 2,000 square feet, the lightweight steel and aluminum structure will showcase furniture by the designer and will remain in place until Dec. 31.
“The exhibit is in the same location as the Maison de Niamey, the first of the Maison Tropicales that was unveiled in 1949 here, before it was dismantled and sent to Africa,” said Vigo, who noted that the design gallery would also install the Maison de Niamey in the south of France before 2009 in order to create a Galerie 54 branch there.
The remaining house, a smaller version of the Maison de Brazzaville, was sold to an American collector and is to be donated to the Pompidou Museum in Paris.