Metropole Aluminum House (1949)
The winner of a 1949 contest to create a portable classroom for French students, the gleaming metal structure might have resembled a sci-fi spacechip to '50s schoolchildren. Prouvé's meticulous metalsmithing is on display in this highly regarded example of portable prefab housing, crafted in his Nancy workshop and easily assembled with a few tools. He included a glassed-in garden and wooden accents to the interior walls to make the structure less imposing.