Jean Prouvé's 1944 demountable house reborn as a Japanese tea pavilion in Paris

A 1944 house by Jean Prouvé that three people can assemble in a single day is now standing in the gardens of the Hôtel de Maisons, reinterpreted as a Japanese tea pavilion for Design Miami.Paris. Galerie Patrick Seguin brought the structure to the fair — and it's for sale.

The 6×6 Demountable House measures six by six metres. Prouvé designed it in the 1940s as rapid housing for people made homeless by war. Most recently, the building served as a guesthouse at the sculpture park Château La Coste, still carrying the bathroom and kitchen pods that architect Richard Rogers added in 2015. The gallery removed those pods for the Paris display.

What does a wartime shelter become at a design fair?

A chashitsu — a traditional Japanese pavilion used for tea ceremonies. For Design Miami.Paris, the gallery fitted the interior in that contemporary Japanese idiom, tatami and all.

"This house was designed at the end of the second world war to provide temporary accommodation for displaced families whilst their homes were being rebuilt," gallery founder Patrick Seguin told Dezeen.

"Its exposed structure showcases all of Prouvé's ingenuity; he was able to respond to the urgency of post-war reconstruction with a design that could be assembled in a single day."

The Japanese setting isn't an arbitrary styling choice. Seguin frames it as an extension of the architect's own biography.

"This new reading creates a dialogue between Prouvé's architecture and Japanese aesthetics and reflects the close ties he maintained throughout his life with Japan, where he was invited to give lectures on several occasions," Seguin said.

"Japanese architect Reiko Hayama was also one of his closest collaborators, joining his atelier in the early 1970s."

How do you move a house to a fair?

You take it apart. The house was designed to be demountable from the start, so transporting the wooden structure to Paris was straightforward, according to the gallery.

"Prouvé designed the houses to be easily assembled and dismantled; that's the ingenuity of these structures," Seguin said. "The 6x6 house only requires a single day to be assembled by three people."

That original logic — speed, few hands, no foundations of consequence — is exactly what makes the building legible to collectors now. What was once emergency shelter has become a movable, sellable object.

After Design Miami.Paris closes, the house "will no doubt be moved to its new owner's home," Seguin concluded — one more dismantling and reassembly in a life that has already spanned post-war France, Château La Coste and a fairground garden in the 7th arrondissement.

This year's edition of Design Miami.Paris also saw Apple unveil its Designers of Tomorrow programme.

The Jean Prouvé house is on show at Design Miami.Paris 2026 from 21 to 25 October 2026 at L'Hôtel de Maisons, 51 Rue de l'Université, 75007 Paris, France.