Jean Prouvé and Architectural Environmental Performance. The Iconic Maison Tropicale Project

The paper investigates Jean Prouvé’s environmental design approach in his architectural projects. Starting the investigation from the iconic project la maison tropicale, designed to respond to the extreme climate and environmental issues of a tropical context and arriving at some European Prouve’s projects to compare the environmental solutions for the both different climate conditions. The paper highlights the details adopted in the Maison Tropicale, particularly the design and prefabrication of peculiar elements: panels, brise-soleil, and roof. These elements were designed to improve the passive housing strategy: ventilation, overshadowing, and so on. The environmental performance of this project is compared with other Prouve’s European built project performance, specifically for the façade panels design.