This unique metal-framed tropical habitat prototype was produced in 1958 by Constructions Jean Prouvé and the company Travaux d’Afrique.

Designed with a modular principle of 8.75 x 8.75 m between the load-bearing posts, it consists of two modules.

The result of the collaboration between Jean Prouvé, consulting engineer, and the Atelier d’architecture LWD (Lagneau, Weill & Dimitrijevic), this structure embodies the prospective research for an industrialized housing system for tropical countries, and particularly for equatorial Africa with its hot and humid climate.

Unlike Jean Prouvé’s Tropical Houses (1949-1950), the process studied here does not aim for the complete industrialization of construction, but rather the mass production of a few standardized elements, easily assembled by local labor.

These prefabricated elements consist of:

– a steel frame and posts, as well as roof panels, manufactured by the company Les Constructions Jean Prouvé, and subsequently, for the production models, in Cameroon by the Alucam factory in Édéa, a subsidiary of Péchiney-Aluminium Français;

– aluminum sheet facade panels, whose manufacturing was entrusted to the company Velam in France, then in Cameroon for the production models;

– wooden side uprights framing the aluminum facade panels, made by André Chetaille, a renowned cabinetmaker, joiner, and carpenter who also worked for Charlotte Perriand.

The concrete screed, the gable walls, and the blockwork facade wall sections are carried out by local labor.