French designer Jean Prouve is the focus of the Design Museum’s current exhibition (07 December 2007 – 13 April). The radical, functional and inspiring work of the French designer and engineer Jean Prouvé (1901 –1984) is shown in this first comprehensive overview of his work in the UK. With examples of his unique furniture design, architecture, drawings, film and photographs, the exhibition will present the enormous influence of Prouvé within the history of 20th Century design.   Although his own work isn’t very very well known outside the world of design, his legacy is essential in two respects. Trained as a metalsmith originally and then later as an engineer, prouve was a key figure that brought metal to modern furniture design. Although his ideas were very close to that of the Bauhaus (the 1930 manifessto the Union of Modern Artists he helped establish reads : “We like logic, balance and purity.”) , he developed a style and design philosophy that is distinct from that of Bauhaus by its preferred focus on the qualities of materials rather than form for its own sake. 
Secondly, his work has had a strong impact on the advancement of the idea of a nomadic architecture with designs that prmoted mobility and portability, from foldable chairs to his own house, designed as a prototype, which is now considered a major development in prefab housing.