ABSTRACT
In 1993, the French government commissioned research on the colonial architecture of Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo. This research was cofinanced by the French ministries of Foreign Cooperation and Culture and would take place over two years. In 1996, the project yielded two brochures published in a government series on French heritage,1 Brazzaville Decouvertes and Brazzaville la Verte. These brochures featured photographs of two so-called Maisons Tropicales, prototypes of a prefab design by French industrial designer Jean Prouvé in the mid-20th century. This system of standardized aluminum modules could construct colonial buildings ranging from expeditionary shelters to school complexes and went by various names, such as Maison Colonial, Maison Equatorial and Maison Tropicale.2 In 1949, Prouvé’s company Maxeville first shipped the modules for a Maison Tropicale prototype via air-cargo from Nancy in metropolitan France to Niamey, the capital of the French colony of Niger. There, the separate parts were assembled to serve as a home for colonial officials. Two years later, the two Brazzaville Maisons Tropicales followed suit as demonstration models to acquire government contracts. Shortly thereafter, however, Prouvé was forced to abandon his project in the wake of decolonization in French West Africa.
