Patrick Seguin installs a Jean Prouvé house at Design Miami Paris

In the garden of Hôtel de Maisons, the 18th-century mansion in Paris's 7th arrondissement where Design Miami has been held since arriving in the city three years ago, the gallerist Patrick Seguin has put up one of Jean Prouvé's demountable houses. The 6×6 Demountable House was commissioned by the French government after the Second World War as light, temporary shelter for people left homeless. Prouvé, who welcomed industrial production when many designers resisted it, was a natural choice, and the installation makes a quiet case that decent, affordable housing is within reach.

Seguin has rethought the inside. Taking his cue from the plain wood panelling, he has turned the three rooms into a contemporary chashitsu, a Japanese tea pavilion, with low, spare furniture. It nods to Prouvé's travels in Japan and his work there with the architect Reiko Hayama, all framed by limestone walls that once surrounded Karl Lagerfeld's home.

Inside the mansion, Seguin's stand gathers Prouvé and his circle: a Charlotte Perriand Forme Libre oak coffee table, Pierre Jeanneret sofas made for government offices in Chandigarh, and a Prouvé desk, swivel chair and Antony chair. Seguin holds one of the most significant private collections of these structures, seven of them on his estate in the Var.

The article places the fair this week, so check dates and tickets first. Worth the trip for anyone who likes modernism small, practical and well made.

Our summary of a story from The Spaces, published 20 October 2026. Read the original