In Paris in February 1956, a prototype prefabricated house designed by French architect Jean Prouvé opened to the public for three weeks on the banks of the Seine. Amidst a post-war housing crisis, the Maison Les Jours Meilleurs, or House of Better Days, was a direct response to an appeal by activist Abbé Pierre for urgent homeless relief in Paris during the brutally cold winter of 1954, which saw widespread suffering and the tragic death of a mother and baby.
Now, 70 years on, an exhibition at Galerie Patrick Seguin in Paris is exploring the house and its social history through deconstructed architectural elements, archive material and the opportunity for the public, once again, to step inside the house – this time in virtual reality (back in 2012, the gallery released an animation of archive imagery and computer graphics that detailed the construction of Maison Les Jours Meilleurs).
