Focus on Jean Prouvé’s Cité armchair, 1930

The easy chair created in 1930 for the new university dormitory in Nancy was the first small-series model to come out of the ATELIERS JEAN PROUVÉ.

Using the profile of the Grand Repos armchair, it met the requirements of a different market for “reading” chairs combining economy, solidity and easy maintenance. The new metal easy chair was a pressed-steel structure with open U-shaped legs linked by crosspieces. To this was attached a tubing frame bearing a stretched fabric seat, with screws for adjustment of the fabric’s tension. The cloth strips forming the armrests were attached to the frame with metal tabs.

This university easy chair was also marketed by the Ateliers Jean Prouvé for sanatoriums, with a presentation document stressing its comfort, lightness and hygiene.

The main variations involved the armrests and the spring-loaded adjustment of the fabric seat: the former were buckled leather straps running the entire circumference of the metal leg structure, whose vertical front section was sheathed. Some sixty examples were made for students’ rooms.

Collection privée, Paris