Jean Prouvé, folded sheets

The fundamental innovation in the initial spurt of modern architecture were the building systems that replaced the 19th-century ones, which were based on traditional materials and mural construction. Materials and techniques now involved a production form that was the opposite of craft: industrial production, which is large-scale mass production.

When the new way of building began to take shape, industrial production had already shown the reach of its possibilities in other spheres, from transport to food, but it still had a long way to go in the field of architecture because traditional techniques were too deep-rooted to allow drastic changes (...)