Wunderlich-Scrambler

Moto Sumisura's 1981 BMW R/80

In Iron & Air Issue Thirteen, we published a profile piece on Franco Augello's shop, Moto Sumisura, based in Milan, Italy. Frank turns out inspired interpretations of old BMW Boxer airheads, including his latest, a 1981 BMW R/80. 

Design Masters: Jean Prouvé

With his light industrial furniture and mobile ‘nomadic architecture’, Jean Prouvé revolutionised design in the 1920s to 50s. Today, his simple, functional designs are in demand by collectors around the world…

He is considered one of the most influential designers and architects of the 20th Century – yet he never studied architecture

He is considered one of the most influential designers and architects of the 20th Century – yet he never studied architecture. Born in 1901, the son of a sculptor and a pianist, Jean Prouvé first studied the blacksmith's art and the possibilities of metalworking. This knowledge significantly shaped his entire future in design. Prouvé became a passionate modernist, developing a strong dislike for the fanciful decorations of Art Nouveau and in his studio in Nancy he experimented with steel and aluminium. In 1926, he acquired the first electric welding machine in the city. Rejecting the steel tubes of the Bauhaus school, Prouvé preferred foldable, flat, sheet steel. As his work increasingly attracted attention, he began not only to produce light furniture, but also to work with avant-garde architects such as Le Corbusier and Charlotte Perriand.

The builder's blueprint

Self-taught and self-made engineer Jean Prouvé worked unceasingly to develop new manufacturing methods, which Le Corbusier called "the archetype of the constructor". Prouvé saw metal furniture and architectural elements as technical objects, with their mechanical production central to their design. Prouvé equipped schools, hospitals and office buildings, he produced chairs, tables, shelves and cupboards – and looked with fascinated envy at the growing automotive and aircraft industries and their increasing economies of scale. He dreamed of industrialising the creation of buildings by the same principles of mass production. "It makes no difference whether you're building a piece of furniture or a house," he claimed.

The prefab dream

By the end of the Second World War, Prouvé’s studio had become a factory. In response to the housing shortage of the time, he and his team designed fascinating functional prototypes for prefabricated homes that could be built by two or three people in a single day. The welding techniques and super-thin steel sheets of the automotive industry allowed Prouvé to realise new forms, and he became one of the first sustainable architects: his buildings were to "leave no footprint in the landscape". Among his best-known masterpieces are La Maison Tropicale with its trademark blue glass portholes, and the Meridian Room of the Paris Observatory.

Life on a ship?

But none of the prefabricated prototypes went into production – the houses were thought too spartan, too simple and too modern. Instead, skyscrapers began to thrust their way towards the sky. In 1952, Aluminium Français invested in Prouvé's factory, and two years later pushed him out of the company. Prouvé then began his own business as a consulting engineer, pursuing his own projects as a designer. Using components salvaged from the factory, he built himself a house, the design reminiscent of railway carriages or the cabins of ships – spartan in its functionality but utterly inspiring.

An almost-forgotten legend

Jean Prouvé taught at the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers in Paris, influencing generations of future architects – and yet he remained modest. "I was a worker doing his job," he said about himself. In the  1980s and 1990s Prouvé’s work fell out of fashion, but today it is again in vogue. His chairs and tables, which could once be bought for barely a few hundred francs, are now traded for six-figure sums. Collectors such as Patrick Segiun combine his furniture skilfully with artworks by Alexander Calder, Andy Warhol and Richard Prince. Design classics such as the standard chair can be found in the MoMA in New York and Paris’s Pompidou Centre. The architectural prototypes, once scorned in France, are now much sought after and change hands for millions. And since 2002, Vitra has re-issued selected items of Prouvé furniture – with great success.

Real 'Prouvé' under the hammer

The auction house Phillips has repeatedly offered and sold originals by Jean Prouvé for considerable sums, and on 11 June in New York, the Phillips Design sale includes some genuine ‘Prouvé’ lots – such as a bed, model no. 102, designed for the Lycée Fabert in Metz, estimated at 30,000 to 40,000 US dollars. Plus there’s a set of six blue ‘semi-metal’ chairs as well as a ‘Compas’ table from the Electricité de France (based on the same concept as the house frames that ​Prouvé built after the War), which – together – are estimated at 140,000-200,000 US dollars. Originally intended as cost-effective industrial furniture, these prices are perhaps the last thing Jean Prouvé would ever have envisaged. 

Photos: Phillips, Galerie Patrick Seguin, Vitra

This article is part of the series Design Masters, presented by the auction house Phillips.

The wonderful world of Ercole Spada

Ercole Spada’s job interview in 1960 with Elio Zagato was a short one. Affirmative answers to two questions landed him a role that would shape automotive design history: could he produce full-scale drawings, and did he have a degree…?

Clearly convinced by Spada’s design portfolio, Zagato hired him on the spot after receiving his desired answers. Lombardy-born Spada had graduated from an engineering degree shortly beforehand; by the end of the year, he had one of history’s most treasured automotive designs under his belt, the Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato. That alone is an impressive feat for a 23-year-old graduate – one compounded by the fact that he also penned the Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZ and the OSCA 1600 GTZ concept car that same year.

Mr Coda Tronca

Unsurprisingly, he soon became one of Zagato’s most prized assets. Spada had not only found a creative outlet for his two passions – art and cars – but also displayed an appetite for aerodynamic excellence right from the off. Most notably, he applied the Kamm-inspired ‘coda tronca’ (literally meaning ‘truncated tail’) design to the updated Alfa SZ, and many of its later relatives such as theTZ1 and TZ2. He was also responsible for several of the Zagato-bodied Lancias – from the curiousFulvia Sport to the gorgeous Flaminia Super Sport – during his time with the Milanese coachbuilder, which formally ended in 1969.

Spada continued his relationship with Zagato as a freelancer in the years that followed, also working for Ford, Ghia and Audi before joining BMW as Chief Designer in 1977. There he was responsible for the E32 7 Series and E34 5 Series, with one quote about that period taken from a recently released book being particularly pertinent. “Most of my designs were disapproved of at first,” Spada says in ‘Spada. The long story of a short tail’, which has been expertly written by Bart Lenaerts. “But then, after some time, they start to see the beauty of it. And years later they are big fans.”

Spada-man to the rescue

Clearly, Spada’s thinking – both in aesthetic and aerodynamic terms – tended to be way ahead of his peers. His name is often criminally omitted when styling heavyweights such as Giugiaro, Gandini and the Pininfarina clan are mentioned. But his design and engineering proficiency warrants equal treatment among these luminaries, even were you to take only the first decade of his career into account. That his work was still bearing fruit as recently as 2011 is another story.

The pictures seen here are taken from the wonderful new book entitled ‘Spada. The long story of a short tail’, written by Bart Lenaerts and available now through Waft Publishing.

Is this 'Prancing Workhorse' Ferrari 412 pick-up brave or blasphemous?

Badged as ‘the world’s most exclusive pick-up truck’, this converted Ferrari 412 is definitely among the more bizarre vehicles we’ve ever seen bearing the Prancing Horse. That’s not to say it doesn’t possess a certain charm, though…

The conversion was carried out by Will Trickett who, in the process of chopping 300mm from the 1989 412’s roof, also added some other unique features, all in a bid to create the ‘ultimate builder’s workhorse’. These include a luxury yacht-inspired teak rear deck – though for pots of paint and ladders rather than bikini-clad sunbathers – and improved rear suspension for those extra-heavy loads. If the thought of taking an angle grinder to a Ferrari makes you wince, you’re not alone.

Wonderful or wince-worthy?

It also features an exhaust-valve system, which is said to transform the car from angry and loud to quiet and refined at the mere flick of a switch, meaning that you won’t disturb the Bishops Avenueresidents while on an early-morning job – perfect. 

Regardless of whether you like or loathe the car, allegedly the Ferrari 412 – arguably one of the lesser-loved Prancing Horses, let’s not forget – had seen better days. As blasphemous as it might sound, perhaps breathing some life into the old workhorse isn’t such a bad thing after all? The car’s owner even mentioned that Ferrari technicians had supposedly praised the conversion. We wouldn’t hold our breath for the Classiche papers to arrive, though...

Photos: London Motor Group 

ALLO !!