#marcel lods

Industrial factory for 'Imprimerie Nationale' Flers-en-Escrebieux, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France; 1968-74

Marcel Lods, Jacques Starkier (photography by Michel Moch)

see map

Marcel Lods, Eugéne Beaudouin, Vladimir Bodiansky, Jean Prouve, La Muette Housing Project, (1932-1934)

The construction materials and techniques are the most interesting and exotic features of La Muette. The space between the row of towers and courts and the redan blocks was used as a fabrication and assembly area. The buildings were made of a steel frame that was assembled without the use of cranes. This frame was covered with prefabricated concrete panels that were made in factories in the assembly area. Tracked gantries transported materials to each building site. Jean Prouvé designed the metal forms for the panels which were cast using vibration techniques to achieve greater strength. Unlike so many of the prefabricated concrete panel systems that have been used in Europe in the past 40 years, the Mopin system was designed to be attached to a structural steel frame. It was quite complicated, and consisted of a typology of parts including balconies, window and door frames, floor and wall elements, as well as interior stairs, floors and partitions, fabricated with different exposed finishes.