tabletop

Jean Prouvé completed his training as a metal artisan before opening his own workshop in Nancy in 1924. In the following years he created numerous furniture designs, and in 1947 Prouvé established his own factory. Due to disagreements with the majority shareholders, he left the company in 1953. During the ensuing decades, Prouvé served as a consulting engineer on a number of important architectural projects in Paris.

He left his mark on architectural history again in 1971, when he played a major role in selecting the design of Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers for the Centre Pompidou as chairman of the competition jury. Prouvé's work encompasses a wide range of objects, from a letter opener to door and window fittings, from lighting and furniture to façade elements and prefabricated houses, from modular building systems to large exhibition structures – essentially, almost anything that is suited to industrial production methods.

In close cooperation with the Prouvé family, Vitra began in 2002 to issue re-editions of designs by this great French constructeur.

Jean Prouvé

American walnut

smoked oak

natural oak

dark oak

ecru

Japanese red

coffee

chocolate

deep black

base

The designer and engineer Jean Prouvé developed the EM Table around 1950 for the project ‚Maison Tropicale‘. Adhering to the aesthetics of necessity, even the details of this table are determined by its construction. The canted legs are connected by a crossbar, illustrating the structural forces and flow of stresses in a way that is typically seen only in engineering structures. The EM Table is available with table tops in solid wood, robust HPL laminate or – for tops measuring 180, 220 and 260 cm in length – wood veneer. The solid wood table tops in oak or walnut lend the EM Table an aura of elegance and bring pleasure with their appealing tactile qualities. The robust table tops in oak veneer are available with a light or dark finish.

Base bent sheet and tubular steel, powder-coated (smooth)

Tabletop solid wood or veneer