Perret Show Flat

Auguste Perret was 71 years old when he accepted the monumental task of rebuilding Le Havre in 1945. Despite his advanced age, he worked tirelessly for nearly a decade, transforming the devastated port city into what critics would later call 'the most consistent example of post-war reconstruction in Europe.' He died in 1954, just one year before the reconstruction was officially completed.

The furniture displayed in the apartment was specifically designed for post-war reconstruction housing and became known as 'Reconstruction furniture.' These pieces by René Gabriel and Marcel Gascoin were revolutionary for their time—affordable, mass-producible, yet elegant. The designs were so successful that they influenced French furniture design for decades and are now highly sought after by collectors.

Before being preserved as a museum in 2006, these 'show apartments' served a crucial propaganda purpose. Between 1947-1953, they toured France and were exhibited internationally to demonstrate that modern, comfortable housing was possible for working-class families. The apartments convinced skeptical French citizens that reinforced concrete buildings could be warm, bright, and livable—not the cold, prison-like structures many feared.