The Guéridon Bas is one of the reasons why Jean Prouvé is almost more famous as a construction engineer than as a designer. Nowadays, the couch table is produced by Vitra.
In the beginning of the 1940s, Jean Prouvé focused increasingly on working with wood. The low availability of steel during the Second World War and the difficult production conditions forced the designer to rethink his work, since modern materials and manufacturing methods of the Bauhaus era weren’t available anymore. This is how Prouvé started to create furniture pieces with classic materials and simple constructions that were still modern.
The French designer achieved this by cleverly combining stylistic devices. For the coffee table Guéridon Bas, there is a heavy table top on three feet of massive oak wood. The elements are connected by a construction out of grooved sheet metal. The feet are protrude visually and set accents. The Guéridon Bas couch table is contemporary despite its traditional material because of its clear construction – back then as well as today.