How One Midcentury Design Dealer Is Taking a Chance on the Odd and Obscure

There’s more to be discovered at the fringes of midcentury design. Just ask Clément Cividino, a seller out of Perpigñan in the South of France, who, after starting his career with marquee names—your Perriands and Prouvés—stumbled upon a portable prefab concept that had been left to ruin. With some elbow grease and the help of a few friends, he brought back its shimmer, discovering a new passion in the process. Now, his is a full-on fascination with 20th-century dismountable prefabricated homes.

The latest refurbishment in his line of acquisitions? The Marabout House, an elegant, tent-like aluminum structure that was originally designed for French armies in the post-war, North African colonies.

Dating from 1958, the Marabout, meaning ‘large conical tent,’ was designed by the engineer Raymond Camus, a pioneer in the field of prefab structures, and built in the workshop of Jean Prouvé. Weighing 26 kilograms per panel, quickly mounted, and featuring airy sash windows and heat deflecting aluminum walls, it was an ingenious solution for the extreme conditions of the desert and the expedient maneuvers of colonization. Cividino’s particular Marabout was commissioned by the French energy company in 1972 as temporary housing outside Paris, and he claims that it’s the only one left in Europe. 

In his latest installation at Terra Remota, a winery in Catalonia, Spain, he’s deployed the prefab and styled it with his own collection of the more household names in midcentury design. We spoke with Cividino to hear more about the exhibit (on view until August 31, 2022), his process in uncovering lost work, and what role prefab can play in the modern world.

Dwell: How did you first get into design collecting? 

Cividino: I was 18 years old and living in Buenos Aires, and, without knowing anything about the market, started buying things based on my personal taste. There wasn’t a criteria. I didn’t know designers’ names or anything about design history. I guess I was mostly thinking about the type of home I would eventually own when I returned to Europe, and what it might have in it. I wanted something cool.

What was the reaction of your clients when you started dealing in prefabricated houses? 

People didn’t understand it all. I remember a lot of people even making fun of me, saying, "But what are you going to do with this? These little architectural houses—are you crazy?" But it became my obsession, my madness. My business went through a very difficult period because I was spending a lot of money on them. But in my head I kept on saying, One day they will understand, one day, they will see their value.

You bought your first prefabricated house in 2007. What was it like?

It was called the Bulle 6 coques, or ‘bubbles’ house, designed by Jean Maneval. It had six elements and opened up like a flower. I found it sitting on a dirt road next to a lake. It was in a terrible state—broken, dirty, and missing glass. People had been throwing rubbish in it and using it as a toilet. Many of the homes I have found and purchased have been like that.

Tell me about the process of relocating them... 

It has always been complicated. In the beginning, when I had no budget, I used to call friends and say, Hey, can you give me a hand? I’ll pay for the food and beer. They would laugh their asses off. But we went together to dismantle the structures, put all the different pieces on the roof of a car, and bring them back. But I didn’t really have a space to store them. So again I had to ask friends for a favor, and they’d let me reconstruct them in their backyards. It was a mess. But as time went by my business developed and I started earning more money. Now I have a technical manager who does everything according to my instructions. But we are improving all the time to make things easier and more organized.