Colonial Congo's flatpack home on show in London

By Georgina Cooper

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Rescued from the steamy jungle and civil wars of the Republic of Congo, a pioneering 1950s flat-pack house now calls the chilly banks of London's River Thames home.

It was designed and manufactured by French designer Jean Prouve as the world's first metal flat-pack home - think Ikea housing for 1950s Africa.

This icon of modernist architecture is now on display in London as part of the Design Museum's exhibition of French architect and designer Jean Prouve's designs.

Set in the cold January shadows of the Tate Modern and with St Paul's Cathedral across the Thames as a backdrop, the "Maison Tropicale" is far away from its natural resting place in Congo's capital Brazzaville, where it has stood rotting in the tropical heat for more than half a century.

Back in the late 1940s Prouve had a vision for affordable homes that could withstand the humidity of the jungle. But his design never proved economical and only three were ever erected, two in Brazzaville and one in Niger.

Antiques collector Frenchman Eric Touchaleaume has made it his life's mission to find the houses and return them to their former glory.

When he finally tracked down the Brazzaville flat-pack building that's now in London it was in a sorry state - dilapidated and bearing the scars of several wars.

"Full of whole bullets, scratched, corrosion," he told Reuters during a tour of the house, "Handicapped but still alive and complete," he said.