André Balency-Béarn (1900-1978)
Balency et Schuhl
A graduate of Ecole Centrale and a native of the Béarn region, André Balency-Béarn is a emblematic figure in France in the area of prefabricated structures. Balency-Béarn was obsessed with reforming archaic French practices and travelled to the United States to learn new technologies. His dream was to apply the methods of automobile manufacturing to the building sector. Despite mixed results, the Balency prefabrication method soon spread throughout Europe and the United States. By the end of the 1960s, however the myth of standardised construction had been abandoned.