ABSTRACT
The commission for this building was unusual. The idea was to design the new Exhibition Center for Innovation and Trade of the Dauphiné region (CEDIC) to replace the Palais de la Houille blanche, built during the International Exhibition of 1925 (Avenier & Coste 2012) that had been demolished in 1967, so as to allow the implementation of the skating rink and the race track for the 10th Winter Olympic Games. Initially, this future exhibition hall was meant to host local administrative, commercial and social service structures for the Olympic Village (Prouvé 1966), as well as, on the outside, the terminal bus for the 1968 Olympics. It seems however that such requirements did not have an impact on Jean Prouvé's project, that simply designates the building as the “Exhibition Pavilion of Grenoble” (Lavalou 2001). The CEDIC was formerly known as the “Association de la Grande Semaine Dauphinoise, agricole, commerciale, industrielle et touristique de Grenoble” and was founded in 1930 (new status adopted at extraordinary general meeting of January 9th, 1968 and May 2nd, 1968). In 1968, the CEDIC changes its name to Alpexpo. The Alpexpo building of Grenoble, thus named after the Olympic games were over, is often mentioned in the many publications devoted to the work of Jean Prouvé but is rarely analyzed thoroughly. The apparent simplicity of this building and the discreet artfulness of its design embodies the stool type (fig.1) featured in the alphabet of structures that Huber and Steinegger (1971) put together, mainly based on the CNAM courses given by Jean Prouvé who himself used this term to describe this type of design (Lavalou 2001, 43). To fully grasp its subtlety, it is important to situate the building within the constructive thinking of its designer. After describing the exhibition center of Grenoble in its context, we will try to connect the analysis of the building with Prouvé's theoretical heritage.
