Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie de l'Indre

English translation

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History

The Post and Telegraph Office of Châteauroux, built at the end of the 19th century, on the edge of Place Gambetta, was remodelled in 1932 by Parisian architect Albert Laprade (born in Buzançais, in the Indre) and his correspondent in Châteauroux, Jean Varaine, to install the services of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Indre. The edifice was disused since a new Post Office had just been built by Paul Guadet in 1928, at the corner of Condorcet Street and Palais de Justice Street. Laprade's intervention was limited to the construction of a wing in depth which he inserted between the preserved wings of the old Post Office, at the location of the court. To mark the entrance of the Chamber of Commerce, Place Gambetta, the architect designed a classical but highly original work, which integrated perfectly into the environment. He conceived the entrance of the Chamber of Commerce as an ancient public edifice, monumental arch or city gate, open to the Square by large round-arched openings and whose walls are animated by rustication with recessed joints. The link with the existing building bodies is skillfully achieved by the great arcades which close the lateral passages. At the time he received this commission, Albert Laprade was a celebrated, fashionable architect. Faithful collaborator of Marshal Lyautey in Morocco, he had distinguished himself by building the Residence of Rabat and designing the new indigenous city of Casablanca. The Exposition of Decorative Arts of 1925, where he had exemplarily illustrated his passion for the art of gardens, brought him consecration. The design of the Citroën garage, rue Marbeuf in Paris (1928-1929), is an avant-garde edifice, already characteristic of the nineteen-thirties by its monumentality, its volumetry and its brilliant mise-en-scène of the automobile industry. The Permanent Museum of the Colonies, temple to the glory of the French colonies, inaugurated in 1931 and whose entire direction Laprade ensured, enjoyed immense success. It was to Alfred Janniot, Grand Prize of Rome, whom he had chosen at the colonies museum to cover the façade with an immense tapestry of stone where the colonial propaganda dear to Lyautey was expressed, that Laprade turned to execute the bas-relief of the Chamber of Commerce where the riches of the department of the Indre are celebrated. In the production so rich and so varied of Albert Laprade, which counts a great number of masterworks realised during a career of exceptional longevity, the entrance of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Indre is a minor realisation. However, this building at once modern and classical illustrates in exemplary manner the architectural qualities of the work of this great eclectic modernist of the 20th century: mise-en-scène, sobriety, formal rigour, justness of proportions, frankness of design, adequacy to needs, perfect integration into the urban site. By its volumetry and its decoration mingling references to Antiquity, realism and Berrichon regionalism, it is representative of the monumental art of the nineteen-thirties. In the Centre region, Laprade exercised his activity in very different fields: the superphosphate factories of Issoudun (Indre) and Voves (Eure-et-Loir), first industrial realisations born from the collaboration of the architect and engineer Jean Varaine, in 1925-1926, the school constructions of Châteauroux (1932-1938) and the creation of gardens.