This particular international exhibition center was built to replace an old munitions factory in Saint Étienne, France, and it opened its doors to the public on October of last year (2009). The building designed by Finn Geipel and Giulia Andi of LIN Architects (Berlin and Paris) is conformed by auditoriums, meeting rooms, indoor gardens, exhibition space, a media library, and an observation tower located alongside the long hall.
The building’s skin, which is a latticed structure, forms the walls and roof of the complex. The steel space truss is reminiscent of the industrial architecture of factories, and spans the entire space -no columns are required. The skin, through its multiple triangles, is composed in a mechanical way that helps to control light, temperature, and airflow according to the different climatic conditions during the year. Actually, some of these triangles are photovoltaic cells that generate green power to the building and others, and also it open and closes depending of indoor comfort.