Eglise Saint-Pierre du Rondeau

The Saint-Pierre au Rondeau parish housing estate was built in a neighborhood that began to urbanize in the 1960s. With an estimated surface area of 1,800 m2, the complex is built on a 38-meter square plan - on which an L-shaped building wrapping around a patio is articulated to the southwest. The whole is organized on two levels, one elevated (sacred spaces) and the other on the garden level with a courtyard, storerooms, catechism rooms, "work rooms" and a crawl space; the "L-shaped" extension includes living quarters for the parish priest and vicars, refectory, kitchen and housekeeper's quarters, above a level housing cellar, boiler room, storerooms and garage, all as shown on the original plan (1963). The bell tower, an asymmetrical trapezoidal spire, rises vertically above a skylight illuminating the choir. All around this compact edifice, the plot still includes undeveloped areas designed as playgrounds and open spaces for outdoor events.
Entering the 6-metre-high, square nave of the church, the eye is drawn to the impressive framework made up of a level of longitudinal beams sloping down from the sanctuary wall to the porch, resting on a transverse beam with a carina profile, itself supported on two "V" posts. The north and south walls are pierced at the top by "clear concrete latticework windows" (the work of master glassworker Louis-René PETIT in collaboration with the monastic workshops of Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire), which extend on three sides, the straight band above the east wall and the two acute triangles under the framework of the north and south walls.
In line with the entrance, the sanctuary is a wide, two-step-high podium, raised by another, smaller podium, with two flights of steps (one at the front, one at the side) and a rounded corner that exposes the concrete structure. Natural zenithal lighting is provided by the 29 m-high skylight under the bell tower spire, which contrasts with a large wood-clad sloping wall behind the altar.
To the rear of the sanctuary wall, a series of rooms form a clearing, sacristy and weekday chapel. On the south side, a system of adjoining rooms, which can be modulated from the nave, play with light and transparency. From west to east, the oratory, baptistery and "blue" chapel follow one another. The oratory, with access from the porch and from the corner of the nave, designated as the "narthex" on the 1963 plan, seems to have featured this interior wooden wall from the outset - requiring the worshipper to go around it - itself fitted with "claustra" stained-glass windows like those on its western wall. The baptistery comprises three walls with subtle, differentiated play on structure and light, as does the blue chapel in its extension, alternating total openness (nave) with concrete walls or pillars pierced with horizontal or vertical bands of glass, and with a narrow passage or large square niche (north wall, towards the blue chapel). In one corner, a circular surface with exposed concrete floor supports a square concrete base on which rests the baptismal font - a concrete cylinder illuminated by a vertical circular skylight.
More homogeneous, the rectangular blue chapel on the east side opens onto the nave on the north side (curtains make the space more intimate), while the east and south walls (where two overhanging niches form the two additional confessionals) are pierced by vertical skylights in predominantly blue tones, punctuated by a tight cluster of concrete pillars.

The building has been awarded the "Patrimoine en Isère" label, recognizing the heritage quality of a building of departmental interest.