The “International Exhibition on Urbanism and Housing” was held in Paris, France, from July 10 to August 15, 1947. Organized by the French exhibition committee and the Ministry of Reconstruction and Urbanism, it was a special exhibition under the 1928 Convention, with the theme of urbanism and housing. Fourteen countries took part, and the exhibition covered 6.35 hectares centered on the Grand Palais.

The subject reflected the most pressing task facing France and much of Europe after World War II: rebuilding damaged cities and rehousing their residents. Paris had already hosted a related event at the Grand Palais the year before, the “Exposition des techniques américaines de l'habitation et de l'urbanisme,” held from June 14 to July 21, 1946, by the Ministry of Reconstruction and Urbanism with American housing and cultural agencies. The 1947 exhibition widened that exchange to an international scale.

The official catalog, published under the Ministry of Reconstruction and Urbanism, runs to nearly 300 pages of illustrations and plans and places the exhibition at the Grand Palais and the Cours la Reine. The archives of Swiss architect Jean Tschumi at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne preserve files on the scenography of the official Swiss section, including a tubular structure evoking a tower topped by a cube.

Expo 1947 Paris is the earliest Expo held after World War II in the BIE's lists of Expos. It came more than a decade before Expo 1958 Brussels and two years before Expo 1949 Port-au-Prince. Its focus on reconstruction and housing shows how quickly the Expo format was put to work on the practical problems of the postwar years.