The Vacherie du Parc is a former municipal

dairy A dairy is a place where milk is stored and where butter, cheese, and other dairy products are made, or a place where those products are sold. It may be a room, a building, or a larger establishment. In the United States, the word may also des ...

located along the Allée des Moutons in the

Lyon Zoo Lyon Zoo (fr. ''Zoo de Lyon'', also known as Jardin zoologique de Lyon, or Zoo du Parc de la Tête d'Or) is a zoo in France located in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes inside parc de la Tête d'Or in the town of Lyon. The zoo was founded 1858 by Claude-Mari ...

, in the heart of the

Parc de la Tête d'Or The Parc de la Tête d'or (; English: "Park of the Head of Gold") is the largest urban park in Lyon, France, with an area of approximately . Located in the northern part of its 6th arrondissement of Lyon, 6th arrondissement, it features the Jardi ...

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. It was designed by the architect Tony Garnier following a commission from the city of Lyon. It was intended to provide

milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of lactating mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfeeding, breastfed human infants) before they are able to digestion, digest solid food. ...

for Lyon's orphans, and included a

stable A stable is a building in which working animals are kept, especially horses or oxen. The building is usually divided into stalls, and may include storage for equipment and feed. Styles There are many different types of stables in use tod ...

, a milk

pasteurization In food processing, pasteurization (American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), also pasteurisation) is a process of food preservation in which packaged foods (e.g., milk and fruit juices) are treated wi ...

facility, and accommodation for the cowherds. The cow farm was not efficient enough and was closed in 1919 when it was transferred to the Agricultural school of Cibeins in

Misérieux Misérieux () is a commune in the Ain department in eastern France. Population See also *Communes of the Ain department The following is a list of the 391 communes of the Ain department of France. The communes cooperate in the f ...

. After being converted into a rearing house in the 1920s, the building is now an administrative building.

History

Shortly after the opening of the

in 1857, following the introduction of fallow deer for the creation of the zoo, cows and sheep were brought in to maintain the lawns. From 1861 onwards, the cows' milk was sold on the

Place Bellecour The Place Bellecour () is a large square in the centre of Lyon, France, to the north of the Ainay district. Measuring 312 m by 200 m (6.2 ha or 15 acres), it is one of the largest open squares (without any patches of greenery or ...

. Built from wood and thatch, it was destroyed by fire in 1871.AML 2019, p. 135. In 1904, Mayor Jean-Victor Augagneur launched the construction of a new building to produce milk closer to Lyon. He first approached Auguste Duret, who proposed a U-shaped plan with a lot of ornamentation. But the town council deemed it too costly. Tony Garnier submitted a simpler, and therefore much more affordable, proposal in August 1904. This was the first of many commissions for Tony Garnier by the city of Lyon.Guiheux and Cinqualbre 1989, p. 61. The design was taken from the agricultural establishments in his '' Cité Industrielle''.Jullian 1989, p. 80. The cow farm went into service as soon as work was completed at the end of 1906.AML Sourcebook 2019, p. 15. The building was well received by the city, enabling Victor Augagneur to recommend Tony Garnier to the new mayor,

Édouard Herriot Édouard Marie Herriot (; 5 July 1872 – 26 March 1957) was a French Radical politician of the Third Republic who served three times as Prime Minister (1924–1925; 1926; 1932) and twice as President of the Chamber of Deputies. He led the f ...

. The possibility of extensions was foreseen from the outset of the project, allowing the sterilization section to be enlarged during construction. Between 1912 and 1913, Tony Garnier built two flats for the cowherds in the attic above the sterilization room and added a third by raising an annex building. File:3SAT-76 - Vacherie municipale à Lyon dans La Construction Moderne n°23, 1906.jpg, alt= File:Planche 27. — Vacherie et services de la stérilisation du lait (plans d'élévation et coupes).jpg, alt= File:Planche 27. — Vacherie et services de la stérilisation du lait (plan 2).jpg, alt= Its production was insufficient from the beginning: in 1911, it housed 34 cows, but could not accommodate any more; the town asked for a second cow farm. It was closed on June 16, 1919. The dairy was then transferred to the Cibeins agricultural school in

. File:Lyon 3e - Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon - Tous à table, carte postale du cellier et de la laiterie de l'École d'agriculture de Cibeins.jpg, Cellar and dairy File:Cibeins - commune de Misérieux (Ain, France) - 6.JPG, Lyon City Plaque The cow barn was then refurbished between 1922 and 1924 and transformed into a fawn house, with the addition of two cages on the east side of the building. An adjoining enclosure was created for the

Indochinese Mainland Southeast Asia (historically known as Indochina and the Indochinese Peninsula) is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to th ...

elephant Loulou, who lived in the park for 15 years. Disused and abandoned in the 1980s,Piessat 1988, p. 78. the building was used as a storeroom. Although it is neither listed nor included in the Supplementary Inventory of Historic Monuments, it is considered to be of undoubted heritage interest. Its restoration was therefore envisaged at the end of the 1990s as part of a study into the park's heritage as a whole. On January 29, 2001, the city of Lyon voted to restructure the building to give it "the presence it deserves", at a cost of 14 million francs,Brione 2001. and to reallocate it to the operation of the Parc de la Tête d'Or, including a large storage area, an exhibition room, a classroom, a cold room, and the reptile enclosure.

Description

The Vacherie has a ground floor and an attic floor, with a total surface area of 1,275 m². It was designed by Tony Garnier as a utilitarian building that blends in harmoniously with the park. It includes a stable for 40 cows, a sterilization plant and, between the two, a dwelling for the cowherd from which he can observe the animals through an embrasure. An isolation barn for three sick cows is set aside in the courtyard. The whole complex is built in one piece, with gables and pediments similar to the villas he had designed to build on the edge of the park. The ground floor of the main building is made of reinforced

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bound together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. It is the second-most-used substance (after water), the most–widely used building material, and the most-manufactur ...

with a

Portland cement Portland cement is the most common type of cement in general use around the world as a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar (masonry), mortar, stucco, and non-specialty grout. It was developed from other types of hydraulic lime in England in th ...

screed, while the floors of the outbuildings are made of clinker and

hydraulic lime Hydraulic lime (HL) is a general term for a variety of lime different from calcium oxide (quicklime), that sets by hydration and consists of calcium silicate and calcium aluminate, compounds that can harden in contact with water. This contras ...

. The walls are made of adobe and hydraulic lime. Finally, the floors and walls are whitewashed to make them waterproof. The whole building is covered in red Burgundy tiles. There is also a basement for storing foodstuffs and a hayloft under the roof: this space for storing fodder may have forced Garnier to build the only traditional roof in his architectural work. The architect paid particular attention to hygiene, including ventilation, automatic urine drainage, and a glazed brick floor. The milk sterilization unit is a modern technology, included in the project from the beginning by Mayor Augagneur, a medical officer of health, who wanted to provide disadvantaged young people with quality milk. The city wanted to control the entire chain, from production to distribution. The troughs in the barn were made of cement, with hot and cold water taps and pipes for draining off the water and manure. The only decorations Tony Garnier allowed himself were the terracotta pots on the

eaves The eaves are the edges of the roof which overhang the face of a wall and, normally, project beyond the side of a building. The eaves form an overhang to throw water clear of the walls and may be highly decorated as part of an architectural sty ...

of the roof, as well as a wall of ivy and an enclosure hedge.

« This atypical, unique work was nevertheless produced in a style that Garnier used for several other projects: a mixture of regionalism and eclecticism, and sometimes of late Art Nouveau. » — Olivier Cinqualbre (architect and museum curator).

File:Planche 28. — Vacherie et services de la stérilisation du lait, photo 1.jpg, West Façade File:Planche 28. — Vacherie et services de la stérilisation du lait, photo 2.jpg, South side File:115PH - Grange foin Vacherie du Parc de la Tête d'Or - Tony Garnier.jpg, Hay barn (

hayloft A hayloft is a space above a barn, stable or cow-shed, traditionally used for storage of hay or other fodder for the animals below. Haylofts were used mainly before the widespread use of very large Baler, hay bales, which allow simpler handling ...

)

Production

The dairy is able to supply 250 to 300 liters of milk a day, thanks to a number of devices that automate the process: one machine brushes and cleans the bottles with a jet of water, while another makes it easier to fill them. Finally, two autoclaves are used to sterilize around 2,000 125 ml bottles every day. The milk is transported by car to 8 local nurseries.Godart 1909, p. 348.

Milk pasteurisation plant project

In 1918, Tony Garnier drew up two plans for a milk pasteurization plant, which appeared to be an extension of the cow farm's sterilization unit. The complex, planned for a nearby plot in

Villeurbanne Villeurbanne (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Metropolis of Lyon in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in eastern France. It is situated northeast of Lyon, with which it forms the heart of the second-largest metropolitan area in France ...

, was imposing: it was almost like a housing estate, comprising several administrative buildings, a laboratory, workshops, a garage, and a technical building.Guiheux and Cinqualbre 1989, p. 66. The plans feature a large chimney,

shed roof A shed roof, also known variously as a pent roof, lean-to roof, outshot, catslide, skillion roof (in Australia and New Zealand), and, rarely, a mono-pitched roof,Cowan, Henry J., and Peter R. Smith. ''Dictionary of Architectural and Building Te ...

s concealed by an

attic An attic (sometimes referred to as a '' loft'') is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building. It is also known as a ''sky parlor'' or a garret. Because they fill the space between the ceiling of a building's t ...

, and concrete architecture similar to that of the '' Cité Industrielle'', with a special feature: a frieze that could be made of

faience Faience or faïence (; ) is the general English language term for fine tin-glazed pottery. The invention of a white Ceramic glaze, pottery glaze suitable for painted decoration, by the addition of an stannous oxide, oxide of tin to the Slip (c ...

tiles around the attics.

Notes

References

External links

* Early photographs of the building by photographer Jules Sylvestre (1859-1936):
aarchive
and
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Dairy farming in France Buildings and structures in Lyon Stables Buildings and structures in Rhône (department) History of agriculture in France