Villa Lebrun

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Villa Lebrun

The Villa Lebrun is a villa that the architect and engineer François Martin Lebrun had built for his brother, the civil engineering contractor Jean Auguste Lebrun , in Marssac-sur-Tarn in 1828/29 . The building was made entirely of stamped concrete invented by François Martin Lebrun. It is the first building since ancient times to be constructed entirely of concrete .

building

Gallery with concrete vault
Kitchen with concrete vault

The villa was built entirely from concrete, but on a Pisé foundation. It is located near the banks of the Tarn . The original building was rectangular, about 19 x 11 m. A high basement contains the representative rooms. The kitchen is in the basement and is connected to the dining room by stairs. Above the ground floor there is another residential floor, which consists of three almost equally large rooms on the side facing the Tarn. A gallery with five arched windows runs on the garden side. From here a double flight of stairs, also made of concrete, leads into the garden. In contrast to the conventional Pisé construction method, the architectural structure and building decoration were already created when the concrete walls were created. However, Lebrun limited himself to simple cornices and structural elements.

Inside the house, Lebrun arched the ceilings on the first floor extremely flat, while the ceiling above the gallery has a semicircular cross-section with stitch caps on the narrow sides. The three large living rooms have three parallel but flat vaults.

garden

Concrete bridge in the garden
Concrete fountain rocks
Concrete fence

The fencing off the courtyard to the garden consists of two gate pillars and balustrades made of concrete elements in neo-Gothic style. Concrete objects from the time of construction have also been preserved in the garden: the central axis of the gallery is aligned with a polygonal basin. In the middle is a concrete fountain. There is also a small concrete bridge in the garden that was part of its romantic interior. It consists of a flat concrete arch on brick abutments and was decorated on the underside with (today broken) stalactites . Together with the decorative elements made of concrete blocks, these objects are likely to be the earliest known examples. The Lebrun brothers owned a factory in Marssac-sur-Tarn that produced such decorative elements from artificial stone .

function

The villa was not only the home for Jean Auguste Lebrun, but, together with the garden, served the brothers as a reference model for building with stamped concrete and decorative elements made of this material. Together they operated a total of three factories that produced hydraulic lime and with the villa they were able to show potential customers what was possible with the new building material. Publications relating to the villa and the new construction method in general also served this purpose. The building and the new process received some attention from contemporary experts.

Receipt

Building material and construction proved their worth. There were some small cracks in the masonry. However, these were not significant and could perhaps be traced back to the Pisé foundation. However, the original building, which had only three living rooms, soon proved to be too small. Three-axis lower side wings were probably added in the 1840s. Your windows and doors have walls and prefabricated concrete panels for the parapets. The original roof vault, which was exposed, is still there, but had to be covered and covered by a conventional roof. At a later point in time, subsequent owners added farm buildings to the complex, but these were now built from broken stone and brick. Further changes come from more recent renovation phases. The interior decoration preserved today dates from the second half of the 19th century.

The building is still inhabited. The current owner rents out two guest rooms in the building .

Despite the importance of the ensemble in terms of technology and architectural history as the first concrete building of modern times and a reference building for rammed concrete, the Ministry of Culture and Communication does not list the facility as a cultural monument .

Web links

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Today: Rue St. Martin.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Werner: The Long Way , p. 71.
  2. ^ Werner: The long way , p. 74f.
  3. ↑ Werner: The Long Way , p. 68.
  4. ↑ Werner: The Long Way , p. 76.
  5. ^ François Martin Lebrun: Méthode pratique pour l'emploi du béton . Carilian-Goeury, Paris 1835; German : The stone mortar . Nübling, Ulm 1837.
  6. ↑ See: Report by Mr. Gourlier on a treatise by Mr. Lebrun the Elder. young., Builder of Alby, Dept. Du Tarn, concerning the use of base or stone mortar (béton) to build entire houses. In: Polytechnisches Journal . 46, 1832, pp. 114-119.
  7. ↑ Werner: The Long Way , p. 71.
  8. ↑ Werner: The Long Way , 76.
  9. ↑ Werner: The long way , note 243.
  10. ↑ Homepage of the pension company.

Coordinates: 43 ° 54 ′ 42.9 "  N , 2 ° 0 ′ 56.3"  E