People:

Centre canadien d'architecture (compiler)
Charles Rohault de Fleury (architect)

Title:

Muséum nationale d'histoire naturelle

Date:

[1837-ca. 1862]

Level of archival description:
File 5

Extent and medium:

2 albums
1 book
1 portfolio

Scope and content:
Charles Rohault de Fleury was architect for the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle from 1833 to 1862. His work for the Muséum is represented in the CCA collection by a diverse group of prints and drawings. In addition to documenting his built and unbuilt projects, the inclusion of prints and drawings of museum and zoo buildings by other architects record, if only partially, the resources available to Charles in designing his buildings. This reference material provides insight into the influences on Charles' work as well as the nature of the design process itself.

His built works, with the exception of the 1854 addition to the greenhouses, are illustrated in a book of prints with a brief accompanying text - "Muséum d'histoire naturelle: serres chaudes, galeries de minéralogie, etc. etc." (published 1837) (DR1974:0002:004:001; a second copy is held by the CCA library) (1). While prints are included for the Galerie de minéralogie et de géologie, the monkey house and the reservoirs, the majority of the prints are of the greenhouses (serres chaudes) begun 1833 (2). Known for their technological innovations in iron construction, these greenhouses utilized the first multi-storey load-bearing cast-iron façades for the central pavilions as well as space frame roof structures and prefabricated parts. This structural system is well documented in the prints in the CCA collection.

The design was apparently inspired by the English greenhouses - a plate of which are included in the book - that Charles saw on a tour of England. The use of prestressed beams and curved roofs in the lateral wings attest to this influence. Charles' greenhouses, in turn, influenced the design of other greenhouses in Europe especially those at the Jardins Botanique in Liège and Ghent, Belgium (3). Although Joseph Paxton saw the greenhouses in 1833, it is unclear if they had an impact on the design of the Crystal Palace constructed 1850-1851 (4).

The innovations of Charles' greenhouses continued to be acknowledged into the 20th century. Giedion in "Space, Time and Architecture", while erroneously attributing them to Rouhault (5)(6), refers to the greenhouses as "the prototype of all large iron-framed conservatories" (7).

In addition to the greenhouses for the Muséum, the CCA collection includes three proposals (dated 1841) for a private greenhouse designed by Charles Rohault de Fleury (DR1974:0002:002:008 - DR1974:0002:002:013). The designs utilize the same curved roofs as the wings of the greenhouses at the Muséum combined with classically detailed stonework.

An different aspect of Charles' work for the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle is represented in the album of unexecuted proposals -the only design drawings for the Muséum in the collection - for a Galerie de zoologie (DR1974:0002:024:001-079). Building on the typology of his earlier classical Galerie de minéralogie et de géologie (constructed 1833 -1841), the proposals, which date from between 1838 and 1862, illustrate a gradual enrichment of Charles' classical architectural vocabulary (8). They vary in their spatial configurations and façade treatments ranging from austere colonnaded designs with little ornament to more elaborate ones with richly encrusted facades, complex rooflines and more dramatic interior spaces characteristic of the Second Empire. The majority of the proposals consist of preliminary drawings illustrating the essential formal, spatial and ornamental aspects of the building. One proposal, dated January 1846, is substantially more developed than the others; in addition to general plans, sections and elevations, more detailed drawings are included for the layout of spaces, the elaboration of the facades, the configuration of the structure and even the designs for the specimen display cases. It is also worth noting that this album includes several plans outlining Rohault de Fleury's ideas for the overall development of the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle.

In 1846, an album of prints of the Museo di fiscia e storia naturelle in Florence (DR1974:0002:005:001-018) was presented to Charles by the Grand Duke of Tuscany in response to his request for tracings of that building. These prints were probably used as reference material for the design of the new Galerie de zoologie described above.

The portfolio of record drawings (ca. 1862) of the zoos in Antwerp, Brussels, Marseille and Amsterdam (DR1974:0002:018:001-027) is probably a dummy for a publication on zoological gardens as well as background documentation for the renovation and expansion of the zoo at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris. Both drawings of the facilities for the animals and visitors and general plans of the zoological gardens are included. The Paris zoo project was apparently never undertaken.

(1) These prints were reused in the "Oeuvre de C. Rohault de Fleury, architecte" (published 1884) (DR1974:0002:029:001-044).
(2) Rohault de Fleury's greenhouses were destroyed in the Prussian bombardments of 1870. The greenhouses, which now stand in their place, are similar in layout and appearance to the original design, but their structural system is different.
(3) John Hix, 'The Glass House' (Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 1981), p. 115.
(4) Ibid., p. 115.
(5) This error has been repeated by other authors including Henry-Russell Hitchcock, 'Architecture: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries' (Baltimore, Maryland: Penguin Books, 1968), p. 120.
(6) Leonardo Benevolo, 'History of Modern Architecture' Volume 1: The tradition of modern architecture (Cambridge, Mass.: The M.I.T. Press, 1971), p. 22.
(7) Sigfried Giedion, 'Space, Time and Architecture; the growth of a new tradition' (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1941), p. 181.
(8) Barry Bergdoll, "Charles Rohault de Fleury: Part two: Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle and Studies on analogous Constructions in Europe", 'CCA Research Report", n.d., p. 1.

Reference number:

CI001.S2.D5

Related units of description:

Other material relating to Charles Rohault de Fleury's work at the Museum national d'histoire naturelle is housed in the Archives Nationale in Paris (1). This collection includes several groups of drawings that complement the CCA holdings such as design drawings for the constructed "serres chaudes", projects for unconstructed greenhouses, designs for animal cages for the unexecuted zoo as well as general plans of the Muséum (2). (1) There is also apparently drawings in the H. Roger-Viollet Archive in Paris, but the nature of this collection has not been determined. (2) France. Archives nationales, 'Catalogue général des cartes, plans et dessins d'architecture', Tome premier, Série N (Paris: Impr. nationale, 1958), 114 -116. Published examples of these drawings can be found in Bernard Marrey and Jean-Pierre Monnet, 'La grande histoire des serres & des jardin d'hiver: France 1780-1900' (Paris: Graphite, 1984), pp. 36, 40 and 41.