Vacherie, Municipal dairy building in Parc de la Tête d'Or, Lyon, France.
Vacherie is a dairy building in Parc de la Tête d'Or designed with a reinforced concrete base, adobe and hydraulic lime walls, and red Burgundy tile roofing. The structure combines industrial functionality with careful material selection to create a distinctive appearance within the park.
Tony Garnier designed this dairy facility in 1904 to serve the needs of orphans in the city with fresh milk. The building housed forty cows and operated with a sterilization plant until its closure in 1919.
The structure represents an early example of municipal social welfare architecture, combining agricultural production with public health considerations in urban planning.
The building features automatic drainage systems, ventilation, and waterproofed surfaces designed to maintain sanitary conditions. Visitors can view the exterior while walking through the park, though the interior is not regularly open to the public.
The facility could produce 300 liters of milk daily using automated machinery for cleaning and bottling milk. This level of mechanization in the early 1900s made it an unusually advanced operation for a public welfare institution.
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