A detailed building construction set, manufactured and sold in France by Maison Méricant from 1921~1953.

We want to research and record the origin and development of the L’Edifice building sets. If you have any information you could provide, please help!

Other resources:
L’Édifice website: ledifice.nl (under construction)
L’Édifice enthousiasts: facebook

Current working assumption are these “Series” below.
Parts are identified from different part lists (1924, 1925, 1926, 1927,1931).
Boxes are identified according pictures of it’s content, but I’m not sure about contamination of those boxes, so it’s still one big estimation.

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First patent issued in October 1917

First patent issued in France (FR505084A) October 1917 and granted April 1924. It’s also patented in Swiss (CH93315A) and Great Britain (GB149726A).

With the first patent, but also with the first wooden prototype, L’Edifice was still using ‘strips’ (Fig.8, part no. 5), for connecting the pillars & columns together. This method is also used with most other wooden pillar systems.

From June 1920, they patented (also) the current system, with beam elements inbetween different floors, instead of strips. It’s very visible on the German patent (DE352706C) and also France (FR23109E), Great Britain (GB193457A) and Swiss (CH100217A).

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Series 0: 1920 Prototype

Prototype series of L’Edifice. It did win a price on the Lépine contest 1920. The complete setup is made out of wood.
From the photo, you could recognize these later models, although a bit alltered:

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Series 1: 1921..

Most likely the first production box. Picture right side showing a contaminated box of parts from what I would like to call series 1 & 2. With these production series, all wall panels are now from cardboard.

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Series 2: ..1923-1924..

Boxes having a grey number. Walls are now a bit more detailed and some parts (D3f-D3h) having green color. The roof panels having a blue & purple side.

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Series 3: ..1925..

Here the box numbers are with a blue sticker. Most wall pictures are updated. Roofs have now a purple & orange side.

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Series 4: ..1926-1929..?

The picture on the box cover changes with a ‘family’ picture.

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Series: Appartements & Meubles ..1931..

Do you know which box covers belong to these?

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Series 5: 1934 L’Edifice Moderna

How do these boxcovers look like? The wooden parts are also colored now.

L’Edifice Moderna changed a lot, it’s a bit out of my current focus area.

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Series 6: >1934 L’Edifice Moderna – pont

Series 6: >1934 L’Edifice Moderna – blue

Series 8: With plastic parts

Series 9: ~1982 Reissued

Example of re-issued L’Edifice box 2.

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Part numbering

A very detailed system, which consists of a wooden carrying system, both in horizontal & vertical direction. On top of the vertical trusses, floor panels could be placed. In between the vertical pillars, colorful cardboards could be placed, making these buildings really beautiful. On top of the building, roofs could be added.

The system is very well developed, including a sophisticated numbering system:

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Some system characteristics

Here a short list of some system characteristics and how it’s retrofitted into the virtual LeoCAD library:

Part types:	Original:	Virtual:
Horizontal trusses	beech wood Height: 20 [mm] Thickness: .. [mm]	Single color pieces
Pillars	beech wood 13.3×13.3	Single color pieces
Floor panels	Cardboard ~3.3 [mm] thickness	Single color pieces
All wall panel elements	Cardboard 50×80 [mm] Thickness varies from: 1, 1.5, 2.25 [mm]	Textured pieces We need scans, please help!
Bay size	59.5 [mm] (!)	(tbd)

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Library information

Construction parts:

Here an impression of some of the construction parts in the library:

Help request – missing construction parts:

Still missing a lot of construction parts, please help if you have any more information in the ‘need help’ column (200 DPI scan would be nice?).

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Textured wall panels

Help request – missing wall panels:

Here an overview of the parts list ID’s of 1924 & 1925:

Here some walls found sofar, added to the series-assumption:

Do you have none-contaminated boxes? Or just one box only? Would be very helpfull, getting some pictures of: box cover & all unique parts inside!

All special buildings are missing, especially the wall panels & roof tops.
If you have the ability to scan (600 DPI) or sell parts, please get in contact.

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Building with LeoCAD

Model Eglise (No. 53)

Here a nice example of the different series wall textures. Do you know, which church this could be?

I’m very curious, if there are special church doors for series 4! If you know, please send me a scan. Tnxs! 🙂

Hotel De Ville Flamand (No. 56):

Here a nice example how the prototype series transforms into the “series 1” cardboard type. I’m still missing some elements in the virtual model, but it’s getting close.

Castel Sur L’Eau (No. 71):

La Cahterdrale (No. 64):

Starting with the Notre Dam. Still missing: “B14 – lightning rod”.

Maison_Louis_XVI (TR-1)

Unknown churche:

Churche found by on a German forum, using series 3 parts. Rebuild in LeoCAD using serie 4 parts. Again some missing parts, but getting close!

To be continued…

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