Louis Thibault Master architect

Louis Michel Thibault, born September 29, 1750, was a French-born South African architect, engineer, and surveyor who studied at the Académie Royale d’Architecture in Paris. After further studies in military engineering, he became a protégé of Colonel Charles Daniel de Meuron, who led a Swiss mercenary regiment commissioned by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) to defend the Cape Colony.

Louis Thibault at the Cape

Thibault joined the regiment but soon settled in the Cape Colony in 1785 after marrying a local woman.

In February 1786, he was appointed as the Company’s building inspector under Captain Sebastiaan Willem van de Graaff, the Governor’s son. By August of the same year, he was selected to lead the newly established School of Cadets, where he also served as a Professor of Mathematics and Military Science. Thibault settled in what later became known as the Brand House and, subsequently, the Wale Street police station. Between 1786 and 1790, he designed all new public buildings along with several private houses.

As an inspector of public buildings with the VOC, Louis Thibault met and collaborated with Anton Anrieth, contributing to a rich architectural heritage in Cape Town. In 1811, he became a government land surveyor and designed many notable buildings in a distinctive neoclassical style. His work includes the Kat balcony at the Castle of Good Hope, the Koopmans-de Wet House, the wine cellar at Groot Constantia, and Uitkyk in Stellenbosch.

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