Villa Jaquemet

After completing the first house for jeweler Louise Fallet, the young Jeanneret had the opportunity to build two more family houses almost simultaneously for Fallet's sons-in-law, Albert Stotzer and Ulysses Jules Jaquemet, who were also connected to the watchmaking tradition in La Chaux-de-Fonds. Both buildings are located on the same street as Fallet's villa, where Jeanneret later designed a house for his parents.
Jeanneret's first sketches were created during his stay in Vienna in the fall of 1907 and were detailed (including a clay model) in Chapallaz's studio in Tavannes. In his letters from Vienna, Jeanneret often mentioned the inspiration he drew from his trip to Florence. He wanted to be more inspired by the topography of the site, mentioning the sculptural qualities reflected in the plasticity of the early designs, but after discussions with the investor, the design underwent a dramatic transformation in February 1908, during which they spent more than a month redrawing the project documentation in Chapallaz's studio, ultimately resulting in a traditional mountain chalet, the so-called “Jura Chalet,” standing on a stone plinth, with accentuated corners and a half-hipped roof derived from regional style.
The house is situated on the northern side at the upper part of the plot, where the main entrance is also located. The overall composition unfolds along a north-south axis with the living area on the ground floor and bedrooms on the upper floor opening southward into the garden with a view of the valley. Although the sloping plot offers various arrangements of the individual floors, the Jaquemet villa offers a traditional solution with a regular division of levels. Unlike the Fallet villa, this later design lacks decoration on the façades and focuses more on structural solutions. While Jeanneret attempted a discreet two-tone decoration on the façade of the Stotzer house, he opted for pure white surfaces of cement plaster for the Jaquemet villa. To expedite construction, the ceilings were made using the Henneque reinforced concrete system, which Chapallaz had already utilized in his earlier projects. The remaining structure is traditional: stone masonry of half-meter walls and wooden trusses.
The Jaquemet family moved into the villa on December 31, 1908. The houses for Fallet's relatives may not have had the qualities that Jeanneret dreamed of, but they provided him with invaluable building experience and also financial independence to embark on further study trips across Europe, where the personality of Le Corbusier could fully develop.