Le Corbusier’s early house in La Chaux-de-Fonds was called Villa Fallet.
Designed when he was still Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, Villa Fallet was his first house and was created in 1905 for Louis Fallet, an engraver. Jeanneret worked with fellow students under the supervision of architect René Chapallaz, while his teacher Charles L’Eplattenier influenced the project’s artistic direction.
The house stands on a wooded hillside in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, and reflects the Style Sapin, a regional Swiss interpretation of Art Nouveau. Its steep alpine roof and façade decoration use geometric motifs inspired by local nature, including pine trees and pine cones.
Villa Fallet is often confused with Villa Savoye, the famous white modernist house built much later in Poissy, France. Villa La Roche and Villa Jeanneret are also later Paris projects. The success of Villa Fallet led to commissions for two related houses nearby, Villa Jacquemet and Villa Stotzer, helping establish the young designer’s early reputation.