Villa Fallet

La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland

Exterior only

Visible from the street; the inside is private.

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Villa Fallet is a traditional alpine chalet in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, designed and built in 1905–1906 by the eighteen-year-old Charles-Édouard Jeanneret—later known as Le Corbusier—under the supervision of his teacher René Chapallaz. Commissioned by engraver Louis Fallet, the house exemplifies Style Sapin, the Swiss variant of Art Nouveau, with a steeply pitched roof characteristic of the local alpine vernacular. Its façade features carefully crafted colored geometric patterns depicting triangular pine trees and pine cones. Situated on a forested hillside, the villa's success led Jeanneret to design two similar houses, the Villas Jacquemet and Stotzer, in the same area. Now recognized as a class A Swiss cultural property of national significance, Villa Fallet stands as a remarkable testament to Jeanneret's early self-directed architectural education and marks an important moment in his emergence as a major twentieth-century architect.