Villa Schwob (“Maison Turque”)

La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, 1916-1917

« This is something I have produced myself and it will remain. I am surprised that it has had so little effect, because I myself am satisfied with it; I might even have the right to feel proud of it. »

Letter from Jeanneret to William Ritter, June 19, 1920, FLC – R3(19)365.

Villa Schwob ou Villa Turque © FLC / ADAGP / Ville de La Chaux-de-Fonds / Aline Henchoz

Commission

In July 1916, Anatole Schwob, the owner of Cyma Watches, asked Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, not yet known as Le Corbusier, to build him a dwelling house on land not far from the centre of La Chaux-de-Fonds. The two men had known each other since 1914, when Jeanneret had designed the interior decoration of a smoking room and lounge for Anatole Schwob. Studies were begun in the summer of 1916. Building was completed in September 1917.

Project

Set at the top of a sloping terrain surrounded by walls, the house consisted of a square central block with semicircular extensions on either side. On one side of the house was a building for the kitchen, on the other a pergola. For the design Jeanneret used the Maison Dom-ino principle.
The frame structure of the house, slabs and posts in reinforced concrete, allowed him to use the free plan and free facade, two notions that he later theorized in Five Points for a New Architecture. Here he experimented for the first time with a flat roof, as well as ‘regulating lines’ on the facades.

The facades on the street side and the garden side, partially covered with yellow ochre bricks, were treated differently. On the street side, the facade was almost blind, except for four ‘ox-eye’ windows on either side of a large empty surface. In contrast, the facade overlooking the garden opened towards the exterior with a large bay window in its centre, extending over the ground floor and first floor. On this facade the second floor is set back from the lower levels, thus leaving room for a solarium and a garden-terrace with a surrounding cornice.
The exterior and roof of the house did not fit in with with the style of houses built in La Chaux-de-Fonds at that time, earning it the nickname “Maison Turque”.

The house was on three levels with a basement. The ground floor contained a double-height living room lit by a huge bay window. This level was completed by the dining room, the games room, the library, a fireplace corner, the vestibule and the office. On the first floor, the staircase led to a gallery overlooking the living room and giving access to all the sleeping areas. The top floor was reserved for the servants’ bedrooms.

Budget overruns led to strained relations between the client and the architect. These limited Jeanneret’s contribution to the interior design of the house, although he did design a sofa bed and, inspired by a cross-section view of the house, he made a chandelier for the living room with a painted niche above it.

Subsequent History

The house was bought by Société Ebel in 1986. Two major restorations took place, the first, in 1957-58 by the Milanese architect Angelo Mangiarotti focused on the interiors; the second was a full-scale restoration undertaken by Ebel, between 1987and 1988. The interior design was entrusted to the French architect and designer Andrée Putman.

Listed as a historical monument in 1995, the Villa Schwob was Jeanneret’s last work in La Chaux-de-Fonds before he moved to Paris.