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Villa Le Lac

Corseaux, Switzerland
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Twelve years, a hundred kilometres and a temperate climate lie between The "Maison Blanche" and the Villa "Le Lac". The removal from La Chaux-de-Fonds to Corseaux was enlivened by a stay at the "Les Chables" chalet above Vevey.

This small detached house, designed for Le Corbusier's parents, was built in 1923-24 from plans drawn up by Le Corbusier and by his cousin, Pierre Jeanneret fully illustrate the ideas for which their authors were already renowned at that time. The Villa "Le Lac" foreshadows three of the "five points for a new architecture": the use of the roof as a sun deck or garden, the open plan and the ribbon window. Truly a "machine for living", it illustrates the concerns that Le Corbusier had expressed in his first works, and which had ensured the success of his villas built from the 1920s onwards.

The house, as it stands today, has remained quite true to the original plan. An upper annex was added on the northwest (1931), the north facades were surfaced with hot-dip galvanised steel sheets (1931), and the south face with aluminium sheets (1950). The wall that closes off the property on the north was not part of the original plan; it was added in 1931, when the new international road replaced the old "Chemin Bergere".

Le Corbusier's parents moved into the house in 1924. Georges Edouard Jeanneret, the architect's father, only lived there for one year. On the other hand, his mother, Marie Charlotte Amelie Jeanneret-Perret, remained in the house through her 100th birthday; after her death in 1960, Albert Jeanneret (Le Corbusier's brother) lived there by himself until 1973.

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lacuna, May 13th, 2015
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