NINE STORIES FROM LA CHAUX-DE-FONDS

Once a major city of Switzerland known for its incredible watchmaking industry, la Chaux-de-Fonds has become forgotten. It used to be filled with watchmakers working together, using its grid as a watchmaking tool. But today, its population is decreasing at an alarming rate. In a bid to make it attractive, the city is putting its effort in showing its rich watchmaking history. Recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its unique urbanism, its center has since become protected. This status, along with its population decrease, puts la Chaux-de-Fonds at risk of becoming a museum city. Its protection discourages landlords from renovating their buildings, and the remaining people living in the center are attracted to the newer housing built on the outskirts of the city. Despite the growing number of empty apartments, investors keep building, encouraging vacancy in the center.

Since 2016, the Lex Weber law forbids any district with a vacancy rate higher than 20% to construct new buildings or make any sort of change to its existing fabric. Although beneficial to smaller mountain villages which suffer from an excess of seasonal secondary homes, this law would mean a death sentence to a city whose vacancy results from depopulation.

Today, 16% of the apartments in la Chaux-de-Fonds are vacant, and reaches 50% in the protected center. The current strategies that the city is using to fight its depopulation are generic and hurt the specificity of la Chaux-de-Fonds. Its true watchmaking heritage doesn’t lie in the facades of the buildings or the number of inhabitants, but in the city as a system, working and living together. There needs to be a shift from reducing the city to a museum vitrine about watchmaking to a celebration of its heritage as a continuum.

As a strategy to always remain below the 20% limit, vacant apartments can be removed and repurposed into communal space, losing their status of secondary homes. Through this gesture, novel and specific ways of living together can emerge which celebrate the true heritage of la Chaux-de-Fonds and make it current again.

VOLUPTAS, Chair Charbonnet / Heiz, Assistant Steffen Hägele