Jacques Macquat, father of the Japanese Garden in Yverdon, has died

His work, emblematic in Yverdon-les-Bains since 1981, will have survived him. Jacques Macquat, the designer of the “Japanese Garden”, located between the station and the city center, died on Monday January 6 in the spa town at the age of 80. Town planner, he had imagined this green area made up of a pleasure pool, footbridges and a playground. For the record, this is not a Japanese gardenan inadequate qualifier highlighted during an interview!

If the man is no more, the public park remains and carries a bad reputation due to the drug trafficking. However, it has been doomed to disappear since 2014, in order to redevelop the entire Place d'Armes into a vast space of greenery and water. It is still necessary for the people of Yverdon to decide, during the year, what size should be given to the future underground car park?.

“He wanted to make Yverdon more beautiful and friendly. He was an aesthete, with a pronounced taste for art and architecture,” underlines Laurent Macquat, one of his two children. He recalls that his father's initial project, ahead of his time, was to create a park free of cars across the entire extent of Place d'Armes.

A native of La Chaux-de-Fonds, Jacques Macquat had studied at the Beaux-arts in Paris, before being responsible for territorial planning in Sion. A member of the Community of Studies for Regional Planning (CEAT), he taught at EPFL at the end of his career. The farewell ceremony for this discreet man, flute player, will take place Friday at 2 p.m. at the Yverdon funeral center.

“Latest news”

Want to stay on top of the news? “24 Heures” offers you two appointments per day, directly in your email box. So you don't miss anything that's happening in your Canton, in Switzerland or around the world.

Other newsletters

Log in

Did you find an error? Please report it to us.

0 comments