DVM Building

The DVM building is a residential complex located near the seaside in Messilah. Comprised of four side by side townhouses, the building takes shape as a ziggurat of multiple stacked monolithic volumes and alternating voids. Bridging the opposing frontages of the building site, the brick-clad volumes forge a protective refuge for the bedroom areas of the interior. At the street, the brick cladding transitions from opaque to open bonded coursing, providing a screened facade for interior windows and private outdoor terraces. Open planned spaces forming the reception and dining areas are located within the building’s voids. Partitioned from the exterior by floor to ceiling windows, these spaces are conceived as loft-like thoroughfares between the garden patios present at either end. Taken in from the street, the DVM Building projects a monumental presence at the scale of its neighboring building's. At the same time, the building can be read as a collection of modules more revealing of its parts. A similar dual reading is inherent within the buildings materiality. Appearing massive and opaque in the daytime, at night the building becomes transparent, its weight transformed to light.