Apartments

DVS 03 is a new sector within the Villa Serena apartment complex in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico. The development is located on a mostly flat lot and within a complex of low-rise brick apartment buildings surrounded by common areas, gardens, a gym, a pool and a business center. The meticulous study of the site and the analysis of the axes of the original buildings were the starting point in the design process to create direct relationships between the new sector and the pre-existing environment.

Located in the iconic Lausanne Building, a 1958 construction designed by architect Franz Heep in the Higienópolis neighborhood of São Paulo, the project stands out for balancing the original architectural elements with the personality of the new residents. The brief requested spacious and inviting areas for entertaining, as well as environments filled with colors.

This idyllic house in the sky is situated in the middle of a dense urban block, yet set on a hanging plot 25 meters above the ground. The 20x10m green perimeter, made of a precise modular structure of steel profiles and built-in planters, acts as a filter that mediates the inside/outside visual relationship. It creates the necessary intimacy for the internal “oasis” in contrast with the chaotic urban context of close neighboring buildings, while simultaneously enhancing the background presence of the landscape of Rio de Janeiro and the sky.