Not everyone likes going to the vet, but a calm, elegant environment sure makes the trip easier. In Quebec, a specialized exotic animal veterinary clinic, Fauna, eschews the fluorescent sterility of traditional institutions in favor of grand gestures. Montreal–based design firm Ivy Studio designed the clinic, adapting a former bank constructed in 1971.
The bank’s facade of sloped angled planes informs the clinic’s design language. The four consultation rooms, which form the core of the space, are separated by staggered 16-foot-high curved walls. Finished in gray plaster (with edges corrugated in a synchronous progression), the walls frame the entry to each room, while a diagonal plane juts out beside it.
Ivy Studio meticulously structures circulation around the consultation rooms for efficient operation. Rooms face the waiting area, where walnut benches fall along a wall of original, vast windows. They run in a line to the custom reception desk, composed of offset wooden boxes. The consultation rooms also connect to the rear treatment room that serves as a medical hub and provides access to the basement for staff offices and surgery.
The building’s historic shell unites the spaces. The original concrete coffered ceiling was maintained and painted brown, paired with retained cement floors, fluted cement walls (painted a soft cream), and the exposed concrete bones in the basement and treatment rooms.
Though Brutalist and spare, the details convey a sense of care and consideration. In public areas, the lighting is strategically soft and soothing to calm patients. Lighting here is strictly indirect and dimmed. In clinical areas, warm and natural light is still paramount. Fluted glass doors extend light from the windows to the consultation rooms. Here full-size, inset light boxes mimic a skylight, with the luminosity spilling out into the waiting area.
The bank’s original heavy metal vault was also preserved. Ivy Studio repurposed it into a closed pharmacy and lab, grounding the modern medical space in its historical roots.
