Casa Óculo is a single-family house located in a residential neighborhood on the outskirts of Palma. Defined by a simple and bold architectural gesture —a large flat roof stretching east to west— the project explores light, materiality, and climate as the main design tools. The clear and rational form responds to a south-facing topography, open mountain views, and a client with a structured and well-defined program, resulting in a contemporary Mediterranean home that balances efficiency, texture, and a deep connection to place.

The roof rests on a series of load-bearing walls finished in lime mortar, running north to south. These walls organize the spaces, set the rhythm of the house, and filter the views —shielding the sides from neighboring plots while opening long, framed views to the south and the mountains. Their orientation also encourages natural cross ventilation, ensuring passive and consistent thermal comfort throughout the year.

The broad roof acts as a protective plane that wraps the house and generates generous perimetral porches. These shaded thresholds blur the boundary between interior and exterior, provide shade during the warmest months, and allow the house to be lived in flexibly throughout the year.

On the main terrace, one element becomes the heart of the project: a solar oculus cut into the roof, shaped as an oblique and eccentric truncated cone. Designed to capture the winter sun and bring it deep into the living room, the oculus creates a moving focus of light and warmth that slowly travels throughout the day, from the dining area to the living room, marking the passage of time like a domestic sundial. In summer, the change in solar angle keeps the light contained on the terrace, preventing direct radiation and protecting the interior.

The house is built with noble and natural materials: stone floors, wooden carpentry, natural brass details, and lime mortar walls. The latter —a living, hygroscopic, and breathable material— regulates humidity, enhances indoor comfort, and acquires a patina over time that adds depth and authenticity.

The Mediterranean garden, low in maintenance and minimal in water consumption, is an essential part of the project. Designed with a natural and ever-changing appearance, it merges with the surrounding landscape and extends the character of the nearby mountains. Native species create a living composition that responds to the seasons through cycles of flowering. Here, vegetation is understood as another material of the project —capable of engaging in dialogue with the architecture through texture, color, and movement, and of transforming the experience of the house over time.

Casa Óculo is conceived as a small manifesto of contemporary Mediterranean living: efficient, tactile, and deeply connected to its place —an architecture that breathes with the climate, improves with age, and finds in light, landscape, and time its main building materials.