Casa Periscopio: A home between walls that looks up to the Mallorcan sky, designed by Oval Estudio

In the heart of Montuïri, a Mallorcan village of stone streets and agricultural memory, architect Luis Arredondo transforms a terraced house into a vertical gesture of light and silence. The intervention, which feels more unearthed than designed, builds its narrative between the original materiality and a newfound vertical vocation: to look upward and breathe the sky.

Every rehabilitation project is, above all, an act of listening. In Casa Periscopio, the team at Oval Estudio, led by Luis Arredondo, turns that act of listening into a delicate process of architectural archaeology. The goal was not so much to build as to reveal: load-bearing walls that still pulse with the memory of past generations, sandstone vaults hidden beneath layers of plaster, hushed textures waiting to be touched by light.

Ground floor. Studio

Originally dark and fragmented, the ground floor is emptied in a generous gesture that creates a continuous and inhabitable space. The key lies in verticality: an ascending cut, like a crack of clarity, links the different levels through an inner courtyard that becomes the backbone of the project. This void becomes the true protagonist, the actual “periscope”, through which light, air and the gaze rise.

First floor. Bedrooms

The party wall, extended to a height of 14 metres, is constructed in dry-laid clay blocks that trace a rhythmic and silent surface. Far from competing with the pre-existing stone walls, this new skin accompanies and frames them, proposing a subtle dialogue between past and present.

Circulation is resolved through light, almost weightless staircases that do not interrupt the light but rather invite it to drift. Railings, treads, handrails, all appear suspended in a delicate equilibrium, where structure becomes choreography.

Second floor. Kitchen, dining room, terrace

At the upper level, the space culminates in a small elevated room that acts as a lookout. From here, the landscape filters in softly: rooftops, treetops, the distant hum of the island. Like a domestic observatory, this final space distils the project’s essence: to live looking inward, toward the earth, but also upward, toward Mallorca’s starlit sky.

Third floor. Living room, mirador

Casa Periscopio does not impose a form; it reveals an attitude: to dwell as one might read an old poem, reinterpreting its silences. The architecture here is not a display—it whispers, with humility. And in that almost ethereal gesture, Luis Arredondo reminds us that every true home is, ultimately, a form where light itself resides.

Project: Casa Periscopio.
 Single-family home and studio.
Location: Montuïri.
 Mallorca.
Architecture: Luis Arredondo Arquitecto & Oval estudio.
Architect: Luis Arredondo.
Completed: 2024
Built area:: 130m².
Photography and video: Lluís Bort. @lluisbortcerezo

Luis Arredondo. Oval Estudio

With a refined sensibility and a deep connection to place, Luis Arredondo Alegret has emerged as a leading voice in the contemporary architectural landscape of the Balearic Islands. An architect committed to sustainability and the exploration of new spatial forms, Luis brings a poetic and human-centred vision to every project he undertakes. See full biography.

Source: Oval Estudio.

Project by Luis Arredondo. Oval Estudio