Shortlisted for house interior of the year at Dezeen Awards 2019, Oculi House by O’Neill Rose Architects features two elliptical oculi, which fill the attic space.

Because the sidewalls of a brownstone are shared with adjacent townhouses, often rooms that require no daylight, such as closets and bathrooms, are placed in the centre.

New York based O'Neill Rose Architects inverted this typical solution, instead flooding the centre of the house with daylight from two large, intersecting oculi, which fill the attic space.

The architects used 3D-computer modelling and age old plastering techniques to create the sculptural voids. Light floods through them and down the stairs, joining the light filtering through the large glazed openings of the rear facade.

In the Kitchen, the stone wall was digitally patterned and cut so that the natural veining of the stone connect across the individual slabs, creating a floating landscape or a “painting made of stone”.

Designer: O'Neill Rose Architects
Project: Oculi House
Read more: O'Neill Rose Architects