Some architects worldwide are building a select few homes that can rotate, allowing for a change of interior views from a room throughout the day or programming a home to follow the direction of the sun to help maintain inside temperatures.
In New South Wales, Australia, the Everingham Rotating House is an 5,812-square-foot, octagonally shaped home that can rotate 360 degrees. It sits on a diameter steel platform that allows for it to turn in both directions at 525 feet per hour. The house can make two complete rotations per hour.
"You can't really tell if the house is turning unless you focus on an outside object that is stationary," owner Luke Everingham, an electrician who completed the home, told CNN. He’s also built a replica of the home on Prince Edward Island in Canada for a client.
The home features a touch-screen control panel that allows the owner to program one of its eight rooms to follow the sun. This allows owners to use the sun to heat rooms during the winter or move away from the sun to cool certain spaces on the inside during the summer. The home cost about $243,000 to build.
Some architects believe rotating homes are not just a gimmick but offer greater sustainability.
"Creating buildings that can adapt (to their environment) is a much more sustainable way of living," UK-based David Ben-Grunberg told CNN.
In Germany, The Heliotrope became the first building in the world to capture more energy than it uses and it also rotates. Architect Rolf Disch says the four-story home is connected by a spiral staircase and built around a central column. That column can rotate 15 degrees per hour and follow the direction of the sun.
"I see transformable homes becoming a trend in the future,” says Michael Jantzen, an artist who has designed several transformable home concepts, including the Rotating Radius House. “If designed right, they can be very eco-friendly and provide a new and exciting way to live."
Source: “Will These Houses Make You Dizzy? Architects Build Rotating Homes,” CNN (Jan. 22, 2017)
