…”The other night I saw a storm coming up the valley and I turned the bedrooms away from it so as not to be disturbed by the noise.” ….

Another rotating house has been found on KineticArchitecture.Net. This time its the rotating “Lighthouse” by Don Dunick in New Zealand.
It rotates 360 degrees on a crane bearing mounted on a pedestal. A similar way of mechanism can be found at the “Crazy Crane Hotel” and at the “Crane Revolving House” The crane maintenance engineer, Don Dunick, was so enthusiastic about his idea that he started a business to produce building packages for local and North American markets. But it took nearly 18 years of his spare time for the germ of an idea to reach completion.

The toughest problem was how to put service pipes and cables into a house that turns through 360 degrees without pipes and wires being tied in knots.
Five years went into overcoming the problem. While he did not disclose details, Mr Dunick said he was taking out a patent on the solution.
(If you like to see details to a similar solution of this problem, read more about the “Rotating Home“).

The 112sq m house has three bedrooms on the first floor. The penthouse floor has a big semi-circular bar that opens on to a barbecue deck.
The house cost about $450,000 because of its experimental nature. On a interview at NZHerald, a dailly newspaper from New Zealand, Mr Dunick said that the building packages could be about $300,000.

The controls are preset to give the desired views or to turn a room away from the sun to achieve consistent warmth. At the interview, a nice experience of living in a rotating home was described by Don Dunick

“The other night I saw a storm coming up the valley and I turned the bedrooms away from it so as not to be disturbed by the noise.”

The design with a crane mechanism offers just like the “Domespace” minimal foundations, so building on a steep area means less intervention as usual. A floating concrete pad anchors the 2m-diameter pedestal, from which sprout the steel universal beams to support the house. The house can turn a full circle in 15 minutes but a lower speed can be selected when people are inside.

The Sunspace homes of Don Dunick feature the following characteristics, all of which are outlined and detailed at the website

Space, Light and Comfort: Lots of space, lots of light, lots of comfort.
Rotation: Each rotates up to 300 degrees helping you to spice up your view or simply go with the flow of the sun’s rays. If you’re someone who likes light, this is definitely an awesome way to get the most out of daylight hours.
Energy Efficiency: Different heating options are available to keep energy costs down, such as: wood burning stoves, forced air furnaces, and electric baseboard heaters.
Natural Hazard Resistance: These structures are built to face some of Earth’s more dangerous challenges such as earthquakes.
Site Selection: You have a lot of flexibility as to where to build your Sunspace home.
Environmentally Friendly: A Sunspace home only requires a small amount of space, making it a great option for sensitive sites where “normal” construction is forbidden.
Custom Interiors: You’ve got complete freedom of design!
Low Maintenance: No gutters, no painted surfaces, no valleys, no ridges, no roof leaks! And the windows come with a leak proof warranty.
Building Packages: Choose between three building packages
Nine Models: Choose your perfect rotating size.
Contact info: dondunick@lighthouse.net.nz

Image courtesy of dondunick, finaljulien



View KineticArchitecture.net in a larger map

Sources
lighthouse.net.nz
nzherald.co.nz
blisstree.com