Turntable House from Maisons Labbé
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 09. 3.08
Rotating houses are not a new idea, and have some real advantages; they can follow the sun to maximize passive solar heating in cool weather and shading in warm; solar panels can track the sun along with the house and generate power and heat more efficiently. It doesn't take much power to move a house that slowly. In Nice, France, Frederic Plazar has designed a series of turntable houses ranging from 80m2 (861 SF) to 140m2 (1506 SF). The Maisons Labbé website calls it a "Bioclimactic house", that uses 60% less energy than a conventional house.
The house rests on a turntable that can be up to 12 meters (39 feet) in diameter. Sales manager Xavier Prieur told a french newspaper that "The cost, around 2,300 euros m2 ($308 PSF), is equivalent or even lower than that of a traditional house because the construction does not require foundations, so no heavy earthmoving work," which doesn't make much sense to me, the turntable would have to sit on something solid. No indication that any have yet been built at ::Maisons Labbé
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Rotating House by François Massau is 50 Years Old
1935: Villa Girasole: Rotating House Follows the Sun
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i guess if you are rich you can have any thing you want
i guess if you are rich you can have any thing you want
"the construction does not require foundations, so no heavy earthmoving work"
Perhaps he means that the house doesn't need a basement, or that the turntable can sit on concrete footings (which would just be small holes filled with concrete).
Either option is probably cheaper than a conventional house which might require a basement or at least a concrete slab (which might require a 4-5 foot hole to be below the frost line).
My idea is to have a house with a roof separate from the house.
The roof lowers or rises to expose or hide the house from the sun.
In bad weather, of course, the roof would shelter the house as much as possible.
The house could be built much less substantially because it would not be taking the brunt of the weather. For exanple, it would not even have to be able to withstand rainfall.
The roof could be made of something that requires no maintenance whatsoever, like steel, which is one of the most recyclable of materials.