When Al and Janet Johnstone decided to build a house near the top of Mt. Helix, close to San Diego, they couldn’t choose which room would get the best view. So they decided that all of them would.
A former Bell Labs and Pac Bell employee with no engineering degree, Al designed a swivel mechanism that rotates the glass-sheathed house once every 30 minutes. The hub, which earned Al two patents, lets utilities (water pipes, gas lines, electrical conduits) move with the structure. The building’s entire upper level revolves, even the bathrooms.
Six years and nearly $1 million later, Al says that his buddies are impressed. “Everybody I know, with the exception of my lovely wife, told me I was absolutely insane, that it wouldn’t work,” he says. “But it was pretty logical to me.”
– Erin Biba
credit www.garyconaughtonphotography.com
Like a record, baby! This house spins round on a patented swivel.
credit www.rotatinghome.com
Illustration of the house’s interior.
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Choose Your Own Adventure Returns
The Worst: Stupid Engineering Mistakes
Live in It and Rotate
