A house in New Zealand that can rotate continuously like a carousel has been listed for sale for the first time since its owner designed and built it 35 years ago.
The building, nicknamed ‘the lighthouse’, perches on Auckland’s coastal Maraetai hillside atop a two metre-wide cylindrical steel base and is believed to be the only one of its kind in the country. A full revolution takes 33 minutes.
When its owner, engineer Don Dunick, was contemplating what sort of house he wanted to build on the coastal plot, his engineering colleagues suggested a novel idea – a rotating house that could take in the views of the sea, or the native bush, depending on his mood.
“The advantage is that you can change the view, you can change the sun, you can get out of the wind or into the wind … If there is a storm coming at night [and] you don’t want that on your bedroom windows, you turn it,” he told the Guardian on Tuesday.
“I was sitting there a few weeks ago and the sun came around and was in my TV, so I got up and turned the house.”
It took Dunick and his colleagues five years to design a system that ensured all the services such as water, electricity and sewage piping were independent and could rotate with the house as it moved – something the local council required before it would sign off on the build.
The end result is “the simplest system you’ll ever see in your life”, Dunick said, adding that it could be adapted to allow houses to rise up and down, protecting them from natural hazards such as flooding or wildfire.
Carolyn Hanson from Sotheby’s International Realty, said the property, valued at just over NZ$1m, will be sold through a tender process. Since it was listed for sale last week, it has been swamped with visitors, Hanson said. “There is a lot of intrigue from locals and now we are getting international interest.”
Dunick, now 80, plans to move back to New Zealand from his current home in Australia later this year, and hopes to semi-retire in rural Northland. Selling the home he loves is bittersweet.
“I am over-the-moon with it, it is an amazing achievement … and ahead of its time,” he said.
“But [the new owners] can look forward to a better way of living … you turn the house to suit what you want, it’s amazing.”
