World's only revolving building

December 23, 2004 11:48 AM

World's only revolving building?The heck with revolving rooftop restaurants, I want to live in Suite Vollard, an entire apartment building whose eleven circular units can each revolve 360 degrees. (Unfortunately for me, it's in Brazil.) More photos are here.
posted by Kat Allison (20 comments total)

I'd swear I've seen this concept before...on the old Discovery Channel Show "Beyond 2000." (Anyone remember that one?)
Oh well, maybe what I saw was concept drawings for this very building.
posted by mystyk at 11:55 AM on December 23, 2004

I know there's a house on Vancouver Island built by a guy who was inspired by Buckmiinster Fuller.

I searched for information about it, but couldn't come up with anything.
posted by joelf at 12:18 PM on December 23, 2004

One word: Dramamine.
posted by digaman at 12:19 PM on December 23, 2004

The first thing I thought of when I saw this post, was "Hey, there's a revolving building once you go past the 3m barrier in Katamari Damancy".
posted by stifford at 12:20 PM on December 23, 2004

There's the Crane Hotel in the Netherlands. This is the only link I can find.
posted by Alt F4 at 12:33 PM on December 23, 2004

And, mystyk, I loved Beyond 2000 (and it's precursor? follow-up? Beyond Tomorrow). What a great show.
posted by Alt F4 at 12:34 PM on December 23, 2004

Beyond 2000 was an excellent show.

I remember seeing something on TLC or Discovery about a famous American inventor who had a workshop that rotated 360 degrees so he could always have good light or something.

This is cool though and I'd love it until I got drunk and forgot to turn the spin off. Exponential bed spins! Wheeee-baaaaaarpppphh!
posted by fenriq at 12:38 PM on December 23, 2004

Bah, each floor revolves, not the building. Still cool though!

I've always wanted to live in a building where the neighbors would change randomly.
posted by Turtle at 12:40 PM on December 23, 2004

The concept is kind of cool - the building itself is hideously boring. Too much like the Jetsons' building for me to take it too seriously.

And, note the marketing hyperbole: since the circluar floors are "joined" at one point by another, presumably static, building out the back, it's not really a 360 degree view, now is it?
posted by JollyWanker at 12:46 PM on December 23, 2004

I had a friend growing up who lived next door to a guy with a rotating house that spun to stick with the sun for his solar panels. The dude was a Bell Labs scientist back when experimenting and learning was a big deal there.
posted by nathanrudy at 12:48 PM on December 23, 2004

The Space Needle's dining floor rotates.
Slowly.
posted by cinderful at 1:02 PM on December 23, 2004

Probably not the first. Here are a few:

http://www.acorn-online.com/hmonthly/home866-f1.htm
http://www.achrnews.com/CDA/ArticleInformation/features/BNP__Features__Item/0,1338,106840,00.html
http://www.petrel.co.za/articlesReadOn.asp?id=12&typeid=1

Here are some pictures of a few :-)
http://www.museothyssen.org/ingles/museovirtual/fichas/ficha.asp?codigo=185
http://www.afterimagegallery.com/callahanmultipleexposure.htm
posted by the Real Dan at 1:39 PM on December 23, 2004

Heh.

"Excuse me, which way to the bathroom?"

"Hm, it should be near the bedroom right about now. If you can wait a few minutes it'll be here in the living room."
posted by Tubes at 1:41 PM on December 23, 2004

it would make it confusing to wake up in the morning.. with the sun not always coming up in the same general direction.
posted by nearo at 1:41 PM on December 23, 2004

The Calatrava Cubes don't rotate, but are more conveniently located in NYC.
posted by b1tr0t at 2:02 PM on December 23, 2004

Bah, the tower at the Glasgow Science Centre has been billing itself as "the only building in the world capable of turning 360 degrees from the ground up" for years. Again, Scotland leads the world. Again, nobody notices. Bastards. We all think the rest of the world has a funny accent, too.

Unfortunately, the tower hasn't been able to rotate for much of its life due to a failed main bearing. I blame the destruction of Scottish engineering by external market forces, myself.
posted by scruss at 2:09 PM on December 23, 2004

and the Germans that made it.
posted by bonaldi at 3:17 PM on December 23, 2004

I remember seeing something on TLC or Discovery about a famous American inventor who had a workshop that rotated 360 degrees so he could always have good light or something.

A private residence was built in Aurora IL about 1949, designed by the artist who lived in it for many years, was built in a round configuration, and had an attached round workroom for the artist which revolved with the sun so the light stayed at the same angle. Regrettably, the site does not include an image of the house, which was also called the "coal house", having some walls of coal and some of stone.
Google-fu tends to return a lot of finds on the Walter Peyton Roundhouse, which is actually an old Burlington Northern train roundhouse, now some kind of bar/restaurant.
posted by unrepentanthippie at 6:48 PM on December 23, 2004

Walter Payton's Roundhouse is a really good restaurant/brewery. It doesn't rotate, but it would be fun if it did.
posted by SisterHavana at 8:33 PM on December 23, 2004

I've always wanted to live in a building where the neighbors would change randomly

Sorta like Cube?

But without all the violence.
posted by TeamBilly at 2:15 PM on December 24, 2004