Posted on 01/04/2012 4:03:06 PM PST by smokingfrog
Normally, when someone asks for the remote, it’s because they want to undertake some serious TV channel surfing. But in one unique home located just 90 minutes north of New York City, playing with the remote control will set the entire wooden house spinning on its axis.
This dome home was, in fact, built on an electronically-controlled axle. So with a push of a button, the 3,000-square-foot New Paltz home for sale can rotate 360 degrees. In five orbital minutes, the house, which is on the market for $1.2 million, will turn one full rotation.
The owners of this circular domicile aren’t constantly on the spin cycle. The feature is used to take advantage of the sun for the home’s solar energy needs. Each season, the home is rotated for maximum efficiency, explained listing agent Anne Rajs.
While the home looks similar to geodesic dome homes, it was built using a kit from France called Domespace and is the only structure like it that has been constructed in the U.S.
“It does look like a space ship,” said Rajs, “But it’s an amazing home. It’s the coolest home I’ve ever seen.”
(Excerpt) Read more at pressherald.com ...
How do you hang a picture? Kind of like a -frames...
Cool to look at and cool to visit. Wouldn’t want one at any price however. Inefficient and a waste of space - not to mention Mr. Murphy and his effect on seams and joints.
..think it’s 5 yrs old
Colossal waste of money.
Probably turns back and forth, not continuously in circles. But how did this, with its need for flexible piping and wiring, ever get past the code bureaucrats?
“He left all of his money
To Spooner his old hound
Growing old on steak and bacon
In a doghouse ten feet round”
Excellent question!
Wonder what an earthquake would do to it.. yeah exactly.
Think of the solar advantage and the money they’d have saved by just buying a motorhome and driving south for the winter.
Don’t get me wrong, geodesic domes are interesting, and have a very strong structure. The interior volume is difficult to fully capitalize upon, though, and the image of them has been damaged by cheap kit dome homes sitting around, in people’s back yards, with ugly hand-applied stucco mildewing and old, hazy, scratched plexiglass marring the basic, clean lines.
Just fancy junk storage, is what most of them turned out to be, in the end.
If it’s anything like the ceiling fan in my bedroom, every time a neighbor clicks the remote control on their baby monitor, the house will start spinning at maximum speed.
A lot of rural places out west used to have modified codes to accomodate hippies living in hollow logs. Nowadays, UBC and other agreements probably put a fascist boot on the neck of folks not wanting to live in suburban vinyl burger pods.
A spherical exterior is optimal for minimizing surface area. But a ball-like interior is awkward as you say.
A normal box shaped house, however, could still be placed on a circular rotating platform, given the appropriate flexible accommodations for plumbing and electricity. Natural gas, maybe not that difficult given the low pressures involved. Electricity, it’s easy enough to do flexible cables. Water and sewer would be a special challenge in northern climes as you got to keep the hoses from freezing.
Beautiful.
Hollow logs might not be that bad an idea come the Obamalypse.
You can hang pictures based on how high the ground wall is and there are flat walls in the interior of the dome.
Here’s a set of the blueprints you can download: http://www.the-blueprints.com/blueprints-depot-restricted/misc/other/jupiter_2_from_lost_in_space-27433.jpg
Only cool if it rotates at 3000 RPM.
May be the reason it’s for sale!
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