{"id":251012,"date":"2026-01-25T11:43:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T11:43:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/251012\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T11:43:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T11:43:23","slug":"california-house-that-spins-360-degrees-should-be-impossible-but-genius-engineering-makes-it-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/251012\/","title":{"rendered":"California house that spins 360 degrees should be impossible but genius engineering makes it work"},"content":{"rendered":"

This unique Californian home looks like a flying saucer, can rotate 360 degrees, and is an absolutely incredible feat of engineering.<\/p>\n

From the outside, it just looks like a slightly unusual looking home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the house was specially built so that it could spin all the way around \u2013 so if you\u2019re not happy with the view, you don\u2019t have to wait too long until you get another one.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The finished design is a solid display of just how creative designers and architects can be, and YouTuber Tom Scott<\/a> recently went along to check it out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

DISCOVER SBX CARS<\/a> \u2013 The global premium auction platform powered by Supercar Blondie\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The house is situated in a great location, and makes the most of the view by spinning 360 degrees<\/p>\n

There are some truly mind-blowing homes scattered around.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Like this one that was dubbed \u2018the most ambitious home ever built in Australia\u2019,<\/a> or this sprawling $11.9 million mansion that once belonged to Michael Andretti.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>Tom Scott<\/p>\n

But for sheer ingenuity, this disk-shaped home near San Diego that rotates 360 degrees surely takes the biscuit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The house is positioned in a great spot, up in some rolling hills.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And to make the most of the stunning views, it was designed to slowly spin all the way around, meaning every room gets to soak up the scenery.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hidden away inside the bricks and mortar, there\u2019s a very clever design built around a central pillar.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>Tom Scott<\/p>\n

This pillar houses all of the house\u2019s main electric and water pipes as well as internet connection, meaning it\u2019s free to rotate without any issues \u2013 smart stuff, right?<\/p>\n

Although the house has a retro vibe thanks to its flying saucer-like design, construction began in the year 2000, and it was finished two years later.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Builders working on the project struggled with the house\u2019s unique design, and owner and inventor Al Johnstone had to step in and correct some issues himself.<\/p>\n

While the house, and its central pillar, are an impressive display of genius engineering, it\u2019s actually very easy to maintain: once a year, the house\u2019s bearings need to be relubricated, which takes about an hour in total.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>Tom Scott<\/p>\n

Click the star icon next to supercarblondie.com in Google Search<\/a> to stay ahead of the curve on the latest and greatest supercars, hypercars, and ground-breaking technology<\/p>\n

The spinning mechanism originally had an output of 5hp, but had to be reduced <\/p>\n

Look, we know what you\u2019re thinking: \u2018How on Earth does anyone live inside a rotating house that looks like a flying saucer?\u2019<\/p>\n

But the actual spinning is pretty and measured and slow.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Originally, Johnstone had fitted the turning mechanism with a five-horsepower motor, but soon realized this was far too strong, and it was spinning too quickly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, he decided to cut it to 1.5hp, resulting in a much more sedate turning speed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, it takes around 45 minutes to make a full rotation, which is slow enough to be basically unnoticeable when you\u2019re inside \u2013 and it puts a real spin on home design. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDISCOVER SBX CARS:
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe global premium car auction platform powered by Supercar Blondie
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This unique Californian home looks like a flying saucer, can rotate 360 degrees, and is an absolutely incredible…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,501,156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-251012","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-new-zealand","15":"tag-newzealand","16":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}