Its beena long long while since I posted anything from the 1930's, but here is a post about the amazing mechanical house; il girasole (The Sunflower). Built in Italy by a nautical engineer named Angelo Invernizzi from 1929 to 1935, this is nothing less than a house built to rotate, that it might always face the sun! As you can see from the images, the house is divided in two. The upper chambers revolve around the tower, which is 43 metres tall and the lower chambers are static. A curious corckscrew staircase appears to connect the two in a manner which suggests it revolves along with the upper levels. The whole thing is powered by two motors which have a combined output of 3hp. The 1,500 ton building is said to able to complete one revolution every nine hours.
All it needs now is a death ray concealed in the top of that tower, or a secret rocket silo hidden underneath the revolving building and this is the perfect villains lair!
More images
3 comments:
That is so cool.
Straight out of a movie only to find that the movie was inspired by the house.
It reminds me a little of the house in the aweful remake version of "Thirteen Ghosts". It must be the mechanical description.
I think I've seen that one. Isn't it the one with lots of glass walls?
I love it! Amazing!
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