A Different Kind of Mobile Home: The Lighthouse Rotates 360 Degrees for Changing Views

Examples of mobile homes, whether extraordinary or more mundane, abound these days, mostly due to the ever-popular trend of downsizing and the rising costs of living. Mobile homes come in a variety of shapes and sizes, with all kinds of features, and bells and whistles.

Mobile homes can be anything from tiny houses (literally pint-size homes constructed on a trailer basis), bus and van conversions, RVs repurposed for permanent residency, shipping container homes, prefabs, and everything else you can think of in between. Their common element is the ability to move from location to location, be it under their own power, towed by a vehicle, or on a flatbed trailer.

Another common thing these mobile homes have in common is their downsized footprint, which brings about reduced maintenance costs and a smaller carbon footprint and favors a more intentional lifestyle.

Well, The Lighthouse is none of these things, but it's still a mobile home. It doesn't even move from place to place like all the others mentioned above, but it moves. It spins in place, more accurately.

The Lighthouse is a rotating home and it's the first ever to be built in New Zealand. Its builder and owner, engineer Don Dunick, believes it's the only rotating home in the world that can achieve a full 360-degree rotation and keep going, though we reckon San Diego's famous Rotating Home might disagree.

Unlike its U.S. counterpart, The Lighthouse is a smaller family home and it's able to spin both levels at the same time. With Rotating Home, only the second floor rotates, but it can do so in either direction at the speed preferred by whoever is handling the controls.

The Lighthouse is dubbed an engineering masterpiece, and justly so. Dunick is a nationally famous engineer who's done similar work, just never on this scale. When he bought a plot of land on the coast along the Pohutukawa Coast in Auckland in the '90s, he and his engineering pals started brainstorming for the type of construction that might be the wackiest and most fun to erect there. They settled on a spinning home.

The design part alone took some five years to complete, and it involved putting the home on a cylindrical steel base 2 meters (6.5 feet) in diameter that spins like a carousel. Every service, like water, electricity, and sewage pipes, is independent and runs through the steel base. This was a prerequisite for Dunick to get approval from the council.

A full revolution takes 33 minutes to complete, but you can adjust the speed at which the house moves so that time varies accordingly. Dunick says that being inside when the rotation begins takes some getting used to, but you're usually ok after the first couple of minutes.

Now that he's done it – and with such success – Dunick believes the system could be used in other types of mobile homes, like houses that go up and down to protect the residents from flooding or fires. In the latter case, there could even be a sort of protection that would go over the house after it is lowered into the ground, shielding it from flames. He describes the system as "the simplest you’ll ever see in your life" but doesn't go into specifics.

The Lighthouse has two levels, with the communal spaces on the ground floor and the bedrooms on the upper one. It offers three bedrooms and one full bath, with an impressive lounge and open-plan kitchen on the ground floor. Floor-to-ceiling windows open on a terrace with artificial grass, allowing natural light in and, of course, those ever-changing views.

And this brings us to the purpose of building a rotating home. Asked about his decision to spend so many years (and presumably so much money) on building a house that spins, Dunick says it goes beyond the desire to create a different kind of house.

The Lighthouse allows you to choose how much sun or wind you're getting or to select your favorite view depending on the room you're in. You get to choose between the ocean and the native bush or even a combination of both.

"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," Dunick explains. It sure beats getting up to pull down the blinds – and makes for a far more dramatic impression on guests.

For the first time since completion, The Lighthouse is being offered for sale through a tender process. It's a bittersweet decision for Dunick, but he says he's ready to let others enjoy his creation. He's hoping he'll get between NZ$1.5 million (US$930,750 at the current exchange rate) and NZ$2 million ($1.24 million) for the privilege.