Villa Girasole

Villa Girasole has an upper section that rests on a circular track and follows the sun, 1,500 tons powered by two motors with a total of three horsepower. The two storied and L shaped house rests on a circular base, which is over 44 meters in diameter. In the middle there is a 42 meters tall turret, a sort of conning tower or lighthouse, which the rotating movement hinges on. A diesel engine pushes the house over three circular tracks where 15 trolleys can slide the 5,000 cubic meters building at a speed of 4 millimeters per second (it takes 9 hours and 20 minutes to rotate fully). The engineer was thinking of the sun’s path, of a relation with landscape and the space of human’s life. He ventured to hope that the new construction breakthroughs would free mankind from the heaviness of traditional techniques and from the burden of history. “Without risk there can be no possibility of success” said the architect.