I didn't have time to fit it in the video, but: on the basement floor, in the non-rotating part, there's another turntable: so you can park your car and not have to reverse out!
Tom, one of your best. The human angle really makes it. Many videos like this would purely focus on the technical, not the man and his family behind it. Why he did it, and why they're moving make the video that much more engaging.
I love that the homeowner isn't just someone who just threw money at problems, but is an inventor who actually did some unique work to realize his vision.
@@maxime3648 remember, the land was purchased over 20 years ago, so probably no where near that expensive, that said properties in La Mesa, start from 1.5mil++, this is up for 5.5mil
@@XxASBURYxX Yes that is how the wealthy leech off of society. They own land, which is a scarce resource. In an economy with perpetual growth the price will tend upwards. That is why georgism proposes land taxes high enough to discourage such land banking. Land taxes force more efficient land use.
So many brilliant inventions are incredibly simple once they've been invented, but almost impossibly complex beforehand. There's a genius to inventions like this.
@@garypatterson2857 It is so humiliating. After learning how he solved it, it so depressingly obvious... But the most obvious solutions often are hidden from us.
@@freshrockpapa-e7799he litteraly invented mechanisms that did not exist before just to solve this problem, and who knows what they could be used to in the future ?
@@blade7y156ndeed. It might seem like a simple solution in the video animation but these things are often deceptively simple, don't confuse simplicity and elegance. This guy's a genius not for having the idea, but actually pulling it off! I'm sure he encountered quite a few unique challenges during the construction.
@@freshrockpapa-e7799 The hundreds of hours of design labor and testing it no doubt took to prove that concept practicable and bring it into existence. He solved a particular problem that nobody else has ever had to solve before.
@@RickJames-h9n Sure except he invented and patented technology to make the house work and I doubt he let just anyone install a cutting edge piece of plumbing. This man very well can claim a large portion of the credit for this house's construction, and not just because he funded it
Good job to that real-estate agent. This video's mere existence is an advert. They didn't need to pay Scott for advertisement and Scott got to film in a place he always wanted. Mutually beneficial.
The real Praise not just the Owner for inventing new slipring, etc. But taking care of his wife, knowing what his future holds and making sure she has what she needs. What a bloody hero to his family.
I live five miles from here and I occasionally hike around Mount Helix - there are many solar panels on the roof of this home. I always wonder what the solar system is like and how much electricity from the grid they use. This entire area is 5A+ in terms of views and climate, as far as I've seen. THANKS FOR CLARIFYING THE UTILITIES! I see now how very innovative and cool that entire system really is. I wish I could see the cost layouts for design, construction and maintenance, etc. I see that it sold for $5.1 million on August 21, 2023... thought it would have been quite a bit higher. It's a unique gem located within a gem.
Ya, kinda sad for him, to pour so much love into something and then have to leave it instead of enjoy the last of his days there. But I'm guessing that he loved the doing, at least as much as the dwelling, and he did get to be there 20 years. So, I suppose it's not so bad.
@@Nevir202I would say that the best way for him to ensure the thing he loves survives is to be there to pass on the knowledge necessary to maintain it. The sense of closure and perhaps meeting the new owner and sharing stories.
@@Fly0High What's that have to do with anything? He probably isn't even using a water pump, city mains pressure probably has him covered. And even if the sewage pump goes out, that's just a clogged toilet issue, not like it means he's gonna mix sewage and drinking water.
@@moe47988 I'm sure he's left the blueprints behind and he has patents for some things so that will be easier to see what he's done so people can fix it. I understood what he was explaining to the point where I could fit a new seal on there if I wanted to. Heck, I've been doing it on automotive things, how much different can it be?
Beep bop... I'm the Philosophy Bot. Here, have a quote: "The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance" ~ Aristotle
Hi Tom, in Curitiba - Brazil there's a rotating building. Ten floors. Each floor rotates individually. But the building was never inhabited. It's an interesting story worth exploring
Indeed. I _REALLY_ hope someone who "gets it" buys this amazing place. It would be sad to see some boring schmuck with no comprehension of the "coolness factor" buys it for the land and destroys this fantastic structure.
I can't imagine the engineering effort it took on his part to come up with a novel design like that, especially something that involves water, sewer and gas - I imagine he had to get it certified as well.
@@BSnicks it doesnt really matters. You would need both seals to fail at the same exact time, and the sensors to not notice anything. That's not going to happen any time soon.
@@justlooking777 My parents did similarly, although there was no change in house. Dad wanted to make sure that everything was up to date and covered with maintenance contracts so Mom didn't have to have problems.
Him realizing that he was now stuck having to solve a problem he invented himself is highly relatable and I appreciate his attitude. Seems like a good and smart guy.
If more rich people busied themselves with building novel and interesting houses and inventing the components to make them work, that'd be an improvement to the current state of the world.
'Rich' is the word you're searching for. If you have enough money, you can do a lot of stuff that doesn't cross the minds of poor people. Poverty is a 24/7h job
@@herzog1000 He created and patented the design for plumbing problem 4:46. No one had thought that before. Of course he is rich, but he also seems very smart.
@@herzog1000sounds like the average “rich people have never done anything themselves or ever experience struggle”. This guy may be wealthy but I’d like to see you design a rotating plumbing system from scratch. You’re just finding any way to be mad at society for you not being a millionaire. Most people aren’t.
As an engineer myself, The man is definitely deserving of his "inventor" title, and the wealth he has obviously generated to have accomplished this feat in building his home.
@@MarkTrades__ Back when patents were serving their true purpose, and not just protecting massive billion dollar market cap organizations like they are now.
What did he design? It's no different to any hydraulic slip ring used on construction equipment. Instead of different oil channels for different functions, he's used the different channels for different liquids
@@adjo82 You are confusing the words "design" and "invent". Maybe he didn't invent this slip ring, but he designed one that works on his house. And as I mention it is implied in the video that he was also involved in other parts of design like the overall structure and the powertrain for rotating the house.
I wondered about such rotating issues myself... this explanation AND patent is incredible! You see large mansions and other fancy homes... but I have never seen a house THIS practical... now that's a high-end home! :o
As soon as I read "rotating house" my brain went into overdrive trying to think of ways the services could work. Interesting to see how he achieved it through slips rings.
Today this could be done by the house moving to a "service position", say once a week at 2am, in which a fresh water tank is refilled, grey/waste water tanks are emptied, and the battery bank is recharged (if roof solar was not sufficient). Internet would be via point-to-point WiFi. Automated actuators would engage quick-release couplings for the fluid exchanges. Of course this would not be nearly as elegant as the existing solution!
@@ayumuaikawamaybe because in Cambodia, there are rotating skybar on the top floor. Similarly, in Hongkong there are restaurants with rotating room(and this was yearssssss ago)
@@prumchhangsreng979 oh i didn't knew that, i was mainly saying that because usually after 20 years a patent expire and become public domain, (i believe some can last longer but let's not complicate things here ^^), thanks for the info
@@alanj9391 Well, that's why there are so many seals between each, I initially thought there were less than there were... I thought it was Pipe-seal-alarm-seal-pipe, but he clarified that it was pipe-seal-alarm-seal, then seal-alarm-seal-pipe, so even when the alarm is triggered nothing has mixed or been corrupted yet it just needs maintenance to prevent it before a problem gets worse.
You could also do the same as a planar ring, wider than the vertical, but I hope that when it was designed the diameters were stepped all the way down, so as to make positive stops for the seals, and a bearing assembly top and bottom, either a single roller race or a few cam followers running on a very sturdy and thick machined ring, so as to keep those seals from experiencing any loading at all, and some flexible arms to transfer motion to them, so any slip in the house will not be transferred.
@@TheSyborgue It's the same principle as the power. With power, you have a stationary connection on the ground that feeds into a disk, and the rotating house has a brush that touches the disk and turns with the house, but because it's a disk there's always a connection. And you can stack as many disks as you want. Imagine turning a 3.5mm plug inside a socket. Same concept. Analogously, you have a waterpipe on the ground feeding into an isolated groove in a cylinder, forming a "ring" of water - like the electrical disk - and the house has a pipe opening that's sticking into the groove and turning with the house. No matter where it is, water can flow into it. And because the grooves are vertically stacked, you can have as many as you need.
Interesting solution! What I imagined at the start of the video was : • Water through the center. • Electricity around that. maybe some kind of brushes or conductive rollerball bearings. • And one or a few sceptic tanks that evacuate when you line up with sanitation ports or somethings like that. But this solution is much more elegant ! Love it !!!
man life is so wonky, all that talent will die with him. i guess were just not meant to live long enough because some of us just become to good at what we do. to know hes facing death and letting go of everything and minimizing is honrable yet sad. hopefully someone else can appreciate the work he did. i bought a house someone died in as they were fixing it up. that was 40 yrs ago and its kinda just been frozen in time since then. everything i fix and update i think about how some other person yrs ago had the same passion as me while outside in the heat working long days
ive seen this house almost my whole life and my dad would always point it out saying "hey look there's the spinning house" and I've always wonder what the inside looks like and how it works, so this was very cool to watch.
This guy is incredible. Not even an architect, designed the house just to live in it, and it works great? If there was a feature length documentary about this guy and his house, I'd watch it.
When you engineer for yourself you overengineer. When you do it for a corporation you don't include an immobilizer because it saves you 1/2 cent per car.
@@MushookieMan So what you're saying is that every engineer hoards all the good engineering for themselves and theoretically, all engineer houses are full of secret (and probably illegal) gadgets?
@@connordarvall8482 Trust me, engineers would over-engineer every single thing they build if they could. They don't, since the people they build for usually have budgets, especially bloated corporations with big ambitions yet strangely tiny budgets...
The part of the rotary connection that handles the fluids is known as a FRU, Fluid Rotary Union. It's how equipment like excavators are able to operate. Where I work, FRUs are often used on high power radar masts and naval turrets to provide liquid cooling to the systems.
Came for the house, stayed for the owner. Now I want an entire documentary on Albert A. Johnstone. He seems like a nice humble genius who's done so many things in his lifetime and yet nobody knows about him.
ITS NOT OFTEN I have empathy for rich Americans in multi-million $$$ hoses - but this guy I make an exception for this guy. Loved what he did, hope he gets a good price for the house
I live right near this, its an absolutely majestic thing to witness as you climb the hill. As a kid I used to always wonder how any of it worked, very glad that tom was able to answer my biggest childhood question.
Yea, I was wondering if it had something to do with Feynmann's Belt Trick. You could have a huge belt connecting the two layers, with a counter-rotating cam-like thing in the middle that makes sure it efficiently untwists every second revolution.
That slip ring design is the same design that's used in excavation machines. This allows the machine to rotate infinitely in any direction, but still have independent hydraulic control over each track and the dozer blade. Obviously, the designer of this home had to include a lot of safety precautions in that slip ring design that excavators don't need to worry about. That was quite an achievement in itself.
Makes me think maybe he was an engineer who had experience in designing these kinds of things for industrial applications, and used his knowledge and expertise to make his dream house.
I had never seen this type of design before, but figure it was probably around in some giant machine somewhere. Having 4 different fluids all going through the same pipe, with redundant seals and sensors, is some next level stuff tho.
All ingenuity comes from something before. It’s possible he took inspiration from similar systems but I don’t think it discredits his achievements in the slightest. That design was awesome.
That rotating core is an utterly mind-blowing feat of engineering genius. I still can't get over the idea that a house weighing God knows how many tons can rotate with a 1.5 hp motor.
Keep in mind, it rotates very slowly. That fast-looking footage you saw was as x15 speed. It can do a full circle in 45 minutes, but that probably wears down the engine, and if so, most of the time it rotates much more slowly, like a quarter circle in 3-5 hours.
@@peterknutsen3070 No, I understood that, it's just the idea of something with 1/10th the power of the average lawnmower being capable of moving that kind of tonnage at all. Just goes to show what a 25 to 1 gear ratio can achieve.
@@LRM12o8 Indeed, that's precisely why it's such an engineering marvel. When originally said he went with 5hp, I automatically assumed it was too little torque, only to be stunned by hearing it was more than 3 times the power he actually needed!
That slip ring for the water, sewer and gas is just like the hydraulic ring in the center of excavators. That’s absolutely brilliant use of one application in a completely different world if design.
@@CFox.7 With the kind of pressure they are under, it would make 100% difference if its above... if the seal broke it would just be forced up anyway due to the pressure
As a science fiction author, hearing about how the utilities were transferred through a rotating bearing is so incredibly helpful for designing rotating space stations.
@PooPooDingDong456456 Like with any good world, building up the little details are very important. Readers appreciate those things so it's good to include them
There's another couple of real-world examples you might find interesting up on the Space Station - the Utility Transfer Assembly, which routes power and data across the Solar Alpha Rotary Joints and allows the solar panels to track the Sun through 360° without ever having to reverse; and the Flex Hose Rotary Couplers that route ammonia across the rotating joint on which the radiators are mounted, which allow for 210° of rotation.
That was cool of the homeowner to let you take his house for a spin. Seems like a well-rounded guy who was on top of his game. They told him it couldn't be done but he turned the tables on them.
On the official page, it says "call for price" - the Zillow price is $5.3M, and that appears to be the actual asking price. Their 'zestimate', which can be wildly wrong, is $5.1. So only $200k more to get rotating :) I'll take 5 please!
Rotating structures are common in power generation systems where pollution control and heat exchange systems can use rotating components to transfer heat or collect and remove particulates from the exhaust system from boilers. I’ve built rotating components that are roughly the same dimensions as this house. This is definitely a great solution to an age old problem. A remarkable segment to share with us. Thank you so much.
@@oliverbertrand I was crazy once. They locked me in a room. A rubber room. A rubber room with rats. The rats made me crazy. Crazy? I was crazy once. They locked me in a room. A rubber room. A rubber room with rats. The rats made me crazy.
@@OzOMegaThe core with the grooves doesn't rotate. It's the outer piece with the seals that does rotate. This is shown in the last animation when it's put all together. At least that's the part I had to rewatch!
@@OzOMega The component is called a 'Rotary Union' if you want to read more. Used a lot in electrical/pneumatic/hydraulic connections. His innovation of having a spare groove and sensor to detect any leaks is ingenious
@@johnlynch1353well, if we're being picky, we've changed the speed slightly as a by-product of building huge dams (in the same way that a figure skater doing a pirouette on the ice can speed up or slow down by drawing in or raising up their arms) and the Moon is constantly slowing us towards a stop.
The beauty of Gearing and Torque multiplication. As long as you are not in a hurry, you can move a lot of tonnage with little power. If the bearings are good, and there is some balance to the house, it probably does not require as much power as we would initially think. I do wonder why he downsized the motor when he put in the gearing? Material stresses? Packaging?
@@gamerjunction5335 I think he said so; too powerful and could therefore not get "up to speed". Although that doesn't make sense, now that I write it. Unless that 5hp motor would have given the house light-speed in moving round, which is what you don't want. So, my guess is that a 1.5hp motor at full throttle gives the house a decent rotation. A 5hp motor at 1/4 throttle gives it a bumpy ride.
I COMPLETELY DISAGREE. This man wasted an enormous amount of time and money on a ridiculous toy that NO practical, responsible architect should ever repeat. He should create a trust fund to pay for the future demolition of this house in 40 years when it's fallen into an horrific dilapidated state because nobody wants it.
@@jban4457 whoever has the money to buy this property surely has the money to maintain it - and if they want build a new home on the million dollar + land it sits on I'm sure they can. Beleive it or not, many people have an appreciation for unique peices of engineering that are not meant to be mass replicated. I'd pay good money to see you at an art gallery without your pacifier.
@@jban4457 "wasted an enormous amount of time and money" The dude built his dream house and lived in it for 20 years. In no way shape or form could that be considered a waste of time and money. Not everything needs to be perfectly utilitarian one-size-fits-all commodities, its okay to build something weird and cool. Sure, it probably wont last forever and no one will truly appriciate it like the creator did, but so what? Who cares. Have some fun.
I’ve always loved this house. From the late 90’s up until the end of 2001 I worked as a subcontractor for Cox Cable and was the tech that installed all the original RG-6 tv cable and digital receivers in this house during the final stages of construction. Truly amazing to see in person.
I grew up calling this house the space ship house. Always wondered what it looked like inside. Awesome to see it on TH-cam. Gotta forward the video to my brother.
My mother grew up in a small village in the Italian Alps. Some sixty years ago, a neighbour of her built an hexagonal house, with the idea of making it rotating, just like this one. Everyone made fun of him and of his silly inventions; in fact, sixty years later, the hexagonal house is still there, but it never rotated, not even a degree. I’ve always thought that his idea was genius, albeit impossible. This video is of a huge satisfaction to me.
It's almost like this video was meant for you! Can't believe the itch in your brain that must have gotten satisfied after seeing this video, what an incredible case you described! I wish that neighbour would have gotten to know about this man, I'm sure the interaction would have been golden haha
@@sirreginaldfishingtonxvii6149 No. Unnecessary is objective, cool as heck is subjective. I can think this is cool as heck while also say that it's completely unnecessary.
@@chrisbecke2793bviously. But most people legitimately believe they will live to 120 years old. And will say this while drinking a beer and smoking a cigarette Original poster is commenting on his acceptance of life/death. Stop acting like you’re such a deep thinker with a dumb reply
@@strikerbowls791 He was exaggerating a bit but people do have unrealistic expectations. Like most people think they'll live till they are 90. Maybe if you have perfect health and good genetics, average life expectancy has been around 75-80. (probably going down since people live such unhealthy lifestyles these days). Well that means half the people will die before that.
I grew up less than a mile from that house- I remember when they started building it, thinking there was no way it could be done... now when I show visitors the amphitheater/ park at the top of Mt. Helix (technically La Mesa), I always stop to show them the rotating house... never met the folks, but had seen many newspaper etc stories in the past and they always seemed so charming!
@@emithesheep go up to the top, right before the gate entrance to the driveway to the amphitheater, it will be on your left, hanging off the mountain facing north
@@SharienGaming I don't think there is much luck involved when the man is literally inventing new housing structures for fun. He is a highly skilled and probably sought after by independent contractors for his knowledge. People like that have a skill that "earned" them their money through hard work and effort. Luck probably has little to do with it
I thought the same, but we don't actually know if the graphic is showing it correctly. It could be shown upside down to us -- but then again, there are two seals, so it's not likely to happen anytime soon.
If the seals were to fail, both "containers" would cross-contaminate each other. It doesn't matter which one is on top and which on bottom. Liquids will mix
The fact that the man is selling it not to make a profit, but purely out of love and care for his wife is so wonderful. What a kind and intelligent man.
I THINK THIS IS FABULOUS! I've thought of a house like this for 50 years. Never figured how to do the piping except have a bigger core and the services and rooms there not turn. THIS is way better!!
Honestly this is the best $5 million house I’ve ever seen. Rich people usually have such terrible taste. This house isn’t just an engineering marvel, it’s also gorgeous design. Luxurious without being gaudy. All that glass without being a midcentury modern eyesore. The landscape is perfectly manicured. The bit about the city engineer telling him he was making it too strong was golden. The one thing I’ll never understand about the rich and famous: spending all that money and doing the bare minimum for resiliency when you build in a liquefaction and wildfire zone. This home is also clearly going to be the last one standing in the neighborhood. This dude is clearly filthy rich these days, but also clearly came from more modest means.
I lived in California when this house was constructed and I remember it on the news! This video was something I was waiting for for around 2 decades. I've always wondered how the plumbing/etc. worked and I never had a satisfactory explanation. Thank you very much for commissioning an artist to create a 3D visual. I needed this.
I would never build a house like that just for the maintenance alone, but this man decided to do it and designed his own parts to solve problems he didn't need to have. I'm impressed.
There’s probably more then just 1h a year maintenance, that’s just the mandatory annual maintenance. But all the same I doubt the maintenance is worse then a normal house unless the shaft goes out, but from he said that’s unlikely.
He reminds me of my grandpa. He can be annoying to work with when building things because it takes forever, but he does a perfect job every time. If he is willing to build something, he will not stop until that thing is as perfect as it can possibly be.
This is a man who definitely earned his success. The man got a patent just to get his house built, ignored all the haters, and fixed problems that less competent people left behind. A true genius.
We don't know how he got to be rich enough to do this. Just because he's smart enough to manage this vanity, project doesn't mean he deserves his success. He could have inherited his money or made from a payday loan company.
@@angermyodeif he inherited the money required to do this the probability he would have designed and built it mostly himself is close to zero. People who don't work for their money make their money work for them.
For anyone interested, this is exactly the design used in construction excavators, which can freely swing around 360 degrees while still sending hydraulic fluid to power the tracks.
@@mattbosley3531 Even without seeing the ones in an excavator I can already thing of several potential differences caused by the difernces in use case that would be enough to warrent a patent. The changes don't generally have to be as big as one might think. (heck, even if the actual device wasn't different, sometimes simply using it in this fasion would be enough, if how one goes about doing so is different enough from how one uses it in the excavator). But it's still fundamentally the same technology.
@@mattbosley3531You don't patent ideas, you patent designs. Al didn't come up with the idea of having multiple pipes in an axis, he just made one design with that idea.
Absolutely just being nitpicky, but I'm sure construction excavators don't have four mutually exclusive fluid lines in that swivel joint that if mixed would lead to instant catastrophic failure.
Mr. Johnstone seems to be an incredible intelligent yet humble man who is really at peace with himself. Being so open with both his inventions and his health, without any sign of arrogance or anything like that. Thanks for sharing!
The danger of cross contamination is quite low, because drinking water and gas supply are under pressure, whereas the 2 waste waters are under slight vacuum. If additional "peace of mind" were required, a drain connection could be added to the space monitored by the sensors. Any water leak would then be seen in the transparent drain hose. Quite an ingenious arrangement and not that complex. I'd buy it if I lived down there and could afford it.
Seems like it's upside-down to me, I'd much rather have gas on top and the sewer line on the bottom, that way if it does leak it's at least more likely for the drinking water to still be drinkable. Actually if I was building it I'd put potable water through a second slip ring on the rooftop. 😂
@@bobnine That's only because you are looking at it without the knowledge required (no offense) to make these assessments. It is just a 'feeling' people have that it would matter, but in reality there won't be a noticeable difference between positions of different products except for which will mix with which when a seal would break.
As a San Diego native who drives by this house frequently on quests to the top of Mount Helix, it's fascinating to finally see inside the marvel. My friends and I have long speculated about how the house functions, thanks for finally providing us with the insights, Tom!
I have family that lives in San Diego, with a view of that house. It’s really cool to finally understand the details of how it works!!! This house broke my brain for over a decade, and it finally makes some sense. Thanks Tom for showcasing some really cool engineering!
The cut at 0:17 is such a subtle moment of great filmmaking. Since there is no camera operator next to Tom when it goes to the drone, that means that these have to be seperate takes. And yet it's so seamless I didn't realize until I rewinded a couple times. Seriously great stuff!
In a quaint residential area of Casablanca known as Anfa in Morocco, this particular concept has been in existence since the 1960s. Surprisingly, that house still stands today and continues to function perfectly by rotating. Locals affectionately refer to it as “la maison camembert,” translating to the Camembert house in English. It’s truly remarkable how two architects, separated by both distance and a different time - one in Casablanca and the other in San Diego - independently conceived the same innovative idea. So captivating !
Al seems like the kind of person who makes it work. Like, no matter what it is and how impossible it seems, he seems like the kind of guy who just goes ahead and solves the problem . My respect.
The most interesting part of this video is not how the rotating house look like for the interior, is the inside structure how it put together. Awesome video.
I used to live on Mt. Helix, and my family and I would drive by this house all the time. Really cool to see you cover such a vivid, mysterious staple of my childhood - my dad would always tell me the house rotated internally, but I didn't believe him until I researched it in the past year or two. Thanks for the nostalgia hit!
Quite a remarkable house, but an equally remarkable inventor; not just for the ingenious central hub solution, but also for his love and dedication to his wife. Thanks for hiliting this, Tom.
@@tactileslut well he'll probably do something as such for the new home owners - but realistically if all of his wife's family is elsewhere he is right and it is the most sensible option for her once he's passed
Mr. Johnston certainly has had plenty of time to enjoy his dream home, and I tip my hat to him for choosing to sell it while he can still teach the buyer how to properly maintain the mechanism. Truly a remarkable man, who has given San Diego a truly iconic landmark of a house.
What I especially love about all this is that it doesn't only work, it seems to work *consistently* with all problems solved. There are no loose ends. It's not a gimmick just to have it. If more people would want to design rotating houses they wouldn't need to look much further than adapting this design just like you would do when creating a water faucet or a wheel. It establishes what feels like solid standard even though it's a unique piece.
Indeed if there was one of-the-shelf rotating house-supply system that already comes in with water/waste/electricity/networking all in one working peace we could see a lot more rotating houses everywhere.
Thank you so much for commissioning the animations! When this came up for sale and started making the rounds, I was also frustrated with everyone glossing over the details of how the connections work. I grew up near this house and we used to drive by it all the time, so it's so nice finally understand how the mechanics work
Visited a family member in Arizona decades ago, the widow of a leading solar scientist. Their house was a showroom of solar -- solar heated-cooled-powered everything. But after he died, the house gradually reverted to off-the-shelf HVAC. The seller is making a good choice to get the structure into someone else's hands while he is still able to advise for a few more years.
I didn't have time to fit it in the video, but: on the basement floor, in the non-rotating part, there's another turntable: so you can park your car and not have to reverse out!
Oh okay, Thats quite cool
Dang, should have film that.
agreed
...Did you just time travel?
Where is this house? Like, an address?
Tom got incredibly lucky to actually have the guy who built it explain it
And us very lucky that we got this shared with us and get to know this ingenuity.
Thats what i'm saying!!! I was expecting some loser who bought the thing trying to explain wtf is going on but NO its the man himself. SO COOL
Yea.. Incredible how something is able to spin.
@@dannygreen5477 danny green is damny mean
the guy building it also got incredibly lucky to have tom do a video on it
it's great advertising
Kudos to whoever did the graphics. Made a very difficult concept quite easy to understand.
👀
@@RealEngineeringhaha
@@RealEngineering Ah. You did? Nice job with them!
"Graphics: Stijn Orlans" It's in the description my friend. Tom Scott is not one to forget to give credits.
@@RealEngineering For real? 😂I was literally thinking as I watched this "wow these are some Real Engineering level graphics"
Tom, one of your best. The human angle really makes it. Many videos like this would purely focus on the technical, not the man and his family behind it. Why he did it, and why they're moving make the video that much more engaging.
I love that the homeowner isn't just someone who just threw money at problems, but is an inventor who actually did some unique work to realize his vision.
The naked piece of land by itself must be worth millions already
@@maxime3648 remember, the land was purchased over 20 years ago, so probably no where near that expensive, that said properties in La Mesa, start from 1.5mil++, this is up for 5.5mil
@@XxASBURYxX So in other words, yes, it is worth millions already.
@@XxASBURYxX Imagine buying this place but having to live in La Mesa 😂
@@XxASBURYxX Yes that is how the wealthy leech off of society. They own land, which is a scarce resource. In an economy with perpetual growth the price will tend upwards.
That is why georgism proposes land taxes high enough to discourage such land banking. Land taxes force more efficient land use.
He made the house for good reason, he sells the house for good reason. What a man.
A true gentleman.😭 I almost crying when he explain the reason of the sell.
Seems like a genuinely nice man.
>Do something for a good reason
>Do something for a good reason
What a Chad
Screw this boomer
And makes even more money inventing the connector for the waste etc :)
As a practicing Architect, I gotta say this man is a genius. The plumbing slip ring is mind blowing in it's simplicity.
I hope to see more genius houses like this one in the future 😊
So many brilliant inventions are incredibly simple once they've been invented, but almost impossibly complex beforehand. There's a genius to inventions like this.
@@garypatterson2857 It is so humiliating. After learning how he solved it, it so depressingly obvious... But the most obvious solutions often are hidden from us.
It really is brilliant. However, i think i would have put the sewer ring on the bottom, not the top....! (Im sure he had good reasons).
pipe in a pipe would be more easy tho.
This guy literally created parts to make this work. What a incredible feat of engineering.
Why is this an incredible feat of engineering?
@@freshrockpapa-e7799he litteraly invented mechanisms that did not exist before just to solve this problem, and who knows what they could be used to in the future ?
an*
@@blade7y156ndeed. It might seem like a simple solution in the video animation but these things are often deceptively simple, don't confuse simplicity and elegance. This guy's a genius not for having the idea, but actually pulling it off! I'm sure he encountered quite a few unique challenges during the construction.
@@freshrockpapa-e7799 The hundreds of hours of design labor and testing it no doubt took to prove that concept practicable and bring it into existence. He solved a particular problem that nobody else has ever had to solve before.
Wasn’t expecting to see the homeowner being the person who designed and built the house. How awesome!
It's easy to take credit when you're the one paying the help.
@@RickJames-h9n Sure except he invented and patented technology to make the house work and I doubt he let just anyone install a cutting edge piece of plumbing. This man very well can claim a large portion of the credit for this house's construction, and not just because he funded it
@@RickJames-h9n"It's easy to take credit when you did all the work."
Ftfy
@@SuperCatacata
It is harder, when you did everything alone and want to be humble.
@@RickJames-h9ngiant fail and didn’t watch the video
Good job to that real-estate agent. This video's mere existence is an advert. They didn't need to pay Scott for advertisement and Scott got to film in a place he always wanted. Mutually beneficial.
thats called commerce!
@@adamh1228 Or very modern bartering.
It was free advertising of the house. Also more likely to attract the interest of buyers that aren't local.
Most importantly the owner and creator got to talk about his creation, that was what made the video great.
@@joost199207 bartering is commerce, i was more just expressing my delight in "mutual beneficial" transactions. ya know, the good side of capitalism.
The animations are really helpful. I wish more people would do animations to explain stuff.
The animations are great, I like them.
The reason that you don't see them are... 💰 AND ⌛
This old man deserve a standing salute from architects & engineers. His plan for water and electricity management is 🔥
Architect? Engineer more precise
I like it but I feel like there's more to plumbing than not leaking. Like how do you deal with clogs? 🤔
@@sn31t33 r8
@@emissarygw2264He lived there for 20 years so I’m sure he has some solution he can teach to the next owner
Not a fan of the seals being a possible point of failure, but if he made it work for 20 years then i can only concede it's a good solution in the end
The builder of this house genuinely seems like a nice person, he poured a lot of passion and hardwork into that house.
just the right workers couple millions no big deal
Also money. A lot of money
The money is probably also a result of passion and hard work so I’m not sure why it is being brought up.
@@squidbadnot sure where you’re getting that probability from
@@Evan345gdf i mean money isnt always gained through passion and hard work but is much of the time
The real Praise not just the Owner for inventing new slipring, etc. But taking care of his wife, knowing what his future holds and making sure she has what she needs. What a bloody hero to his family.
🎉 Well said.
I live five miles from here and I occasionally hike around Mount Helix - there are many solar panels on the roof of this home. I always wonder what the solar system is like and how much electricity from the grid they use. This entire area is 5A+ in terms of views and climate, as far as I've seen. THANKS FOR CLARIFYING THE UTILITIES! I see now how very innovative and cool that entire system really is. I wish I could see the cost layouts for design, construction and maintenance, etc. I see that it sold for $5.1 million on August 21, 2023... thought it would have been quite a bit higher. It's a unique gem located within a gem.
Props to her for letting him build what he wanted. And props to him for preparing a comfortable life for her when he’s gone.
YES! i was thinking the same thing
This is what a couple should be like
Agree wholeheartedly. That right there looks like real love and respect for each other.
It was her idea for a rotating house, he was just a slave tool!
Props to her letting him build what he wanted? That’s such a weird concept…
That man's explanation as to why they're moving let's you know how down to earth he is, love him.
Ya, kinda sad for him, to pour so much love into something and then have to leave it instead of enjoy the last of his days there.
But I'm guessing that he loved the doing, at least as much as the dwelling, and he did get to be there 20 years. So, I suppose it's not so bad.
@@Nevir202I would say that the best way for him to ensure the thing he loves survives is to be there to pass on the knowledge necessary to maintain it. The sense of closure and perhaps meeting the new owner and sharing stories.
I love to see a person who is taking care of their family even if they have to sacrifice something. What a great guy!
The cynicist in me cannot get over the fact that sewage and water pumps have a working life span of... 20 years.
@@Fly0High What's that have to do with anything?
He probably isn't even using a water pump, city mains pressure probably has him covered. And even if the sewage pump goes out, that's just a clogged toilet issue, not like it means he's gonna mix sewage and drinking water.
I love the way the owner explains everything, without trying to sound like the genius he is
The problem with all this is the guy is up there in age, years later no one will probably have a clue how to service his custom made inventions.
@@moe47988 I'm sure he's left the blueprints behind and he has patents for some things so that will be easier to see what he's done so people can fix it. I understood what he was explaining to the point where I could fit a new seal on there if I wanted to. Heck, I've been doing it on automotive things, how much different can it be?
Beep bop... I'm the Philosophy Bot. Here, have a quote:
"The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance"
~ Aristotle
@@moe47988He can just write a manual, he intended to teach the next guy anyways
Definitely a very smart guy! "This thing doesn't exist, so I'll just invent it, and use the prototype as the lynchpin in my own house."
Hi Tom, in Curitiba - Brazil there's a rotating building. Ten floors. Each floor rotates individually. But the building was never inhabited. It's an interesting story worth exploring
should email him about that
was it never inhabited because of a lack of plumbing & other facilities ?
Appartement prices were too expensive. Later there was a legal battle over it
I hope this house is preserved and not demolished. The design of the core is ingenious and it's a testament to engineering history.
Indeed. I _REALLY_ hope someone who "gets it" buys this amazing place. It would be sad to see some boring schmuck with no comprehension of the "coolness factor" buys it for the land and destroys this fantastic structure.
Looks like it's in Mt. Helix. I give it 10 years before someone flattens it and covers the entire plot with a neomodernistic mega house.
I also hope he either patented it so that his family will be cared for when he's gone or he open sourced it so others can do the same.
@@PoleTooke The patent is shown in the video. Not sure that will "care for" anyone as the demand for rotating homes is not that high.
@@spblackey Oh, it is patented then? Good on him!
And true, but it might help them some
Al is a real one. Bro invents his own problem AND builds the solution to said problem, now that is peak engineering.
I can't imagine the engineering effort it took on his part to come up with a novel design like that, especially something that involves water, sewer and gas - I imagine he had to get it certified as well.
What is engineering if not inventing your own problems and (sometimes) solutions to them?
(and the money to be able to afford the risks, and solve the problem)
I must be an engineer because I can invent my own problems too.
"Elaborate answers to a question no one asked" is one of my favorite categories of engineering.
The agent that decided to contact Tom Scott deserves a raise
No, they get a FAT commission check. This is their whole job.
I'm pretty sure he's getting a fat commission ;) Smart move nonetheless.
free ad
They'll be fine with the enormous commission they're about to earn.
I dont think any real estate agent deserves a raise tbh 😇
This man is an inspiration to aspiring engineers. The agent that decided to contact Tom Scott deserves a raise.
I do think that the sewer should be at the bottom and not on the top, in case the seals should fail.
@@BSnicks it doesnt really matters. You would need both seals to fail at the same exact time, and the sensors to not notice anything. That's not going to happen any time soon.
@@BSnicksThe freshwater has a higher pressure than the sewage, so vertical position is not that important.
I really felt for him when he explained why they're selling the house, he's a guy filled with love and compassion
Hope it's not secretly because earthquakes.
@@justlooking777 People who... write wills? Buy life insurance? Make retirement plans?
do you even know him
Quite a sad story
@@justlooking777 My parents did similarly, although there was no change in house. Dad wanted to make sure that everything was up to date and covered with maintenance contracts so Mom didn't have to have problems.
Him realizing that he was now stuck having to solve a problem he invented himself is highly relatable and I appreciate his attitude. Seems like a good and smart guy.
And rich, like really rich.
@@bimbogiallocheeky breeki
@@bimbogiallo For sure!
I'm a big fan of good and smart people being rich, and rich people being good and smart. We could do with a lot more of that.
He’s a family friend of mine, can confirm very sweet and cool to hang around
If more rich people busied themselves with building novel and interesting houses and inventing the components to make them work, that'd be an improvement to the current state of the world.
This homeowner is an absolute genius.
He has thought of everything to make it go smoothly.
Even his death.
'Rich' is the word you're searching for. If you have enough money, you can do a lot of stuff that doesn't cross the minds of poor people. Poverty is a 24/7h job
@@herzog1000 He created and patented the design for plumbing problem 4:46. No one had thought that before. Of course he is rich, but he also seems very smart.
@@herzog1000being rich doesn't automatically make you smart.
@@herzog1000It’s not all about the money.
@@herzog1000sounds like the average “rich people have never done anything themselves or ever experience struggle”.
This guy may be wealthy but I’d like to see you design a rotating plumbing system from scratch.
You’re just finding any way to be mad at society for you not being a millionaire. Most people aren’t.
the fact that this guy decided to design core parts of the house himself really shows dedication
"design core parts" ?? Literally the one core part !! ;) 🤣😂
As an engineer myself, The man is definitely deserving of his "inventor" title, and the wealth he has obviously generated to have accomplished this feat in building his home.
@@MarkTrades__ Back when patents were serving their true purpose, and not just protecting massive billion dollar market cap organizations like they are now.
What did he design? It's no different to any hydraulic slip ring used on construction equipment. Instead of different oil channels for different functions, he's used the different channels for different liquids
@@adjo82 You are confusing the words "design" and "invent". Maybe he didn't invent this slip ring, but he designed one that works on his house. And as I mention it is implied in the video that he was also involved in other parts of design like the overall structure and the powertrain for rotating the house.
I wondered about such rotating issues myself... this explanation AND patent is incredible! You see large mansions and other fancy homes... but I have never seen a house THIS practical... now that's a high-end home! :o
As soon as I read "rotating house" my brain went into overdrive trying to think of ways the services could work. Interesting to see how he achieved it through slips rings.
my brain even started spinning
@@daithi154 hahaha same - when I saw the solution I was blown away by it. Incredibly clever.
I had multiple ideas, most of which wouldn't have worked. The actual method certainly was most genius.
Not just slip rings, but slip rings with built-in leak detection!
Sweet.
Today this could be done by the house moving to a "service position", say once a week at 2am, in which a fresh water tank is refilled, grey/waste water tanks are emptied, and the battery bank is recharged (if roof solar was not sufficient). Internet would be via point-to-point WiFi. Automated actuators would engage quick-release couplings for the fluid exchanges. Of course this would not be nearly as elegant as the existing solution!
The owner has a patent on this rotating water service pipe. That's insane levels of engineering.
Having a patent is probably the most mundane thing about the engineering...
the house was built 20 years ago, i guess that patent is public domain now
@@chiefpacman These days it's just an expensive formality that nobody really wants to do because China.
@@ayumuaikawamaybe because in Cambodia, there are rotating skybar on the top floor. Similarly, in Hongkong there are restaurants with rotating room(and this was yearssssss ago)
@@prumchhangsreng979 oh i didn't knew that, i was mainly saying that because usually after 20 years a patent expire and become public domain, (i believe some can last longer but let's not complicate things here ^^), thanks for the info
That multi-utility ring for the sewage, water and gas is a phenomenal piece of ingenuity and problem solving. Would never have thought of that
You would have to have a lot of faith in the seals though.
Honestly i still dont get it
@@alanj9391 Well, that's why there are so many seals between each, I initially thought there were less than there were... I thought it was Pipe-seal-alarm-seal-pipe, but he clarified that it was pipe-seal-alarm-seal, then seal-alarm-seal-pipe, so even when the alarm is triggered nothing has mixed or been corrupted yet it just needs maintenance to prevent it before a problem gets worse.
You could also do the same as a planar ring, wider than the vertical, but I hope that when it was designed the diameters were stepped all the way down, so as to make positive stops for the seals, and a bearing assembly top and bottom, either a single roller race or a few cam followers running on a very sturdy and thick machined ring, so as to keep those seals from experiencing any loading at all, and some flexible arms to transfer motion to them, so any slip in the house will not be transferred.
@@TheSyborgue It's the same principle as the power. With power, you have a stationary connection on the ground that feeds into a disk, and the rotating house has a brush that touches the disk and turns with the house, but because it's a disk there's always a connection. And you can stack as many disks as you want.
Imagine turning a 3.5mm plug inside a socket. Same concept.
Analogously, you have a waterpipe on the ground feeding into an isolated groove in a cylinder, forming a "ring" of water - like the electrical disk - and the house has a pipe opening that's sticking into the groove and turning with the house. No matter where it is, water can flow into it. And because the grooves are vertically stacked, you can have as many as you need.
Interesting solution!
What I imagined at the start of the video was :
• Water through the center.
• Electricity around that. maybe some kind of brushes or conductive rollerball bearings.
• And one or a few sceptic tanks that evacuate when you line up with sanitation ports or somethings like that.
But this solution is much more elegant ! Love it !!!
As a building engineer myself I have to say that Al is a man after my own heart; there are no problems, only solutions and opportunities.
There cannot be a solution without a problem
@@pyropulseIXXIplanning ahead! Seeing possible problems arise before they happen. He's doing exactly that by moving out!👍
@@pyropulseIXXI only if you see challenges as problems
Fly a human in to the sun and back alive.
@@Whatareyouareyou*into
The craziest thing about this house is not that it rotates or that it has that four-in-one pipe in the middle, but that he freakin build it himself!
man life is so wonky, all that talent will die with him. i guess were just not meant to live long enough because some of us just become to good at what we do. to know hes facing death and letting go of everything and minimizing is honrable yet sad. hopefully someone else can appreciate the work he did. i bought a house someone died in as they were fixing it up. that was 40 yrs ago and its kinda just been frozen in time since then. everything i fix and update i think about how some other person yrs ago had the same passion as me while outside in the heat working long days
ive seen this house almost my whole life and my dad would always point it out saying "hey look there's the spinning house" and I've always wonder what the inside looks like and how it works, so this was very cool to watch.
Same here! My grandparents used to live nearby
Same here. Walking down from CCT plays on top of the mountain, we would always pass by it.
@TylerMiller-vh9go 🤓
Instead of 🤓 how about 🧠🟰🕳
Where is it - what part of San Diego?
This guy is incredible. Not even an architect, designed the house just to live in it, and it works great? If there was a feature length documentary about this guy and his house, I'd watch it.
he's probably an engineer of some kind. has to be
Engineer, probably structural?
ok
you just watched it
@veryslyfox physics and math are in liberal arts wdym
Not only did he make parts, but he also made them in a manner that they had redundancy. The man is truly a genius engineer.
When you engineer for yourself you overengineer. When you do it for a corporation you don't include an immobilizer because it saves you 1/2 cent per car.
@@MushookieMan So what you're saying is that every engineer hoards all the good engineering for themselves and theoretically, all engineer houses are full of secret (and probably illegal) gadgets?
@@connordarvall8482 You ever been to an engineer's house? Because you've described it perfectly.
@@connordarvall8482 Trust me, engineers would over-engineer every single thing they build if they could. They don't, since the people they build for usually have budgets, especially bloated corporations with big ambitions yet strangely tiny budgets...
The real skill of an engineer is designing projects that are juuuust good enough to work without falling apart, for the lowest cost :p
The part of the rotary connection that handles the fluids is known as a FRU, Fluid Rotary Union. It's how equipment like excavators are able to operate. Where I work, FRUs are often used on high power radar masts and naval turrets to provide liquid cooling to the systems.
Came for the house, stayed for the owner. Now I want an entire documentary on Albert A. Johnstone. He seems like a nice humble genius who's done so many things in his lifetime and yet nobody knows about him.
Albert A. Johnstone is a philosophy professor in Oregon, this man is named Albert E. Johnstone.
@@SwitchAndLeverWho he is, though? Age, education, profession?
A rich man who built a cool house. He's not a genius, but he got perseverance
ITS NOT OFTEN I have empathy for rich Americans in multi-million $$$ hoses - but this guy I make an exception for this guy. Loved what he did, hope he gets a good price for the house
@@ikbintom he absolutely displays traits of genius. Lookup the difference between a peerless genius and an ordinary genius.
I live right near this, its an absolutely majestic thing to witness as you climb the hill. As a kid I used to always wonder how any of it worked, very glad that tom was able to answer my biggest childhood question.
Look up the Sleeper House in Colorado. It's another cool round house. I think it's a lot bigger.
Is it noisy?
I just love that he engineered a solution 100% so the house could just rotate indefinitely without reversing.
Yea, I was wondering if it had something to do with Feynmann's Belt Trick.
You could have a huge belt connecting the two layers, with a counter-rotating cam-like thing in the middle that makes sure it efficiently untwists every second revolution.
This is a man who has not only amazing ideas, but the skill and drive to make them a reality, truly an inspiration to all.
And money.
@@nosrepayou're just jealous and poor
That slip ring design is the same design that's used in excavation machines. This allows the machine to rotate infinitely in any direction, but still have independent hydraulic control over each track and the dozer blade.
Obviously, the designer of this home had to include a lot of safety precautions in that slip ring design that excavators don't need to worry about. That was quite an achievement in itself.
Makes me think maybe he was an engineer who had experience in designing these kinds of things for industrial applications, and used his knowledge and expertise to make his dream house.
I had never seen this type of design before, but figure it was probably around in some giant machine somewhere. Having 4 different fluids all going through the same pipe, with redundant seals and sensors, is some next level stuff tho.
Rotary bottle or can fillers use the same design for the central column.
All ingenuity comes from something before. It’s possible he took inspiration from similar systems but I don’t think it discredits his achievements in the slightest. That design was awesome.
More so ones like engcon / steelwrist type hitches, not normal excavator hitches. It's a brilliant design and only suffers in lifting capacity.
That rotating core is an utterly mind-blowing feat of engineering genius. I still can't get over the idea that a house weighing God knows how many tons can rotate with a 1.5 hp motor.
All but proving Archimedes' statement: "Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world."
Keep in mind, it rotates very slowly. That fast-looking footage you saw was as x15 speed. It can do a full circle in 45 minutes, but that probably wears down the engine, and if so, most of the time it rotates much more slowly, like a quarter circle in 3-5 hours.
@@peterknutsen3070 Well it would be probably quite uncomfortable if it spun much faster than that!
@@peterknutsen3070 No, I understood that, it's just the idea of something with 1/10th the power of the average lawnmower being capable of moving that kind of tonnage at all. Just goes to show what a 25 to 1 gear ratio can achieve.
@@LRM12o8 Indeed, that's precisely why it's such an engineering marvel. When originally said he went with 5hp, I automatically assumed it was too little torque, only to be stunned by hearing it was more than 3 times the power he actually needed!
That slip ring for the water, sewer and gas is just like the hydraulic ring in the center of excavators. That’s absolutely brilliant use of one application in a completely different world if design.
Also used in automatic transmissions, to distribute pressurized oil to rotating clutch drums.
5:04 I dont care about the alarmed seals ! I want my fresh water ABOVE my sewerage 🤢
@@CFox.7Dont think you understand how it works. It wasnt even funny in this case
@@CFox.7 thought the exact same thing
@@CFox.7 With the kind of pressure they are under, it would make 100% difference if its above... if the seal broke it would just be forced up anyway due to the pressure
This man is an inspiration. Hope he lives longer than expected, I wish him and his family all the best!
As a science fiction author, hearing about how the utilities were transferred through a rotating bearing is so incredibly helpful for designing rotating space stations.
@PooPooDingDong456456 Like with any good world, building up the little details are very important. Readers appreciate those things so it's good to include them
@@PooPooDingDong456456 Chapters, no. A line or a paragraph here and there, sure, I could see that.
@@PooPooDingDong456456 It's very hard science fiction. Chapters? No. Is it mentioned? Yes, and I want it to be accurate.
@@kermanguy1877 ay a fellow hard science fiction writer :-D
There's another couple of real-world examples you might find interesting up on the Space Station - the Utility Transfer Assembly, which routes power and data across the Solar Alpha Rotary Joints and allows the solar panels to track the Sun through 360° without ever having to reverse; and the Flex Hose Rotary Couplers that route ammonia across the rotating joint on which the radiators are mounted, which allow for 210° of rotation.
That was cool of the homeowner to let you take his house for a spin. Seems like a well-rounded guy who was on top of his game. They told him it couldn't be done but he turned the tables on them.
Am I just going to roll over and submit to these puns?
Yes I am.
@@JoshuaTootell most wouldn't expect that twist
Only so many of these puns we can do, otherwise we'll just end up going in circles.
It’s a vicious cycle
This is making my head spin.
For those who are curious, Zillow has the house estimated at 5.3 million dollars, though the asking price is likely higher.
Especially after this video.
I bet that was an automatic estimate
that is not that much for San Diego, believe it or not
That's it??? That's a really low amount for such a view, house, construction and all that... Even in Eastern Europe such building would cost way more.
On the official page, it says "call for price" - the Zillow price is $5.3M, and that appears to be the actual asking price. Their 'zestimate', which can be wildly wrong, is $5.1. So only $200k more to get rotating :) I'll take 5 please!
Rotating structures are common in power generation systems where pollution control and heat exchange systems can use rotating components to transfer heat or collect and remove particulates from the exhaust system from boilers. I’ve built rotating components that are roughly the same dimensions as this house. This is definitely a great solution to an age old problem. A remarkable segment to share with us. Thank you so much.
An architect's dream is an engineer's nightmare
it's a good thing this dude was both!
@@Yorick257 an architectural engineer?
And yet it was easy for this gentleman.
@@busimagendon’t take it literally
You sound like Merlin...
It IS a crazy house idea, but even more crazy is the fact that it works!
Crazy?
@@oliverbertrandI was crazy once.
@@oliverbertrand I was crazy once.
They locked me in a room.
A rubber room.
A rubber room with rats.
The rats made me crazy.
Crazy? I was crazy once.
They locked me in a room.
A rubber room.
A rubber room with rats.
The rats made me crazy.
Never get into an argument in there. If you try to storm out you'll either hit the backyard or step out into eternity.
@@Krizzylyswhere tf is this from? i’ve seen it like 3 times
Huge kudos to Tom for using a graphic designer to explain how the core works - it's very easy to understand once you see it.
Didnt understand it at all 😅
@@OzOMegaThe core with the grooves doesn't rotate. It's the outer piece with the seals that does rotate. This is shown in the last animation when it's put all together. At least that's the part I had to rewatch!
@@OzOMega The component is called a 'Rotary Union' if you want to read more. Used a lot in electrical/pneumatic/hydraulic connections. His innovation of having a spare groove and sensor to detect any leaks is ingenious
Can we take a moment and realise this whole house moves on 1hp... that's incredible
pfft. I got a whole planet here that turns on nothing 😁
@@MattNolanCustom yea but unlike the house you can’t control how much it turns much less stop it.
@@johnlynch1353well, if we're being picky, we've changed the speed slightly as a by-product of building huge dams (in the same way that a figure skater doing a pirouette on the ice can speed up or slow down by drawing in or raising up their arms) and the Moon is constantly slowing us towards a stop.
The beauty of Gearing and Torque multiplication. As long as you are not in a hurry, you can move a lot of tonnage with little power. If the bearings are good, and there is some balance to the house, it probably does not require as much power as we would initially think. I do wonder why he downsized the motor when he put in the gearing? Material stresses? Packaging?
@@gamerjunction5335 I think he said so; too powerful and could therefore not get "up to speed".
Although that doesn't make sense, now that I write it. Unless that 5hp motor would have given the house light-speed in moving round, which is what you don't want.
So, my guess is that a 1.5hp motor at full throttle gives the house a decent rotation. A 5hp motor at 1/4 throttle gives it a bumpy ride.
You have 100% set these people up to sell their house quickly and at a good price just by making this video. Man deserves it
I COMPLETELY DISAGREE. This man wasted an enormous amount of time and money on a ridiculous toy that NO practical, responsible architect should ever repeat. He should create a trust fund to pay for the future demolition of this house in 40 years when it's fallen into an horrific dilapidated state because nobody wants it.
@@jban4457 whoever has the money to buy this property surely has the money to maintain it - and if they want build a new home on the million dollar + land it sits on I'm sure they can. Beleive it or not, many people have an appreciation for unique peices of engineering that are not meant to be mass replicated. I'd pay good money to see you at an art gallery without your pacifier.
@@jban4457 "wasted an enormous amount of time and money" The dude built his dream house and lived in it for 20 years. In no way shape or form could that be considered a waste of time and money. Not everything needs to be perfectly utilitarian one-size-fits-all commodities, its okay to build something weird and cool. Sure, it probably wont last forever and no one will truly appriciate it like the creator did, but so what? Who cares. Have some fun.
@@slamduncan1392 wrong
I think you're overestimating Tom's reach into the tiny portion of the population who would be a candidate for purchasing this house.
That real estate agent was a genius for 1) contacting Tom Scott and 2) only having the home owner interviewed
who else would be interviewed?
@@DevinDTV 😂 he meant the neighbors
@@DevinDTVthe agent
@@Heffalumpen guarantee Tom wouldn't have put the agent on there when he's got the subject matter expert who's a fellow nerd
@@DevinDTV The agent, because publicity for themselves.
I’ve always loved this house. From the late 90’s up until the end of 2001 I worked as a subcontractor for Cox Cable and was the tech that installed all the original RG-6 tv cable and digital receivers in this house during the final stages of construction. Truly amazing to see in person.
I'm trying to visualise how you pass coax through slip rings without compromising the shield...or do you just put an antenna on the rotating roof?
@@jay-em the answer is literally in the video...
@@MadMaxGyver I assume what is in the video is for unshielded copper pairs, eg. Ethernet.
@@jay-em Well you can do the same with one conductor + ground and shield the entire thing... (works with shielded twisted pairs too)
I grew up calling this house the space ship house. Always wondered what it looked like inside. Awesome to see it on TH-cam. Gotta forward the video to my brother.
My mother grew up in a small village in the Italian Alps. Some sixty years ago, a neighbour of her built an hexagonal house, with the idea of making it rotating, just like this one.
Everyone made fun of him and of his silly inventions; in fact, sixty years later, the hexagonal house is still there, but it never rotated, not even a degree.
I’ve always thought that his idea was genius, albeit impossible.
This video is of a huge satisfaction to me.
It's almost like this video was meant for you! Can't believe the itch in your brain that must have gotten satisfied after seeing this video, what an incredible case you described! I wish that neighbour would have gotten to know about this man, I'm sure the interaction would have been golden haha
Yes, but also really, really unnecessary. It's the let's build something special move. I do like the solution for the plumbing tho.
@@Limrasson, well shelter is a necessary component of life and if you are going to live somewhere why not enjoy it
@@Limrasson One man's "unnecessary" is another man's "cool as heck." In fact, those two attributes are quite often intertwined.
@@sirreginaldfishingtonxvii6149 No. Unnecessary is objective, cool as heck is subjective. I can think this is cool as heck while also say that it's completely unnecessary.
Those graphics were well worth whatever they cost, it made it super easy to understand, outstanding work Tom!
I like that guys honesty when it comes to facing death, I admire that kind of objective clarity
are we not, all, facing death?
@@chrisbecke2793bviously.
But most people legitimately believe they will live to 120 years old.
And will say this while drinking a beer and smoking a cigarette
Original poster is commenting on his acceptance of life/death.
Stop acting like you’re such a deep thinker with a dumb reply
@anonpers0n 100% of humans are facing death. I am sure there zero people that think they will live forever.
@@anthony5227wtf are you on about? Only 1 person in history has reached 120
@@strikerbowls791 He was exaggerating a bit but people do have unrealistic expectations. Like most people think they'll live till they are 90. Maybe if you have perfect health and good genetics, average life expectancy has been around 75-80. (probably going down since people live such unhealthy lifestyles these days). Well that means half the people will die before that.
Lovely to see clear (geo free?!) skies around that spectacular house. Great work.
I grew up less than a mile from that house- I remember when they started building it, thinking there was no way it could be done... now when I show visitors the amphitheater/ park at the top of Mt. Helix (technically La Mesa), I always stop to show them the rotating house... never met the folks, but had seen many newspaper etc stories in the past and they always seemed so charming!
because they weren't engineers and not even minimum technical. I believe all the neighborhood are all business men/lawyers or similar.
Me and the homies always smoked on the road that goes right below the house, its an amazing viewspot
same i see this house a lot, but never new it spun
Wtf this is in Mt Helix? I need to check it out!
@@emithesheep go up to the top, right before the gate entrance to the driveway to the amphitheater, it will be on your left, hanging off the mountain facing north
This house is a piece of engineering art. Can't just be sold to anyone with money. It needs someone who will take care of it.
Who ever buys it can surely afford to have it maintained.
"It belongs in a museum!"
which means: i agree.
As do all houses.
@@safffff1000just because they can doesn't mean they will though...
@@safffff1000 Yep. selling for 5.3 Million
i grew up in san diego and always heard about this house. i HAD to watch this vid when i saw the thumb cuz i knew right where that house was
Where abouts is it in SD?
@@Dontlagmebro The real estate listing is linked in the video description.
Does anyone know how much $ this house is listed for?
Same! Lived down the hill in La Mesa!
@@justinalias2279 zillow says 5.4m
I have no trouble believing that his house will sell very quickly after this video
And I wish them the happiest for the rest of their time together
It's amazing that he's had 14 heart operations and survived them all. I hope his luck continues to hold!
18 actually. He’s such a humble genius from what we can see in this video. Incredible!
well a large part of that is the luck of being rich
but still - best of health
@@SharienGaming I don't think there is much luck involved when the man is literally inventing new housing structures for fun. He is a highly skilled and probably sought after by independent contractors for his knowledge. People like that have a skill that "earned" them their money through hard work and effort. Luck probably has little to do with it
@@glazed6178 All the talent in the world, all the hard work, without luck counts for nothing. You need both.
He probably survived his heart problems by inventing cures.
He must have had a lot of faith in his design to put the Sewage compartment above the drinking water compartment.
i was thinking the same thing 😱 why tempt gravity?
I thought the same, but we don't actually know if the graphic is showing it correctly. It could be shown upside down to us -- but then again, there are two seals, so it's not likely to happen anytime soon.
@@nomindseye while we see the graphic he is saying the drinking water is below it and the gas is below that
If the seals were to fail, both "containers" would cross-contaminate each other. It doesn't matter which one is on top and which on bottom. Liquids will mix
The watersupply will be at a much higher pressure than the sewage, any leak will be of water flowing to the sewage not the other way
The fact that the man is selling it not to make a profit, but purely out of love and care for his wife is so wonderful. What a kind and intelligent man.
I THINK THIS IS FABULOUS! I've thought of a house like this for 50 years. Never figured how to do the piping except have a bigger core and the services and rooms there not turn. THIS is way better!!
Honestly this is the best $5 million house I’ve ever seen. Rich people usually have such terrible taste. This house isn’t just an engineering marvel, it’s also gorgeous design. Luxurious without being gaudy. All that glass without being a midcentury modern eyesore. The landscape is perfectly manicured.
The bit about the city engineer telling him he was making it too strong was golden. The one thing I’ll never understand about the rich and famous: spending all that money and doing the bare minimum for resiliency when you build in a liquefaction and wildfire zone. This home is also clearly going to be the last one standing in the neighborhood.
This dude is clearly filthy rich these days, but also clearly came from more modest means.
where did you see 5mil? it says to call for price on the listing. 5mil seems cheap for this view alone in todays market
I don't see why he clearly came from modest means, I wouldn't bet on that at all
@@maplejakeeI agree I’d be surprised if it’s only 5, unless it’s just way out of town maybe
Right!? For all we know he is a trust fund baby.., spending his dad relatives money. Who knows?
The fact that the man literally had to invent a mechanism that was patent-worthy to build the house really sold me… what a chad
I lived in California when this house was constructed and I remember it on the news!
This video was something I was waiting for for around 2 decades. I've always wondered how the plumbing/etc. worked and I never had a satisfactory explanation.
Thank you very much for commissioning an artist to create a 3D visual. I needed this.
I would never build a house like that just for the maintenance alone, but this man decided to do it and designed his own parts to solve problems he didn't need to have. I'm impressed.
He literally says maintenance is one hour of lubing every year, that's nothing
There’s probably more then just 1h a year maintenance, that’s just the mandatory annual maintenance. But all the same I doubt the maintenance is worse then a normal house unless the shaft goes out, but from he said that’s unlikely.
@@gracelandtoo6240 I would be absolutely paranoid to use normal toilet paper and/or my sink macerator.
He reminds me of my grandpa. He can be annoying to work with when building things because it takes forever, but he does a perfect job every time. If he is willing to build something, he will not stop until that thing is as perfect as it can possibly be.
When an engineer builds and doesn't need to get the beancounter's permission
I've seen many people build their own home. But to engineer their own home is truly crazy.
The craziest thing to me is the minimal amount of Horsepower needed to turn the house
Right?
Gearing is everything. With a robust enough set of gears you could rotate the earth with a bicycle. Albeit slowly.
Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand, and I shall move the world. - Archimedes of Syracuse
Also, the whole thing is in balance, there isn't really any notable lifting/falling to counteract
@@lewisgann280 kinda a waste when it's already rotating tho
This is a man who definitely earned his success. The man got a patent just to get his house built, ignored all the haters, and fixed problems that less competent people left behind. A true genius.
We don't know how he got to be rich enough to do this. Just because he's smart enough to manage this vanity, project doesn't mean he deserves his success. He could have inherited his money or made from a payday loan company.
@@angermyodeok
Oh stop, there's no "haters" .. ffs that's a cop out word for people who don't understand, others can know more than themselves.
@@angermyodeif he inherited the money required to do this the probability he would have designed and built it mostly himself is close to zero.
People who don't work for their money make their money work for them.
@@angermyodePathetic mentality. The guy is obviously a genius and almost certainly earned every penny with that mind.
After the OceanGate debacle, it's quite refreshing to find an eccentric rich person who actually knows what they're doing and cares about safety.
Untill this thing slides of the mountain don't jinx in mate
@@DankDungeon it's been there for 20 years doubt it'll slip off it like the ocengate guy
I do not think the oceangate founder was an eccentric rich person. Only his passangers were. Te OG guy was just a cheapo narc idiot.
@@VeinDeeplnTheSoIution well, oceangate existed somehow 14 years
@@W01demar submersive only dove 4 times tho. this mf been spinning since 2000's
This guy is my hero. I struggle to decide which type of paint I want to use.
For anyone interested, this is exactly the design used in construction excavators, which can freely swing around 360 degrees while still sending hydraulic fluid to power the tracks.
Must not be exactly the same or he wouldn't have been issued a patent on it. Either that or the excavators are paying him to use it.
@@mattbosley3531 Even without seeing the ones in an excavator I can already thing of several potential differences caused by the difernces in use case that would be enough to warrent a patent. The changes don't generally have to be as big as one might think. (heck, even if the actual device wasn't different, sometimes simply using it in this fasion would be enough, if how one goes about doing so is different enough from how one uses it in the excavator).
But it's still fundamentally the same technology.
@@mattbosley3531You don't patent ideas, you patent designs. Al didn't come up with the idea of having multiple pipes in an axis, he just made one design with that idea.
Absolutely just being nitpicky, but I'm sure construction excavators don't have four mutually exclusive fluid lines in that swivel joint that if mixed would lead to instant catastrophic failure.
@@DuckPerc They still have to work and work faster and more frequently than a rotating house. Excavators run for many years with minimal maintenance .
Mr. Johnstone seems to be an incredible intelligent yet humble man who is really at peace with himself. Being so open with both his inventions and his health, without any sign of arrogance or anything like that. Thanks for sharing!
The video shows that the invention was patented, so it is already out there, this is just giving a more open explanation of it.
@@huleboermannhule44 Patented by him.
The danger of cross contamination is quite low, because drinking water and gas supply are under pressure, whereas the 2 waste waters are under slight vacuum.
If additional "peace of mind" were required, a drain connection could be added to the space monitored by the sensors. Any water leak would then be seen in the transparent drain hose.
Quite an ingenious arrangement and not that complex. I'd buy it if I lived down there and could afford it.
Despite such assurances, I wouldn't put the sewer waste water at the top.
@@ianthomson9363 Yea that was my thought. It should go top to bottom gas -> fresh water -> grey water -> sewer.
If something ruptured, it being above or below doesn't matter at all. Gravity will not make a meaningful difference.
Seems like it's upside-down to me, I'd much rather have gas on top and the sewer line on the bottom, that way if it does leak it's at least more likely for the drinking water to still be drinkable. Actually if I was building it I'd put potable water through a second slip ring on the rooftop. 😂
@@bobnine That's only because you are looking at it without the knowledge required (no offense) to make these assessments. It is just a 'feeling' people have that it would matter, but in reality there won't be a noticeable difference between positions of different products except for which will mix with which when a seal would break.
Inspiring engineering. And the design looks so contemporary! That's what I call mastery. 🙌 The owner deserves a long and healthy life.
As a San Diego native who drives by this house frequently on quests to the top of Mount Helix, it's fascinating to finally see inside the marvel. My friends and I have long speculated about how the house functions, thanks for finally providing us with the insights, Tom!
Same here!
I have family that lives in San Diego, with a view of that house. It’s really cool to finally understand the details of how it works!!! This house broke my brain for over a decade, and it finally makes some sense. Thanks Tom for showcasing some really cool engineering!
The cut at 0:17 is such a subtle moment of great filmmaking. Since there is no camera operator next to Tom when it goes to the drone, that means that these have to be seperate takes. And yet it's so seamless I didn't realize until I rewinded a couple times. Seriously great stuff!
Kinda looks like they added him into the drone shot, the lighting looks off
@kassthered8452 Holy cow!! I didn't even notice it, great job pointing it out. Also props to Tom as always
I reckon the camera operator had enough time to run before the drone panned out?
Good eye, @kassthered8452!
@@LAOTG doesn't work with the transition back from the full shot at 0:27
In a quaint residential area of Casablanca known as Anfa in Morocco, this particular concept has been in existence since the 1960s. Surprisingly, that house still stands today and continues to function perfectly by rotating. Locals affectionately refer to it as “la maison camembert,” translating to the Camembert house in English. It’s truly remarkable how two architects, separated by both distance and a different time - one in Casablanca and the other in San Diego - independently conceived the same innovative idea. So captivating !
Al seems like the kind of person who makes it work. Like, no matter what it is and how impossible it seems, he seems like the kind of guy who just goes ahead and solves the problem . My respect.
What a nice man the owner seems to be 😊 not only did he let you visit and take video footage, he sat down and explained everything with you 😊
The most interesting part of this video is not how the rotating house look like for the interior, is the inside structure how it put together. Awesome video.
The owner is an incredible engineer, hope he lives for a much longer time than expected!
He already has!
I used to live on Mt. Helix, and my family and I would drive by this house all the time. Really cool to see you cover such a vivid, mysterious staple of my childhood - my dad would always tell me the house rotated internally, but I didn't believe him until I researched it in the past year or two. Thanks for the nostalgia hit!
Quite a remarkable house, but an equally remarkable inventor; not just for the ingenious central hub solution, but also for his love and dedication to his wife. Thanks for hiliting this, Tom.
Another solution would have been to write a very clear owner's manual and fund a maintenance contact.
@@tactileslut well he'll probably do something as such for the new home owners - but realistically if all of his wife's family is elsewhere he is right and it is the most sensible option for her once he's passed
the reason for selling is genuinely so unexpectedly sad but the man is wholesom af
7:00 God bless that man, putting his wife's future in the forefront.
That really touched me ❤
Mr. Johnston certainly has had plenty of time to enjoy his dream home, and I tip my hat to him for choosing to sell it while he can still teach the buyer how to properly maintain the mechanism. Truly a remarkable man, who has given San Diego a truly iconic landmark of a house.
What I especially love about all this is that it doesn't only work, it seems to work *consistently* with all problems solved. There are no loose ends. It's not a gimmick just to have it. If more people would want to design rotating houses they wouldn't need to look much further than adapting this design just like you would do when creating a water faucet or a wheel.
It establishes what feels like solid standard even though it's a unique piece.
Indeed if there was one of-the-shelf rotating house-supply system that already comes in with water/waste/electricity/networking all in one working peace we could see a lot more rotating houses everywhere.
This man is incredible, that building is a work of art. One of a kind engineering is something you almost never will see.
Thank you so much for commissioning the animations! When this came up for sale and started making the rounds, I was also frustrated with everyone glossing over the details of how the connections work. I grew up near this house and we used to drive by it all the time, so it's so nice finally understand how the mechanics work
Making the rounds.
Heh.
Visited a family member in Arizona decades ago, the widow of a leading solar scientist. Their house was a showroom of solar -- solar heated-cooled-powered everything. But after he died, the house gradually reverted to off-the-shelf HVAC. The seller is making a good choice to get the structure into someone else's hands while he is still able to advise for a few more years.
Yea, and since he'll only be 20 minutes away, I'll bet he'll spend a lot of time in his old workshop when his health permits.