It’s no secret that we’re partial to a good geometrical structure but when we heard that it is also able to rotate a full 360 degrees, we knew we wanted more. Luckily for us this came in the form of a compelling 17-minute film by Marcel Meili and Christoph Schaub which unviels the story of ’Il Girasole’ the rotating modernist house built into the Po Valley hillside in northern Italy.
Watch the video about Il Girasole
Affectionately termed ’The Sunflower’, the house was built in the 1930s by architects Angelo Invernizzi and Ettore Fagiuoli, with the help of their artist, sculptor, furniture-maker and architect friends.
Powered by an electric motor, Il Girasole is able to rotate a full 360 degrees on its circular base, highly radical in the way that all the components of the house (including its courtyard) are part of the structure’s rotational sphere. The film is simple and direct, juxtaposing the unveiling of the imposing house’s engineering detail and history with intimate re-enactments of the architect and his wife interacting with the space, narrated throughout by the architect’s daughter.
An education into the purest aspirational form of architecture, the film shows how the intention to build a space can be brought from conception to finished construction without compromise, a demonstration that even the most ambitious undertakings can be seen as prototypes for future structures.
The hallway of Il Girasole, where a switch built into the wall (on the left hand side of in this picture) is able to turn on the electric motor that starts the rotation of the house
Built in the 1930s by architects Angelo Invernizzi and Ettore Fagiuoli, the house is also affectionately know as ’The Sunflower’, perhaps for the characteristic way it turns around the landscape to gradually face a new vista each time
Used as a retreat from city life, the house only rotates when it is occupied
There is no particular reason for the preference, but when the house is empty, it stays turned towards the valley
Marcel Meili and Christoph Schaub’s film of Il Girasole has been recently released in conjunction with a 48 page hardback booklet containing 16 colour and 10 black and white illustrations
The construction costs for Il Girasole were substantial at the time. Wanting to follow through the intention that nothing should be bult as before, the build continued, with the architects inviting their artist, sculptor, furniture-makers and architect friends to participate
The film is an education into the purest aspirational form of architecture, of how a simple intention to build a space can be brought from conception to finished construction
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