This beautiful family house in a small town in northern Bosnia is in its way a monument to love designed by a 72-year-old man. The house in Srbac was designed by Vojin Kusic for his wife. It has a green facade and red metal roof and the specialty of the house, it can rotate a full circle. It is designed to satisfy his wife Ljubica’s shifting desires so that she can be able to see all her surroundings when she looks out of its windows.
Kusic said, “After I reached an advanced age and after my children took over the family business, I finally had enough time to task myself with granting my wife her wish.” He designed the house so that his wife can change the position of rooms in her house whenever she wants. Many years ago when they married, Kusic had built another house which was similar to this one. It was for himself and his wife in which they raised their three children and grew their family together.
Well, his wife wanted their bedrooms to face the sun, so they did. But this led to their living room facing away from the road. Later after some time, he says his wife complained saying “she could not see people entering our front yard” and Kusic had to reconstruct the house. “I had to tear down the wall between our two bedrooms to turn them into a living room and move all (electrical) installations. It was a very demanding task, it took a lot from me, but I did what she wanted,” he added.
Later, six years ago, the only one of Kusic’s three children not to fly the nest, a son, got married. The couple then planned that they will let their son live on the top floor of the house. The parents decided to move to the ground floor of the house. Kusic said, “Once again, this time on the ground floor, I had to start tearing down some walls, at which point, to not wait for her to change her mind again, I decided to build a new, rotating house so that she can spin it as she pleases.”
Kusic never went to college, but still managed to use his skills to design and build his rotating house by himself. He used all-electric motors and the wheels of an old military transport vehicle to rotate the house. “Now, our front door also rotates, so if she spots unwanted guests heading our way, she can spin the house and make them turn away,” he joked. In Bosnian, Kusic’s wife’s name means “loved one.”
