Time of the season: Apartment is rolling with the changes

Tehran – Usually the only thing that changes about a house is how much you turn up the heating, depending on the time of year.

In Tehran, the temperature moves between cold winters and hot summers, so Next Office has created a house with swivelling sections to open the space up in the summer, and close it in the winter.

The turning pods on the Sharifi-ha House can rotate 90-degrees to increase the view and to better ventilate the rooms in the summer. As the days become colder, the pods can be turned back in order to provide more protection from the elements. The pods are turned using a German-built motor that is often used for revolving theatre sets and car shows.

‘The openness and closure of the building is a reference to traditional Iranian houses, which offer both a winter and a summer living room,’ says Alireza Taghaboni, founder of Next Office.

Architects are starting to create houses that can better adapt to the changing seasons. In Hakuba, Japan, Naka Architects built a villa with a changeable fourth wall.