A spherical'ish¹ dwelling, all the lightweight amenities and furniture built in (and secured) on the inside wall. As the occupant walks from room to room the house tilts and rolls along a number of shallow ditches on the property. Make a left turn to go into the kitchen and the house rolls left too. The paths within the house match the complex ditch outside the house. The design is obligate polyouroborostic, so the house won't wander off the property.

Houses on small lots ride atop a bebearinged pedestal, without changing their ground position.

Larger, heavier, houses use a motor-driven internal ballast (central water tank, universal paddler), or gyroscope to assist.

---

¹ "ish" because only the portions that ride in the channels have to be spherical arcs while in motion²: the rest can deviate from the spherical shape as much as the ditch spacing allows.

² In order to keep floors level while the occupant is in the room, while not necessitating standing or sitting in the room's exact weight-distribution centre, the "sweet spot" is increased:

- The track arcs are spring steel which flatten out against the underside of the room's flat floor. This enables regenerative stop/start rolling, mitigating positive or negative momentum while walking into or out of a room, as well as keeping the floor level while the occupant is inside.

- In the larger active roll-management houses, friction plays a large part in keeping the floor level, while doorway sensors between rooms control the machinery.
-- FlyingToaster, May 28 2013

(+) from me.
I just can't help thinking about the next generation after these houses become mainstream having to listen to the grandfolks' tales of how, in their day, they had to walk uphill no matter which way they tried to go.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, May 28 2013


Well it would actually be uphill and downhill: uphill to get moving and downhill to stop, as the occupant started/stopped walking to compensate for momentum at both ends of the journey. Both the passive and active models compensate for that, there would be little up/down walking in the passive regenerative model and none in the active model.
-- FlyingToaster, May 28 2013


It'd be a real pisser if you filled the bath and then remembered you left the towel somewhere else.

Edit: or the baby...
-- Ling, May 28 2013


Well yes, but isn't it always ? Anyways, no bathroom is complete without a macaw towel-attendant.

Of course since the in-use room is the lowest point in the dwelling, unless you actually velcro'd the baby to a wall somewhere (see p.49 User's Manual), it would find you.
-- FlyingToaster, May 28 2013


It'd be nice to go for a walk while talking with grandfolks at the same time.

The only Google hit for "polyouroborostic" is this. It didn't wander off the property. [+]
-- 4and20, May 29 2013


It's the only genuine hit for "bebearinged", too. [+]
-- Wrongfellow, May 29 2013


[+] hamster bun!
-- xandram, May 29 2013


Inspired by a comment elsewhere by [bungston], it could also work as a large waterborne housezorb.
-- FlyingToaster, Mar 15 2016


What the hell? Why didn't I bun this? When did this slip by me. Dern it. Have a bun now, it's stale but it's still a bun.
-- blissmiss, Mar 16 2016


What if more than one person is in the house?
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 16 2016


^ Then, either...

a) casual visitors only

b) newlyweds

c) the 2nd floor (or first floor, depending on which side of the pond you're on), freespinning at the core, is the lounge

d) heaviest person wins.
-- FlyingToaster, Mar 17 2016


If you bought a piano, you'd have to buy another one.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 17 2016


The piano would make a nice offset for the cast iron chandelier.
-- FlyingToaster, Mar 21 2016


Thing is, the footprint of this house (ie, the area it needs to be able to roll around in, to make each room horizontal) would the same as a regular one- storey house of the same floor area.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 21 2016


mmmmm, not the area of the sphere so much as the area that will be horizontal at one time or another (and the internal paths don't have to be straight lines: if there's a curved path you could walk a bit and end up at the same point on the lawn but with a different orientation).

Assumedly it would probably take up a bit more space, mostly because of overhang, but there would still be plenty of room for picnic tables, trees and parking.

Freewheeling on a pedestal it takes up the pi r ^2 area of a circle, not the 4 pi r^3 of a sphere.
-- FlyingToaster, Mar 21 2016


//the 4 pi r^3 of a sphere.//

sp.: 4 pi r^2
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 21 2016


I knew it was one of those :D
-- FlyingToaster, Mar 21 2016



random, halfbakery