Arch Out Loud and Last House on Mulholland recently hosted the HOLLYWOOD design competition. The idea is for participants to design a “house of the future” that showcases innovative technologies while integrating environmental strategies, all the while taking full advantage of the open lot just beneath the iconic Hollywood sign in Los Angeles. 

When you think of Hollywood homes you usually think of ostentatious mansions behind shiny gates chock-full of luxury amenities. So naturally the winner of the contest is … a giant, rotating, blob.

Meet “Ambivalent House,” which CityLab describes as looking like, “A big, rubber kickball that’s been blasted with a shotgun and is in the process of deflating.” It might not seem like it at first, but this single-family home design is full of surprises.

The outer structure of the house actually rotates around a fixed core. While you wouldn’t be able to notice the movement moment by moment, the house would never look the same to anyone who passes it by on the outside every day.

Water lines and gas lines would run through the fixed core but solar energy would be collected by the outer shell, which means residents would be off-the-grid if they choose. The photovoltaic skin of the exterior would also allow for sunlight to peek through, making it so residents aren’t constantly in the dark.

The interior living space isn’t defined too strongly, but seems to include an entry floor that organizes around the core of the construct, an open second floor that would likely form the bedroom, and a roof terrace that is “both roof and room.”

The design is certainly unique but could it actually ever be built? Nick Graham of Arch Out Loud certainly thinks so.

“It may be the realization of a particular proposal, or it may be a combination of ideas that were submitted to the competition. The Hollywood competition is a forward-thinking design exercise, with construction in its future.”

Inside Rendering