SRBAC, Bosnia-Herzegovina—It’s not exactly on par with India’s Taj Mahal, but a family house in a small town in northern Bosnia is in its own way a monument to love.
The house in Srbac was designed and built by 72-year-old Vojin Kusic. With a green facade and red metal roof, it can rotate a full circle to satisfy his wife Ljubica’s shifting desires as to what she would like to see when she looks out of its windows.
“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” to be able to change the position of rooms in her house whenever she wants, Kusic said.
Many years ago when they married, Kusic had built another, typical house for himself and his wife in which they raised their three children. At the time, his wife wanted their bedrooms to face the sun, so they did. But this meant their living room faced away from the road. After a while, he says his wife complained that “she could not see people entering our front yard” and Kusic had to remodel everything.
“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 said.
Then six years ago, the only one of Kusic’s three children not to fly the nest, a son, got married and his parents decided to let him live on the top floor of their family house while they moved to the ground floor.
“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, so that she can spin it as she pleases,” Kusic said.
Kusic, who did not have a chance to go to college, designed and built his rotating house by himself, using electric motors and the wheels of an old military transport vehicle.
“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, his wife’s name means “loved one.” She declined to be interviewed.
