Significance The control of matter at the molecular scale is a key requirement for the development of smart materials and artificial molecular machines. A challenging but promising platform in this emergent field of science is the development of crystalline materials with components that experience motion in a structurally predetermined manner, such that changes in their state of motion and the collective orientation of suitably functionalized molecules may lead to useful thermal, dielectric, and optical properties in response to external physical or chemical influences. Here, we describe a metal organic framework with elements that have no steric hindrance or electronic barriers, such that they can rotate in the solid as fast as they would it if they were in the gas phase.