The retro modern home of the future

Finnish architect Matti Suuronen designed this UFO shaped dwelling in 1968, initially for use as a ski-cabin or holiday home.

The idea behind the design reflects the optimism of the sixties. At the time people believed technology could solve all problems for the human race. The ideal was of a new era, a space-age, where everybody would have more leisure time to spend on holidays away from home.

The Futuro house was completely furnished and could accommodate 8 people. It was constructed entirely out of reinforced plastic, a new, light and inexpensive material back then. The plan was to mass-produce it, so it would be cheap enough to house all people around the earth. Because it was so light-weight, it was easily transportable by helicopter. Mobile living was the new possibility for the future. People could now take their moveable home with them, to wherever they went, and live like modern nomads.

The “Spaceship House” located in Pensacola Beach, Florida.

Unfortunately the 1973 oil crisis spoiled all these plans. Prices of plastic raised production costs too high to be profitable. Fewer than 100 Futuro houses were ever built. Besides the 20 made in Finland, a few dozen were manufactured abroad on license. Recently 12 Futuro copies were discovered in Taiwan.

Futuro house sales brochure

Futuro specifications:
- polyester exterior 
- colors white, light-blue, yellow or red
- height 4 meters
- diameter 8 meters
- weight 4000 kilos
- floor space 25 square meters
- 20 oval shaped windows
- retractable stairs entrance
- 6 bed-seats plus 1 double bed-seat
- central fire place and bbq
- kitchen
- bathroom with toilet
- moveable by helicopter

The Futuro house was a product of post-war Finland, reflecting the period’s faith in technology, the conquering of space, unprecedented economic growth, and an increase in leisure time. It was designed by Suuronen as a ski cabin that would be “quick to heat and easy to construct in rough terrain.” The end result was a universally transportable home that had the ability to be mass replicated and situated in almost any environment.

The material chosen for the project – fiberglass reinforced polyester plastic – was familiar to Suuronen and was previously used in the design of a large plastic dome for the roof of a grain silo in Seinäjoki. To facilitate transport, the house consisted of 16 elements that were bolted together to form the floor and the roof. The project could be constructed on site, or dismantled and reassembled on site in two days, or even airlifted in one piece by helicopter to the site. The only necessity on site for its placement were four concrete piers, so the project could occupy nearly any topography.

An excerpt from a February 1970 copy of Architecture D’Aujourd’Hui describes “Futuro” as:

the first model in a series of holiday homes to be licensed in 50 countries, already mass-produced in the United States, Australia and Belgium. The segments of the elliptic envelope are assembled on the site using a metal footing. Through its shape and materials used, the house can be erected in very cold mountains or even by the sea. The area is 50 sq m, the volume 140 cubic m, divided by adaptable partitions.

By the mid 1970s the house was taken off the market, arguably due to poor marketing, but primarily due to the Oil Crisis where tripled gasoline prices made manufacture of plastic extremely expensive. It is estimated that today around 50 of the original Futuro homes survive, owned mostly by private individuals. The prototype is in the collection of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Here’s a happy Futuro family hanging out in the built-in seating area of the living room, above (do you think the kids have Tang in those cups?), and a mom cooking up something in the streamlined kitchen, below:

Here’s the interior of the Wisconsin Futuro’s kitchen today, which is much less colorful (I wonder if these cabinets used to be red, too?):

Check out the cool purple fireplace. And the model’s white go-go boots:

sources:hookedonhouses.net,cultofweird.com,artelesnetwork.wordpress.com,berting.nl