Spaceship house series#

001, the only other Futuro currently in a public collection, is in the possession of the WeeGee Exhibition Centre in Espoo, Finland. The prototype (serial number 000) is in the collection of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Fewer than 100 were made and it is estimated that today around 60 of the original Futuro Houses survive, owned mostly by private individuals. These problems provide context to the discontinuation of the Futuro House. Additionally, the public was shifting their view of plastics from a miracle material to an ecological concern. Synthetics became very expensive to produce. The oil crisis of 1973 led to an abrupt halt in plastic production. Some have been vandalised in drive-by shootings. Shortly after the turn of the century, a Futuro House was purchased on Broadkill Beach, Delaware, United States, and destroyed to make way for a double-wide modular home. In 1999, the city of Tampa ordered a Futuro House demolished. Some customers who committed to buy them backed out and forfeited their non-refundable $1,000 deposits. In the United States, Futuro Houses were banned from many municipalities by zoning regulations. The first Futuro House that was erected near Lake Puulavesi in Finland elicited public protest because it looked too unnatural for the rustic environment. Its avant-garde appearance and unfamiliar material influenced the public’s reluctance to accept the Futuro House. From the beginning, it had been met with public hostility. The area is 50 sq m, the volume 140 cubic m, divided by adaptable partitions.īy the mid-1970s, the house was taken off the market. Through its shape and materials used, the house can be erected in very cold mountains or even by the sea. The segments of the elliptic envelope are assembled on the site using a metal footing.

Spaceship house series#

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. Īn excerpt from a February 1970 copy of Architecture d’aujourd’hui describes 'Futuro' as: Due to the integrated polyurethane insulation and electric heating system, the house could be heated to a comfortable temperature in only thirty minutes, from −29 to 16 ☌ (−20 to 60 ☏). The only necessity on site for its placement were four concrete piers, so the project could occupy nearly any topography. 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. To facilitate transport, the house consisted of 16 elements that were bolted together to form the floor and the roof. 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. Futuro House at University of Canberra, Australia