70' s Futuro house

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.

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 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

Latest news : Futuro House now to be visited in Rotterdam, Netherlands

May 8th, 2011. MUST SEE...

The very first Futuro prototype (# 001) can now be visited in Rotterdam, Netherlands at the museum Boijmans van Beuningen. There is also the possibility to view the completely restored original interior. The exhibition "Futuro - Constructing Utopia" will be from from May 21 2011 until October 9 2011.

More information about the exhibition at Boijmans.

A video about The Futuro, the house of the future, being rebuilt.

An article with a video about the Futuro House on display at the Boijmans exhibition.

View the exhibition press release (PDF).

	Matti Suuronen, Futuro (design 1968). Polyester and various materials. Prototype purchased with the support of BankGiro Loterij 2007. Photo: Jelle Brandt Corstius
	Matti Suuronen, Futuro (1968), prototype. Polyester and various materials. Purchased with the support of BankGiro Loterij 2007. © Centraal Museum, Utrecht. Photo: Maurice Boyer

WeeGee's Futuro House

The WeeGee Exhibition Centre has acquired the first ever mass-produced Futuro house (no. 001), which was owned by Matti Kuusla from summer 1968 to autumn 2011 and located in Hirvensalmi. The Futuro, exposed to the elements for over 40 years, will first be carefully restored and then brought to WeeGee’s courtyard, where it will be open to the public from 8 May to 16 September 2012. The Futuro exhibition is part of the Design Capital programme.

On this Facebook page the story of Futuro no. 001 will be closely monitored by conservator Sami Supply, who is in charge of restoring the house, and Futuro historian Marko Home, who is the producer of WeeGee's Futuro exhibition.

Lists of other located Futuro Houses around the world

WAM | Architecture tagged with Futuro Houses

The Futuro House Project - Information, Photos & Locations

Other websites

Futuro House - Home of the Future

Welcome to FuturoHouse.net

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Settings	Description
	An ideal week-end cottage for the family of tomorrow
	Somewhere in Australia
	Apres ski
	On the beach
	In the desert
	A view by night
	Dombai, Soviet Union, at an altitude of 3000 metres
	Film director Mika Taanila in Ahvenanmaa, 1997
	Thames River, London, 1969
	The Centraal Museum, Utrecht, The Netherlands still keeps a prototype
	A small picture
	On a hill side
	In the snow
	At an exhibition
Interior	Description
	The bed-seats
	Around the fire place
	Space age
	Fish eye view
	The kitchen
Construction	Description
	Disassembling in New Zealand
	Unbolting
	Taken further apart
	Paul McNeil standing in front of the disassembled pieces
	Ready for shipment to Australia
Transport	Description
	Suspended from a helicopter
	Artists impression
	A moveable home
	Stockholm 22 October 1969
	Stockholm 22 October 1969
Miscellaneous	Description
	Scale models. One of modular tower construction, and on top of a gas station
	Blueprints
	Oval windows
	Mika Taanila holding a scale model
Movie clips	Description
	Plastic houses, featuring the Futuro house
	A look inside the Futuro house

Seventies design