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. Only 96 Futuro houses were ever built. Besides the 48 made in Finland, also at least 48 were manufactured abroad on license. But new information reveals that about 20 Futuro houses were recently rediscovered in Taiwan.

Settings	Description	Image source
	An ideal week-end cottage for the family of tomorrow	Ektroverde
	Somewhere in Australia	Modernpostmodern 09
	Apres ski	Modernpostmodern 09
	On the beach	Phil Ponce
	In the desert	Ektroverde
	A view by night	Corbis
	Dombai, Soviet Union, at an altitude of 3000 metres	Nordische Filmtage Lübeck
	Film director Mika Taanila in Ahvenanmaa, 1997	Ektroverde
	Thames River, London, 1969	Ektroverde
	The Centraal Museum, Utrecht, The Netherlands still keeps a prototype	Centraal Museum
	A small picture	Icon 20
	On a hill side	Kataloog2
	In the snow	Helsingin Sanomat
	At an exhibition	Designboom
Interior	Description	Image source
	The bed-seats	Helsingin Sanomat
	Around the fire place	Ektroverde
	Space age	Ektroverde
	Fish eye view	Ektroverde
	The kitchen	Modernpostmodern 09
Construction	Description	Image source
	Disassembling in New Zealand	Modernpostmodern 09
	Unbolting	Modernpostmodern 09
	Taken further apart	Modernpostmodern 09
	Paul McNeil standing in front of the disassembled pieces	Modernpostmodern 09
	Ready for shipment to Australia	Modernpostmodern 09
Transport	Description	Image source
	Suspended from a helicopter	IMKP 2000
	Artists impression	Modernpostmodern 09
	A moveable home	Ferrocement
	Stockholm 22 October 1969	Ektroverde
	Stockholm 22 October 1969	Image, international festival for architecture in video
Miscellaneous	Description	Image source
	Scale models. One of modular tower construction, and on top of a gas station	Ektroverde
	Blueprints	Modernpostmodern 09
	Oval windows	Léonce - Architektur
	Mika Taanila holding a scale model	IMKP 2000
Movie clips	Description	Movie source
	Plastic houses, featuring the Futuro house	Modernpostmodern 09
	A look inside the Futuro house	Modernpostmodern 09

Seventies design