landed

Futuro house

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.

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.

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 program me.

The text is from the page:
htpp:/www.berting.nl/futuro