By the 50s, they often featured in films, among them The Day the Earth Stood Still, Forbidden Planet and Earth vs the Flying Saucers. Flying saucers had emerged in the late 1920s, brilliantly imagined and drawn in American pulp magazines such as Amazing Stories and Science Wonder Stories. Photograph: Bettmann Archiveīorn in 1933, Suuronen claimed the Futuro was purely an application of mathematics, but many believe he was influenced – perhaps subliminally – by science fiction. Motorists often took lengthy detours to visit it.ĭream on … House of the Future, built by Monsanto at Disneyland in 1957. Another of his creations was a petrol station in Lempäälä, south-west Finland, made principally from plastic. Suuronen pioneered the use of reinforced plastic and manmade materials such as polyester resin, fibreglass and acrylic. And, because it measured a mere eight metres across, the pod could be transported on a flat-bed lorry or hoisted into position by helicopter.
#Spaceship house portable
Cooking was done using a portable “fire box”. It had fixed seats, a kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms and a central table. The curved shape meant snow couldn’t settle.
The cabin housed eight people and was held aloft by steel legs. “The family needed a place on the steep hill where they could stay for the weekend, warm up and have some meals.” “He had been commissioned by a childhood friend to design a cabin on a ski slope,” says his daughter Sari.
It was designed by a Matti Suuronen, an architect and keen volleyball player who was part of Finland’s national league. The Futuro looked as if it came from outer space, but actually it was from outer Finland. “I thought it was ungracious to treat an old lady in such a fashion and, over five insane days, bought it, had it dismantled and arranged for it to be shipped to the UK.” Photograph: Espoo City Museumīarnes learned of plans to relocate the Futuro to the grounds of a guesthouse, where inflatable green “aliens” would be installed and dry ice pumped from underneath. Planning the future … Matti Suuronen, who pioneered the use of reinforced plastic. I panicked and managed to trace the owner.” I drove past in 2013 and workers were knocking down a garage next to it.
“I have family out there,” he says, “and I’d been seeing this Futuro since I was about three. One belongs to Craig Barnes, an artist based in London, who saw a Futuro in a “dishevelled and tired” state while on holiday in Port Alfred, South Africa. Aficionados estimate that of the 100 or so made, only 68½ (more on the half later) remain. But as the Futuro celebrates its 50th anniversary, the revolution it promised clearly never happened. Nicknamed the Flying Saucer and the UFO House, it was symbolic of the ambitious space-race era. A colourful pod in the shape of an ellipse, the Futuro was a sci-fi vision of the future, offering us a living space light years away from what most of us were used to. Unlike those other staples of an imagined future, however, this architectural oddity actually existed. L ike jetpacks, flying cars and robot butlers, the Futuro was supposed to revolutionise the way we lived.