Futuro house

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Futuro House from Playboy February 1970 .

[edit] Introduction

The Futuro house was a product of post-war Finland, reflecting the period's faith in technology, the conquering of Space, unprecedented economic growth and an increase in leisure time. Designed by architect Matti Suuronen as a ski cabin that would be “quick to heat and easy to construct in rough terrain,” the end result was a universally transportable home that had the ability to be mass replicated and situated in almost any environment.

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 Seinajoki. To facilitate transport, the house consisted of 16 elements that were bolted together to form the floor and the roof. The project could be constructed on site, or more ideally the house could be dismantled and reassembled in two days, or airlifted in one piece by helicopter to its site. The only necessity on site for its placement were four concrete piers. Given this condition, the project could occupy nearly any topography.

Due to the integrated polyurethane insulation and electric heating system, the house could be heated to a comfortable temperature in only thirty minutes, from -20 to 60 degrees (from Marko Home and Mika Taanila Futuro: Tomorrow's House from Yesterday).

An exceprt from a Febuary 1970 copy of Architecture D’Aujourd’Hui describes “Futuro” as 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. The segments of the elliptic envelope are assembled on the site using a metal footing. Through its shape and materials used, the house can be erected in very cold moutains or even by the sea. The area is 50 sq m, the volume 140 cubic m, divided by adaptable partitions.

By the mid 1970s the house was taken off the market, arguably due to poor marketing, but primarily due to the Oil Crisis where tripled gasoline prices made manufacture of plastic extremely expensive. It is estimated that today somewhere between 60 and 100 of the original Futuro homes survive.

[edit] External References

Futuro House. Net A comprehensive site documenting the history of the Futuro house maintaining a record of the remaining homes and providing a series of other external references.