The Futuro House
Pop furniture by Verner Panton
Originally designed by Finnish architect Matti Suuronen for a friend who wanted a mobile holiday chalet. It is made of Polykerm fibreglass and is a rare example of Pop culture architecture from the heroic Space Age, encapsulating the utopian themes of the 60s and 70s, when advances in technique fired the inventiveness of uninhibited creators. With some 60 m² of living space, 8 m in diameter under a 3,35 m-high roof, its design remains revolutionary today. Stream-lined, sound-proof, sustainable, it resists temperatures ranging from pole to equator and can be put up in just 36 hours!
Only about a hundred of these sci-fi earth-designed UFO’s were constructed between end of 1960s – beginning of 1970s. As we can observe from the plan, they come fully equipped and despite their small surface they can actually sleep eight people. Combining futuristic design, practicality and mobility, this could be the house of my dreams:
From 1968 to 1986, the Futuro house stood on the esplanade at Paris-La Défense where it felt at home sitting in front of the Centre of New Industries & Technologies (CNIT) and the futuristic highrise buildings that were springing up around it. It served as a café, the ”Resto Bulle”:
Re-discovered by art dealer Benoît Ramognino in 2007, it was refurbished and landed anew inside the enclosed marché Dauphine at the renowned Saint-Ouen Flea Market, where it can be seen on week-ends and Mondays. Now, instead of modern glass towers and office complexes its neighbours are second-hand bookstores, vintage clothes, antique and bric-a-brac shops where one man’s junk is another man’s treasure:
What a pity the future those designers envisioned did not turn out to be what we know today as present! Imagine being a nomad and never have to worry about digs. Just pack up the Futuro and ship it to next destination. All you need is 36 hours, a 3m height x 8m diameter and you could call any place on planet Earth your home!
According to French press, it will remain at the Saint-Ouen Flea Market – at least – until October 2016.
If you’d like to know more about the houses, their history and whereabouts please check The Futuro House website. Although many more articles and websites can be found on-line, this one seems to be kept constantly updated. The Futuro here is not merely an object of design – it is a passion.
Photos by Konstantinos Implikian
Paris, 17 August 2014
Lia in Brussels 