The Futuro House

Above: Matti Suuronen’s  ‘Futuro House’, 1968.

Created in 1968 by Finnish architect Matti Suuronen the Futuro House was initially commissioned to be a vacation home that could be built off-site and easily transported to its destination. Designed to be low maintenance, with built-in furniture, and a roof that could easily shed snow, the 26 foot diameter prefabricated structure featured two bedrooms and was a ‘micro-home’ ahead of its time.

In 1965 Matti Suuronen was asked to design a ski cabin that could be heated quickly, constructed in rough terrain, be easy to maintain, and removed from the site if necessary. Suuronen opted for an ellipsoid form to give the structure optimum space with minimal use of materials. The result was the ‘Futuro’, a vacation home that consisted of a living room, two bedrooms, a kitchen and a bathroom all contained within 540 square feet (50 m2). Fabricated from lightweight reinforced plastic, a material Suuronen was familiar with from his previous projects, the concept was for a mass produced, factory-built house suitable for any purpose with the only necessity on site being four concrete piers on which to rest the Futuro’s metal supports.

While the Futuro was an engineering triumph it was met with public hostility from the start. The very first Futuro, placed near Lake Puulavesi in Finland, received great public protest with many locals claiming it looked too ‘unnatural’ for its rustic environment. In the United States Futuro’s were banned from many municipalities and banks were reluctant to finance them. Of the few that were built in the US most were derided and some were even vandalized. In the face of this hostility some customers who committed to buy them backed out and even forfeited their non-refundable $1000 deposits.

Despite an aggressive marketing campaign and assurances that the house was sturdy and safe by the mid-1970s production of the Futuro House ceased. Coupled with the gas crisis, which drove up the production costs of plastic fabrication, and a market less than receptive the Futuro never became the mass market success initially hoped for. With less than an estimated 50 of the original Futuro homes still around today they are a much sought after item with collectors spending tens of thousands of dollars to acquire one. What few fully intact/restored Futuros remain are now museum pieces with the prototype (serial number 000) in the permanent collection of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Undoubtedly the main reason the Futuro failed was public perception and reception. By the late 1960’s the future was viewed in two ways; a futuristic utopia, or an overpopulated and resource-depleted dystopia (an outlook which made for some bleak sci-fi films of the era). And the way of facing these futures were equally disparate. One was to detach oneself from the population, go ‘back to the land’, and embrace a more natural way of living. While the other was to be fearless in the face of the challenge, embrace the new materials, and prepare for what was coming. Both options have their merits but only one has a sexy home that can be transported to a new locale once you tire of the neighbors.

Matti Suuronen (1933 – 2013)