The Futuro House

The Futuro House was conceived by Matti Suuronen in 1968 as a "portable" ski chalet. It is an iconic piece of architecture and this site is devoted to documenting the history of the Futuro and the current status and whereabouts of the remaining examples.





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Wololow's Futuro Model/Lamp - Satisify Your Futuro Passion Without Spending A Small Fortune To Buy A Real Futuro!

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Update 072623

For everyone eagerly awaiting their Futuro House model here is the latest update from @futurohousemodel on Instagram (and of course for everyone else you can still order yours anytime - click the banner above or head directly to wololow.com

We want to start by saying that we have undergone a major overhaul of our lamp. It was a challenging process, but there are results! After the first trial production of lamps using our molds, which we shared in the previous update, we identified several issues with the connection points of the two halves, resulting in visible gaps.

We had to completely redesign the molds to solve the gap problem. We increased the thickness of the product and improved the locking mechanism, which led to the update of all mold components, followed by a trial run.

We were very anxious, but hallelujah, our mold turned out well, and the gap problem was resolved! It was a very exciting and nerve-wracking moment, with our nerves on edge!

Subsequently, we launched several more samples with the factory for testing, and they sent us photographs of the results that you will see shortly. In the near future, we will visit the assembly site and inspect the current samples. If we don't find any issues, we will proceed to the next stage and finally prepare for the production of the entire planned quantity of lamps.

We express our sincere gratitude to everyone for your patience and support! We have just a little bit left to complete this colossal journey. We strive to achieve a high level in everything we do, and our goal is to achieve remarkable results.

We wish all of you goodness and prosperity. Keep following our updates, and may the force be with you!


We also wanted to share the very cool "unboxing video" from Nick McQuoid who kindly shared his experience on receiving his lamp.



We are excited to have partnered with Wololow to bring the world this accurate 1/32 model of Matti Suuronen's iconic Futuro House which doubles as a truly awesome multi-functional lamp.

The lamp features 7 different colors and 3 different lighting modes all controlled from a single switch. It has a run time of around 12 hours on a single charge and a magnetic charging port to make "fueling" simple.

If you have a love of the "space age", you nerd out over UFO's, you happen to be a "Futuro nerd" (like us) or you are just looking for an awesome night light for your child or a really cool accent lamp for yourself this is definitely the product for you.

If you are interested in getting one of these for yourself or as a gift for someone else check out our campaign on indiegogo.com where there are multiple options to back the project.

Activities are currently underway to get everything ready for production and delivery of the lamps for our Kickstarter and Indiegogo backers in early 2023; we will start shipping February 2023.



Wololow Model Header Image 1

Wololow Model Header Image 2

A note about Wololow: We have always kept any kind of politics off these pages but we also understand nothing exists in a vacuum and we cannot always ignore the major events taking place in the world and we recognize that, as some of you have pointed out, Wololow started out with significant ties to Russia and of course that can be a concern for many folks, including us, at this time.

That said things with Wololow have moved on and specifically because of world events there are no longer any project ties to Russia. Manufacturing has been moved out of Russia, the two project leads who previously lived in Russia have left the country and now live in Kazakhstan and Armenia and we even have a Ukrainian who lives in California on the team. We now consider this an international project with zero ties to Russia.


About The Home Of Everything Futuro

Futuro House - Royse City - Photo By TheFuturohouse.comMore accurately called Futuro Houses these 20th Century prefabricated homes are often referred to as "UFO Houses". We first came across the Futuro House around July 2011 right after we had started the architecture blog "Strange, Weird, Wonderful & Cool Buildings" and the Futuro House located in Royse City, TX, USA became the subject of one of our early posts.

As time passed we became more and more immersed in researching the Futuro House both from a historical and a current perspective. The early blog post grew into "The Futuro House Project" which was still in theory a "post" on the blog though it grew far beyond a simple "post" and the blog itself really stopped growing as all of our spare time went into our new interest (perhaps some might say obsession) and eventually we transitioned "The Futuro House Project" to its own domain TheFuturoHouse.com.

The Most Complete Map Of Futuro Locations AnywhereThis site has since become the most complete resource for information about the Futuro House anywhere with history, both general and specific to individual units, a large collection of memorabilia, books, magazines, newspaper articles and multiple document archives (here and here) relating to the Futuro, a constantly updated listing of all current known locations and a Google Map of those locations worldwide. We have also been fortunate enough to be able to visit several Futuros in the US, Finland and Germany (11 to date) and hope to visit more in the future. Think IFHDB (Internet Futuro House Database) the Futuro equivalent of the IMDB!

We strive for accuracy at all times but things do change as Futuros change hands and move from time to time and the history, much of it from long before the internet access to "any information any time" we are used to now became the norm, can be unclear, confusing and conflicting at times so sometimes inaccuracies do creep in. If you know of anything on these pages that is inaccurate or can add anything new please let us know. We can be contacted through this site's Contact Form or directly by email.

The Gallery

Known Futuro Houses

Googie Huts

Many websites and other media report the presence of Futuro Houses in Antarctica. Indeed when we first started out on our "Futuro Journey" we were of the same opinion and we added pages to this website for each of these units. However research later confirmed that the units in the Antarctic region are not Futuros; they are in fact "Googie Huts". For the record we have retained this content on the site even though the units are not Futuro Houses; more information on "Googie Huts" and the rationale for our decision not to clasify these structures as Futuro Houses can be found here.

Events


Futuro #001 Open 051623-091723

Futuro #001 is a part of the collection of the WeeGee Exhibition Center located in Espoo, Finland. The Futuro is open to public each year through the summer months. The 2023 season will run from 051623 through 091723. We visited WeeGee in 2014 and we can tell you that if you do have the opportunity to visit it is well worthwhile; the Futuro is perfectly restored and the staff are extremely knowledgeable about the history of the Futuro House.


Dora Budor: The Storage Machine 080322-040223

The WeeGee Exhibition Center website tells us that Dora Budor's installation The Storage Machine will run 080322-040223 and that it:

"... will be seen as part of the In Search of Modernity exhibition. The site-bound work is a closed yellow space, inside which a lonely robotic bird flies back and forth in a landscape made of scraps and pieces of ruined buildings found near the museum. The bird's trajectory is based on a motion vector derived from a song by composer Magnus Lindberg.

The title of the work, Säylytyskone, comes from Philip K. Dick's 1953 science fiction novella, which tells the story of an attempt to preserve classical music during a cultural collapse by encoding sheet music into animals. Mutations in animals, however, make musical works unrecognizable - nature and culture compete for existence.

Dora Budor (b. 1984) is a Croatian artist working in New York. He uses an art exhibition as his medium, the elements of which he strengthens, separates or combines again and thus builds a mutual dependence between the work and the space. Using the phenomenological equipment of a film performance, he creates images that act as channels of memory and meaning.
"

Of interest to Futuro fans is the fact that the original Polykem Futuro molds feature as part of the "landscape made of scraps and pieces of ruined buildings found near the museum". With Futuro #001 also on site it would clearly be an interesting time for a Futuro fan to visit the center should they be in the area.

Futuro Molds At WeeGee


Futuro World Exhibition 051518-TBD

In the summer of 2015 the WeeGee Exhibition Center launched an exhibition titled "Futuro World"; it ran from 061615 through 013116. The exhibition was located in "Studio Suuronen" (the old museum shop space - renamed - located in the lobby of the WeeGee Exhibition Center). At the time the WeeGee Exhibition Center website described the exhibition in this way:

"Studio Suuronen will feature the Futuro World exhibition, which showcases the Futuro house, completed in 1968, and its distribution across the globe by means of photographs, captions and map graphics. The exhibition will feature photos of almost 50 Futuro houses from various corners of the world. In addition, there will be some interior photos illustrating their different decoration styles."

As a part of the 2018 celebrations and events marking the 50th Anniversary of the Futuro the exhibition was relaunched as "Futuro World 50 Years" and was scheduled to run 051518 through 123118. However the exhibition did not end on the due date and its current "end date" is unknown.


A Flying Saucer In Town 060217-TBD

Following an official opening 060117 the Futuro previously located in Witten, Germany was on display and open to the public at "Die Neue Sammlung - The Design Museum" (The New Collection - The Design Museum), one of four state-owned houses belonging to Munich's Pinakothek der Moderne. Initial indications were that the Futuro would remain on display through 060318 but it has remained there much longer and currently the "end date", should there still be a plan to remove the Futuro at some point, is unknown.


Classifieds

Futuro Houses For Sale

Royse City On Sale?

Following a recent visit to the Royse City Futuro Instagram user @turtletop_g20 posted some photos and added that they had spoken to a construction worker who had told them "they're moving it to storage soon to put a parking lot in its place, and it's for sale! Just $20,000."

Interestingly the Futuro's Facebook page makes no mention of this. When you add that fact to the idea that the price, even for a shell, in our opinion seems to be too low we have some doubts as to whether the construction worker had the right information. That said we have made some inquiries and hopefully we will have a definitive answer as to whether this Futuro is on the market soon. In the meantime if anyone has any further information please let us know.


These units were previously listed for sale but they never "sold" and currently we are not sure whether they are still on the market or not.

These Futuro Houses have come to market and sold over the years this website has been in operation.

Greenwich Greenwich
New Jersey, USA
Price: $26,900
Auctioned 051314
E-Bay

Mallorca Calvià, Mallorca
Spain
Reserve: €50,000
Auctioned 053014
Sale By Owner

Nelson Stepneyville, Nelson
New Zealand
Price: $75,000 NZ
Auctioned 052114
Bayleys

Lorne Lorne
VIC, Australia
Price: Unknown
Ended 030616
Gumtree

Norrkoping Norrköping
Sweden
Price: SEK 500,000
Auctioned 101216
Fortifikationsverket

Rockland Rockland
WI, USA
Price: Unknown
July 2017
Sale By Owner

Warrington Warrington
New Zealand
Price: Unknown
Ended 091817
Trademe

Media Media
WI, USA
Price: Unknown
December 2018
Sale By Owner

Harewood Harewood
New Zealand
Price: Unknown
Ended December 2020
Sale By Owner

Norrkoping For Sale Norrköping
Sweden
Price: Unknown
Ended September 2023
Sale By Owner

Futuro Houses Wanted

We currently have a list of people around the world that are interested in purchasing a Futuro House.

If you own a Futuro and might be interested in selling we may be able to assist in putting you in touch with the potential buyers. If you are aware of a Futuro for sale that is not listed here please let us know. You can contact us using our Contact Form or directly by email.

Original Polykem Molds For Sale (Please Note This Was Some Time Ago - Current Status Unknown)

We have been informed that the original Finnish Futuro House molds now available for purchase! The asking price is $150,000 ex works in Finland. The molds are being offered for sale by the current owner Mr. Jyrki Aho who can be contacted via email at jyrki.aho@kwikgroup.com

New Futuro houses manufactured with the original Finnish molds are also being offered; presumably only until such time as the molds are sold. Delivery timeline would be negotiated upon confirming an order and prices start around $200,000 ex works in Finland. If you are interested pleasecontact Mr. Jyrki Aho at jyrki.aho@kwikgroup.com

Original Futuro Molds 1

Original Futuro Molds 2

Original Futuro Molds 3

For more information and higher res versions of the photos of the moulds see the Concept, Design, & Manufacturing Page.

DISCLAIMER: The FuturoHouse.com is neither the owner nor the seller of these moulds or of Futuro Houses manufactured using these moulds and makes no representations to that effect. While there are clear photographs which give an idea of the condition of the moulds we are talking a significant amount of money here so, if you are interested, contact Jyrki and do your own due diligence in terms of authenticity, completeness and condition.

Futuro Items For Sale

We have aquired a large collection of Futuro related items and memorabilia over the years and one way and another we have managed to end up with a few duplicate items. If you are interested in purchasing any of these please feel free to contact us with an offer. Currently available items are listed below and more details can be found by clicking the link for the item you are interested in.
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