The Futuro House

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Haigerloch Futuro has made a road trip and will be on display in Geneva, Switzerland 061122 thru 082822 as a part of Session 4 of the exhibition Open House Geneva.

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 2021 season will run from 060121 through 091221. 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.

If you have never had the chance to see the 1998 film Futuro - A New Stance for Tomorrow directed by Mika Taanila you have an opportunity to do so if you will be in the Oslo, Norway area March 2020. The film will be screened on 031520, the final day of a 3 day Architecture Film Festival; information about the festival can be found here.

As an added bonus the film will be introduced by Futuro historian Marko Home who will also give a talk on Futuro after the screening. Marko is an authority on Futuro and worked with Mika Taanila on the film and well as on the iconic Futuro book Futuro: Tomorrow's House from Yesterday.

If you are in the area and have an interest in Futuro this seems like a "must see" event!

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 2019 season will run from 051419 through 091519. 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.

The 1998 documentary film "Futuro: A New Stance for Tomorrow" directed by Mika Taanila and researched, written and edited by Taanila and Marko Home tells the "Futuro story" up to the point in time the film was produced and it features great footage of Futuros and interviews with several Futuro "celebrities" including, among others, Matti Suuronen [architect and Futuro designer], Matti Kuusla [owner of Futuro 001], Ensio Söderström [CEO of Polykem Oy] and Charles Wilp [artist & Futuro owner].

The Finnish Broadcasting Company [YLE] broadcast the film four times between 1998 and 2000 and recently ran the film five days in a row starting 050219. They have also added the film to their website and it can be viewed/streamed until 052919. While the film will not have subtitles and is mostly in Finnish there are also some parts with English dialogue. That said if you have never seen the film this is a great opportunity to do so; even if you miss much of the dialogue some of the archival footage is well worth a look so take the chance while it is available!

Craig Barnes' UK Futuro will make a temporary landing in Les Jardins Suspendus [The Hanging Gardens] in Le Havre in the Normandy region of France in the summer of 2018.

In celebration of Futuro 50th birthday multiple locations around Darwin, Australia will feature lightboxes with Futuro art works and photos. offtheleash.net.au describes the event this way:

"2018 marks 50 years since the Futuro was designed. Architect Peter Dermoudy brought one to Darwin and lived inside it in 1970s. Curated by Koulla Roussos, the lightbox exhibition is across The Mall, Chinatown and Nightcliff Pool with new works by Polly Johnstone, Fernanda Dupal, Tarzan JungleQueen, Matthew van Roden and Gloria Richards."

A Facebook page with a little more information for the event can be found here.

Photographer Tom Blachford's ongoing photographic series "Midnight Modern" is described as being "an ongoing series and exploration into the interplay between Architecture, Moonlight, Mountains and the tension of an unspoken narrative". I do not pretend to "get" art and I have no clue how to interpret the phrase "tension of an unspoken narrative" in the context of the photos but I will say this - the photo of the Idyllwild Futuro included in Series IV of "Midnight Modern" is absolutely one of my favorite all time Futuro photos.

At the time of writing through 030318 "Midnight Modern Series IV" is on display in Sydney, Australia at the Michael Reid gallery. The Futuro photo is available for purchase at $3500 unframed and $4700 framed, a little "rich for my blood" despite the fact that I do love the photo.

On 012418 German radio station Bayern 2 will host a event titled "Futuro Satellit 2, Finnische Disko mit Achim 60 Bogdahn" at the Munich Futuro. The radio station website describes the event this way [according to Google Translate]:

"In the middle of the winter, in the middle of the week, in the middle of Munich we invite everyone to the FUTURO to Finnish dance music and Glögi - the Finnish version of the Glühwein! (Mulled Wine)"

Sydney artist and arts worker Daniel Soma has created a Futuro related art installation for The Finnish Crazy Games (092317-092417) at the Embassy of Finland to Australia as part of the celebration of the centenary of Finnish independence.

The installation reprises Daniel's 2016 case study and exhibition, FUTURO!, that took place at the Interlude Gallery, Sydney, Australia between 041416 and 042316.

The 500X Gallery in Dallas, TX is currently hosting a show titled "A Hard Place". One of the features of the show is a video entitled "Ellipsoid Episode" by Julia Zinnbauer.

Despite the fact that I actually live in Dallas I only heard about this today and with the show ending tomorrow I might have missed the chance to see it.

The Marseille Futuro, along with other structures, will be on display as part of an exhibition titled "L'Utopie De L'Habitat Plastique" or, according to Google Translate "The Utopia Of Plastic Habitat" which is subtitled "Years 1960-1970" and scheduled to run July through September 2017 at la Friche de l'Escalette outside Marseille, France.

On the first Wednesday of every month "Futuro 22" is open for public tours. The Futuro is located on third floor terrace of the University of the Arts London's Central St Martins' building. Tickets can be purchased online here.

For the last several years Australian performers Tim Ross and Kit Warhurst have taken temporary possession of Architecturally significant buildings to present a show that skillfully blends storytelling, music and design. On June 15th they will present their show, "Man About The Futuro House", in Craig Barnes "Futuro 22". Tickets can be purchased here.

On Monday June 12th Craig Barnes will discuss how he bought and renovated "Futuro 22". The talk is hosted by the Bath Royal Literary & Scientific Institution. It is unclear, at least to us, whether the talk will be actually in the Futuro or in Bath at the institution but either way we are sure it will be a very interesting event.

On 051117 Marko Home, Futuro historian and co-editor of the iconic "Futuro: Tomorrow's House from Yesterday" will give a talk entitled "The World Of Futuro" at the Helsinki Art Museum. The talk is one of a series of talks under the title "HAM Talks" being given as a part of the museum's current "Modern Life" exhibition. The talk will be given in Finnish.

For anyone who will be in the Tulsa, OK area 042217 that has never had the opportunity to view Mika Taanila's film "Futuro: A New Stance for Tomorrow" here is your chance.

The film will be screened as a part of the Architecture & Design Film Festival, Tulsa 2017. Tickets can be purchased here.

Update 030417

The E-Bay listing ended with a sale price of £37.00.

Original Information 020417

As of 020217 an E-Bay listing offers a private tour of "Futuro 22" for up to 6 people. Proceeds from the auction benefit Sluice, a not for profit arts organization. The tour must be taken by September 2017. The E-Bay listing ends 021217.

In order to reduce the size of this page older events have been removed. If you are doing any research and are looking for information regarding past events feel free to contact us; if we are able to assist we will nbe happy to do so