Homes of The Future.

Welcome to Tourist Television, a blog that pretends to be a television series. On this episode we will begin with the subject of homes of the future, buildings created to resemble what people thought future homes would look like. Of course they were slightly less practical and most of them have been demolished, yet even now architecturally they remain somewhat of a wonder. These "future homes" or "U.F.O. homes" were extremely popular during the 1960s and 1970s, they also were found in a majority of countries ranging from Europe to Asia. This may have been because of the "Space Age" as people were rushing to come up with "what to do next" after reaching space or the prevalence of American world fairs with similar themes. Of course America was one of the main producers for these homes, having that there are just so many of them there. These homes were instant tourist attractions as people wanted to see this so-called house of the future, especially with such an interesting exterior. Tourists overran a majority of these buildings which prompted more of them to be made, there may have been 3 or 4 in the same state just because of how popular it was. Of course not everyone knew about them, it was somewhat of a niche concept, although they still remained popular among locals as well. This was furthered by the fact that a majority of these buildings were done by a single person, usually in remote locations. This is important for later on as tourism slowly started to dwindle as the Space Age ended. The owners also eventually ended up abandoning the projects as soon as the buildings lost their marketability. Quickly, the buildings ended up abandoned, the more popular ones were made landmarks while the others were left in their hidden location to remain as something for vandalizers to consume. In this episode we will be going through a few different versions of these homes to find information on different versions, maybe you can even find one in your area you can visit.

1: Monsanto- House of The Future (America)

As the name suggests, this building was a necessity for any list of this kind, being the most popular and sharing the name that these buildings are known for. Created in Disneyland in 1957, this attraction was formed for the purpose of creating a building out of only strong plastics. The idea was to showcase how strong the plastics were yet also remain with an interesting attraction. One thing to note is that these homes of the future were usually made out of similarly flimsy material, something that would go in hand when they were subsequently abandoned. This was definitely not the case, as when this building was set to be demolished in 1967 employees struggled to get by the hard plastic. Attempts to destroy it were usually failed, only finally they were able to hack away at the structure by crushing it. The building was so strong that the steel nails broke easier than the plastic itself. The concrete reinforcement of the structure remained, even now it is, although repainted, still there.

2: Futuro (Finland, Various Places)

This building is actually multiple, the story begins with a Finnish architect who was working on a simple ski house created of polyester plastic reinforced with fiberglass. The building itself ended up being a well known "U.F.O." house for its simple yet intriguing design, the reason for this being how Finland was also experiencing a rush of space or future related concepts similar to the "Space Age" mentioned earlier. The building was an instant success because of just how versatile the design was, it was simple, cheap, and looked amazing. This architectural building was then sold all throughout different areas, easily around a hundred were made to satisfy the demand of them. Of course, not everyone liked the design. It was impractical and many did not trust the plastic based material, this led to a lot of reluctance towards the end of the space-related trend. By the mid 1970's they quickly went out of production due to a recent oil crisis leading to less plastic and general disinterest as some people preferred the more rustic look. Most of these buildings were subsequently abandoned because of this and their cheap material led to them not doing well in most environments. Now there are only around 60 of these homes confirmed throughout different countries.

3: Xanadu (America)

This story begins with an architect who was experimenting with a form of building. Inspired by a house made of insulation he decided to make a house by using balloons to form the structure, then covering that with hard plastic. This would leave a bumpy futuristic look that provided an interesting sight. During the early 1980's 3 of these homes were created throughout America, the most popular being the one opened in a nearby location of DisneyWorld. Quickly, the building would get thousands of people going there just for the wonder of seeing the building. The plan was to mass sell these homes as high price homes. Slowly though, the building started to lose popularity and eventually it would be left abandoned. It remained abandoned for 9 years, until finally being fully demolished. 

More examples coming soon

In conclusion there are many different forms of this architecture, the majority made of plastic and left abandoned. It is quite an interesting sight, seeing as there is so little of these buildings still here. These buildings were quite popular yet now they are much more hidden, still these are somewhat of a well-known thing for past tourists and even now they are growing slightly in popularity as people rush to preserve these buildings. I find it interesting how the architecture of this matter has been scrapped for simplicity, as more of these buildings are sold every day and demolished to place something simple like a parking lot. I believe that we should not just focus on preserving these wonders, but also in creating new ones. Aren't we already in the future?

Photo Credits:

Monsanto

Futuro House

Xanadu