So one of my many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many interests that I fake knowing something about is architecture. And my favorite style of architecture by FAR is “mid-20th century futuristic space architecture.” I absolute adore the crazy stuff that people dreamed up at that time. It was the height of the space race, and people around the world looked forward to a time of robots and flying cars.
Crazy.
So crazy.
But this idea of buildings of the future went way further than just giant monuments, it came down to every day houses too. Perhaps the most memorable of these was the prefab Futuro houses of the 1960s and 1970s. They were dreamed up as ski cabins in cabin, but quickly made the jump internationally for a wider variety of situations. Sadly for the human race, fleets of flying-saucer shaped houses did not take the world by storm, but there were about 100 made and shipped around the world.
Today, South Jersey is lucky enough to have two of them. One, in Greenwich, NJ, has been on my list forever and I really need to get to.
So last week, the boys and I were watching a show about the world’s strangest architecture, which featured a Futuro house near Lewes, DE (the only one in the world still occupied as a full time residence) at #2. So I started Googling and ended up at thefuturohouse.com/. And they had a map with all the Futuro houses on it. And there was one really near me. How did I miss it!?
Well, I didn’t have to wait for long, because the next day after work, The Pres, Tree Rider, Kite Flyer, and I got into the car and found a it sitting in a park in Willingboro, NJ. It was amazing.
Great adventure. We’ll have to visit the other one really soon.
Can you see inside? The windows look rather high, but– if my 10 yr old happened to climb up when I’m not looking– do the windows appear to be somewhat clear? Or maybe the plywood by the door isnt super secure? I don’t want to damage anything or trespass, I’m just very curious about the inside.
Inside looks stacked floor to ceiling with boxes, so there wasn’t really an inside to see.
Best bet might be to try YouTubing to see or check out the Futuro House website, there are about 60 of them left around the world, and they were all made on the same plan.
I recall this “spaceship” architecture a long time ago, probably the early 70’s, and I think it was actually a bank!
I just stumbled upon a listing for a Futuro house Airbnb in Redberth UK $250 per night
That’s awesome.