Who knew that this amazing example of 1960's pop architecture was hiding in the graveyard of the now closed Canberra Space Dome and Observatory in Dickson? Well, the Shopping Sherpa knew and I will not resist any temptation to share it with you too. Designed in 1968 by Finnish architect Matti Suuronen as a pre-fab relocatable residential pod, the Futuro gives an obvious nod to the space age futuristic movement of the time...
Image from The Shopping Sherpa"The circular house, 11 feet high and 26 feet across, was designed by Matti Suuronen, a Finnish architect, in 1968. A hatch door in its lower half opened down to reveal steps, like the door of a small airplane, and led into a room outfitted with six plastic bed-chair combinations and a central fireplace slab, as well as a kitchenette and a bathroom. Photographs from the time make the house look like a place where the Teletubbies might live, with Barbarella as a frequent houseguest."
Too cool to go unnoticed, our Canberran Futuro was never used as a live-in pod, but as part of the Space Dome and Observatory, probably manufactured in Australia. Now completely disused - it would be a damn shame to leave it to rust and ruin, what I wouldn't give to convert this into some very special accommodation!... see below for some images of other Futuros in their original glory and the final image of a refurbished
'holiday pod' in the US.
A film about the Futuro was released in 1998, leading to a resurgence in the popularity of it's ideals and an audience of
a whole new generation of fans.
.. and me! Hot tomale, if Dickson Tradies are going to give it away, can I have it please!??
Posts
2 comments:
Back off cause I SAW IT FIRST ;-P
This is too cool! I had no idea it existed.
Post a Comment