Matti Suuronen’s Futuro House

Matti Suuronen’s Futuro House

The history of the Futuro house
Futuro is an iconic experimental house designed by Finnish architect Matti Suuronen in the late 1960s. The Futuro house was initially developed by Suuronen in 1968 as a one-off mountain holiday home for a friend.
To facilitate construction works in a remote plot of land with uneven terrain, the architect designed it as a prefabricated egg-shaped building composed of 16 fiberglass segments bolted together, and a support structure constituted of four concrete piers and a concave steel frame. The “egg” was pre-assembled, delivered to the site by a helicopter, and fastened to the previously completed supporting structure.

Above: The Futuro House at EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Finland. Photos by Ari Karttunen / EMMA.

Encouraged by the prototype, Suuronen pursued industrial production of the Futuro. However, the project proved commercially unsuccessful, and manufacturing ceased in the early 1970s after only 80 to 100 units were built.
The Futuro House stands as one of the most compelling examples of the futuristic domestic architecture that flourished in the 1950s and 1960s. Comparable projects include Frederick Kiesler’s Endless House, Arthur Quarmby’s Emergency Mass Housing Units, Jean‑Benjamin Maneval’s Maison Bulle, and Pascal Häusermann’s Domobiles.
These designs were not only radical in form but also envisioned as fragments of a more advanced, egalitarian society—an optimistic, if somewhat naïve, vision of the future. That optimism was largely eroded in the mid‑1970s by the oil crisis and broader socioeconomic and political decline.

Futuro House at EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Finland, interior views. Images by Ari Karttunen / EMMA. Courtesy of EMMA.

The Futuro houses today
It is estimated that around 60 Futuro houses survive, many in poor condition.
The first Futuro built, serial number 001, was restored in 2014 and is now on display at EMMA—the Espoo Museum of Modern Art in Finland. Another, serial number 22, was acquired by artist Craig Barnes, who discovered it in South Africa and transported it to the UK for an 18‑month restoration. The house was installed on the rooftop of Central Saint Martins’ King’s Cross campus in London, where it remained until September 2017.