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New Day Cafe - Saturday: The After Ski Cabin, & Stuff [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-07-19
Newdists, how have you been this week? If you were glued to the news and the usual shitshow we’ve been watching since Jan 2025, lets for a few moments focus on something else and somewhere else when people were being adventurous and creative.
Lets imagine that we can live in a space ship of the old sci fi era -— The old Futuro House.
Lets celebrate Finnish designer Matti Suuronen, Finnish designer and architect and the inventor of the Futuro homes:
In 1965 Suuronen was asked by his former schoolmate, Dr. Jaakko Hiidenkari, to design a ski cabin that would be "quick to heat and easy to construct in rough terrain." The project was called the After-Ski cabin. Having already been familiar with the use of fiberglass-reinforced polyester plastic in the past, Suuronen used this material in his project to produce the cabin. In addition, the house would consist of 16 pieces that were to be bolted together to form the floor, roof, and shape of the house. This would allow the project to be assembled on site or even be airlifted in one piece by helicopter on site. The ultimately ellipsoidal building shell was based on the decision for a mathematically determinable shape with o ptimal volume. The contract for constructing it was ultimately awarded to Polykem Ltd., a company that specializes in the manufacturing of plastic and neon signs, following a competitive offer to whomever would built the cabin. The end result was a universally transportable home that had the ability to be mass replicated and situated in almost any environment.
Two oblong silver looking flying saucers joined by a walkway are actually a portable, prefabricated home design from 1968 is by Finnish architect Matti Suuronen. It's located in Carlisle. Found at DaytonDailyNews
While Suuronen’s venture was not successful in the way he had initially planned it to be, influenced the future, and even the nearly contemporary rise of the Dome Homes. Currently, there are round homes being advertised and sold by Etsy and AliExpress. Suuronen’s Futuro Homes were very cool looking and it was the era of NASA and moon landing. The world looked at us in wonder as we sent men into space and to the moon.
Lets just wallow in that vibe for a bit, because in these times we’re dealing with what is known as “moon truthers” and the “flat earthers” and many more versions of collective insanity. In fact those conspiracies come faster and faster and are crazier with each telling.
So, lets enjoy these photos of the Futuro homes. One of the first uses of these fabricated homes were as ski chalets. Only a 100 homes were built before the 1973 Arab embargo and oil crisis hit:
Futuros went into production in the late ‘60s. Marketing campaigns went beyond the ski chalet image and touted the Futuro as an adaptable housing solution for all climates and topography. Licensing deals allowed Futuros to be manufactured across the world, but consumer uptake was sluggish. Then came the oil crisis. In October 1973, an Arab oil embargo caused the price of oil to quadruple. Suddenly, Futuro Houses were no longer cheap to make. The dramatically increased costs, combined with a general lack of enthusiasm for the spaceship design, brought Futuro production to a halt.
Wiki link. “A Futuro home on the slope of Mount Mussa-Achitara in Dombay, Karachay-Cherkess Republic.” (Photo by Riadchikova)
Which is sad, because it was just getting of the ground and people were interested in them:
Suuronen soon saw its potential beyond the slopes, and through the Futuro Corporation built the lightweight houses as a prefabricated, compact housing solution adaptable for any corner of the globe. Due to its unusual space age-influenced design, and the oil crisis of 1973 that made plastic expensive, under 100 of the houses were made. Around 60 of those survive, and they’ve dispersed all over the globe like a covert invasion of extraterrestrials that got canceled decades ago.
Here is a great layout of the interior from Flickr. The Flickr Futuro is in Delaware. That layout was based, supposedly, on “pure mathematic:”
A 1970 Tampa Tribune article describes a “furnished model with shag rug, wall hugging curved sofa, hooded fireplace and dimmer controlled indirect lighting.” Suuronen’s design had its roots in “pure mathematics” (something to do with pi), not a utopian ideal, according to the writer Marko Home, who has co-produced a book and a documentary about the house. Still, the Futuro “perfectly captured the ideas of space-age architecture and design.” “We find it very easy and convenient to live in a Futuro house,” the Norwegian residents told D2 magazine. “The only thing we take extra care of is the steel foundation on which the house stands. That’s probably what will break the structure sometime in the future.” Sadly, the aspirations of ‘plastic houses’ and the associated licensing model were victims of the chaotic and inflationary oil crisis in the mid-1970s. The houses that survive today are tracked by an enthusiastic mob of Futuro House spotters and coveted by collectors who see their historical importance, or who simply just like them.
Space ship-like homes were not the only things he built. He also built a series of structures used as banks and cafes:
n 1971, Suuronen designed the Venturo, the last fiberglass-reinforced polyester plastic building in the Casa Finlandia series. Originally conceived as a weekend house or bungalow, the Venturo were conveniently used as banks, kiosks, cafés, filling stations, and much more. However, the Casa Finlandia series would be a short-lived success.
Foto found at LINK. Wiki Link. Photo of: Suuronen's Venturo at the Kivik Art Centre in Kivik, Sweden. (Photo by Bengt Oberger)
Newdists, please grab a cuppa, something to nibble, and join us down in the thread.
I can’t eat this (not eating carbs at the moment) but it’s making me hungry...
x Korean Loaded Fries pic.twitter.com/2aAEkEj5Kb — Tasty UK (@TastyUK) July 18, 2025
x Golden hour from Alstrom Point 🌅 The buttes above Lake Powell lit up like fire as the sun set—one of the most breathtaking scenes I’ve witnessed. Quiet, vast, unforgettable. #LakePowell #AlstromPoint #LandscapePhotography
[image or embed] — Graham Holmes (@grahamholmes.bsky.social) June 12, 2025 at 2:28 PM
New Day Cafe is an Open thread.
What do you want to talk about today?
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