"This Futuro is rotting away just a few miles from my house," announces Bobbie Ann Tilkens-Fisher, the most recent owner of the stunning midcentury modern we fawned over just a short while ago. On her At Home Modern Facebook page, Tilkens-Fisher asks of the UFO-shaped prefab, which wallows in an undeniable state of rot in Media, PA: "who wants to start a kickstarter with me to buy it, restore it and do something fun with it??? B&B?"
The Futuro, designed by Finnish architect Matti Suuronen in 1968 as a portable ski chalet, had a short manufacturing life: the flying saucer-like prefab was discontinued in the mid 1970's when "an oil crisis made plastic prohibitively pricey." Now somewhat of an odd collector's item, there are only approximately 50 or 60 Futuros still moping around in varying states of glory and neglect around the world. One is restored and serving as a snack stand in The Republic of Crimea, yet another the subject of a rooftop art exhibit in London.
This sad little Futuro, currently sitting in a wooded lot in Media, PA was "built in Philadelphia by the Futuro Corporation that licensed the design to build and market it in the US." It was originally built as a restaurant, supposedly called "The Round House," located near Llanerch, PA. When the owners passed away in 1978, the Futuro was used by its next owner as a travel agency, until "sometime in the eighties," when the business was closed and the dilapidated Futuro moved to its current location. Since then it has been stored on a third party's land in Media. The previous owner confesses on his site MyFuturo: "Although I am extremely grateful to have the opportunity to own this Futuro, I wish I had know about it fifteen years ago before it had deteriorated so much."
According to the site, in the Summer of 2012, he sold the structure to an unnamed person in Pennsylvania who expressed interest in restoring it, but after a somewhat comical series of events in which the parties involved just couldn't figure out how to move the darn thing, it's still stranded in that woods in Media, remembering better days. Any takers?
· Land a UFO-Shaped Prefab That's Seen Better Days for $30K [Curbed]
· My Futuro.net
· The Futuro House Main Site
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