If you’ve ever wanted to feel like you’re zipping through space in a 1970s sci-fi film, how about waking up to it every day?
A rare home shaped like a flying saucer is on sale just outside Dunedin in New Zealand in a spot overlooking the picturesque Blue Skin Bay from its oval windows.
The iconic structure was one of only 13 ‘Futuro houses’ built in NZ under licence from Finnish designer Matti Suuronen, and one of only 96 constructed around the world.
A rare one-bedroom ‘Futuro’ home shaped like a flying saucer is on sale just outside Dunedin in New Zealand
The one-bedroom home features a cosy combined bedroom and living area with chic 1970s decor including maroon carpet, orange swivel chairs around a small table, and a garish patterned couch
It was put on display at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch and moved to its current site the next year under the condition that it be open to the public for two days a year – with 5,000 showing up to see it.
The one-bedroom home features a cosy combined bedroom and living area with chic 1970s decor including maroon carpet, orange swivel chairs around a small table, and a garish patterned couch.
There’s a small kitchen with orange benchtops and matching bar stools, and a bathroom with an oval-shaped door that makes you feel like you’re stepping into an escape pod.
An airplane hatch entrance is protected by a glass conservatory that includes a washing machine, but is obscured from view by the rest of the structure if looking from the road.
There’s a small kitchen with orange benchtops and matching bar stools
An airplane hatch entrance is protected by a glass conservatory that includes a washing machine, but is obscured from view by the rest of the structure if looking from the road
Price is negotiable but likely to be well above the property’s rated $205,000 value as eager collectors and nostalgics battle it out for the right to live in a rare piece of futurism history.
The 1,000 square metre site also has room the build a whole new house next to it and keep the saucer as a guest house or granny flat.
Like all Futuro homes it measures four metres high and eight metres in diameter and is made of fibreglass-reinforced polyester plastic in 16 segments that bolt together.
Mr Suuronen designed them as ski cabins that would be quick to heat and easy to construct in difficult mountainside terrain.
The bathroom has an oval-shaped door that makes you feel like you’re stepping into an escape pod
The spot overlooks the picturesque Blue Skin Bay from its oval windows all around the fibreglass structure
It was envisioned in a time of faith in technology, the conquering of space, unprecedented economic growth, and an increase in leisure time.
However, it didn’t catch on well enough to survive the early 1970s oil crisis that made plastic too expensive, and many were banned from being built or vandalised because they were too strange.
Only about 60 remain today including eight in New Zealand.
The 1,000 square metre site also has room the build a whole new house next to it and keep the saucer as a guest house or granny flat