Very Rare '60s Futuro, the Original Tiny Home, Hits the Market in New Zealand
11 Nov 2020, 8:16 UTC ·
Home > News > U-turnby Elena Gorgan 
The tiny home movement is huge right now, and it’s likely it will continue to gain ground with increasing environmental concerns and the seemingly never-ending health crisis. Here’s your chance to get in on that but with a very distinct nod to the past.
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Futuro is considered the OG tiny home, the most famous tiny home before tiny homes were even a thing. It was built through the 1960s and ‘70s, and was very popular at the time. The reason it’s still not around today is that production hit a dead-end with the petro-chemical crisis that made prices for plastics spike.
Futuro is a fiberglass-reinforced polyester plastic pod shaped like a UFO that played right into man’s idea of the future (and fascination with space) at the time. Under 100 such units were ever produced, with just 12 constructed locally in New Zealand. One of these 12 is now for sale, after becoming a tourist point of attraction in Christchurch, NZ.
Unlike the U.S. variant, this Futuro has less of a plasticized interior and is offered with two armchairs and bookshelves, the original couch, two sets of retractable steps and even the original mattresses. The future owner can choose to take it stripped, as it is now, and work his or her way up from there. The most important part is that it’s ready for “take-off” worldwide: one of the highest selling points of the Futuro tiny home was that it could be air-lifted and then dropped to its destination, whether it was on top of a mountain or on an otherwise-inaccessible sky-slope.
Available interior space is of 50 square meters (538 square feet) and, while the pod itself is in decent condition, it will require considerable investment to become an actual, habitable home. Bidding goes through to December 5, unless the home sells before that.
If you’re considering it, be prepared to dig deep: New Atlas notes that pricing for a unit like this starts at around $200,000. But, as the seller notes, “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. The ultimate collectors purchase. A design icon.”
Futuro is a fiberglass-reinforced polyester plastic pod shaped like a UFO that played right into man’s idea of the future (and fascination with space) at the time. Under 100 such units were ever produced, with just 12 constructed locally in New Zealand. One of these 12 is now for sale, after becoming a tourist point of attraction in Christchurch, NZ.
Unlike the U.S. variant, this Futuro has less of a plasticized interior and is offered with two armchairs and bookshelves, the original couch, two sets of retractable steps and even the original mattresses. The future owner can choose to take it stripped, as it is now, and work his or her way up from there. The most important part is that it’s ready for “take-off” worldwide: one of the highest selling points of the Futuro tiny home was that it could be air-lifted and then dropped to its destination, whether it was on top of a mountain or on an otherwise-inaccessible sky-slope.
Available interior space is of 50 square meters (538 square feet) and, while the pod itself is in decent condition, it will require considerable investment to become an actual, habitable home. Bidding goes through to December 5, unless the home sells before that.
If you’re considering it, be prepared to dig deep: New Atlas notes that pricing for a unit like this starts at around $200,000. But, as the seller notes, “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. The ultimate collectors purchase. A design icon.”
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