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UPDATED 080413 | ADDED 091011 | ROTTERDAM, NETHERLANDS | RETURN TO THE MAIN FUTURO HOUSE ARTICLE | RETURN HOME
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Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Museumpark 18-20, 3015 CX Rotterdam, Netherlands | 51°54'51.88"N 4°28'22.66"E
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Featured Image By Happy Famous Artists | CC 2.0 | Date 052811
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Google Maps | Satellite Imagery Date 093007 | Futuro Not Visible
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Additional Images & Video
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Notes, History & Resources
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Update 080413
The video below is by "The Unknown Cameraman" - the footage appears to be a composite of footage from Vernissage TV showing this Futuro, the Greenwich Futuro and the Willingboro Futuro. The Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen footage starts at 01:30. At one point in the commentary the video indicates the footage has been taken at various points in New Jersey - clearly the Vermissage TV footage was not shot in New Jersey. Update 123012
Several of the images displayed below are low quality low res photos from my copy of "Futuro - Tomorrow's House From Yesterday
 ". My intention is to illustrate this article and the history of Futuro #000 and not to provide copyright infringing images to be copied and reproduced elsewhere so please respect the author's rights and if you would like to use the book's content purchase your own copy. Thanks!
The first prototype Futuro, #000, was manufactured at the Polykem plant in 1968. The photos below show the #000 at the Polykem plant. 
Futuro - Tomorrow's House From Yesterday | Home & Taanila
Futuro - Tomorrow's House From Yesterday | Home & Taanila
Futuro #000 was initially located on Jaakko Hiidenkari's property in Turenki. The image below shows the Futuro in Turenki in August 1969 and is displayed courtesy of G. Kock of filatelia.fi. 
Beginning in 1990 with the installation "The Eagle Has Landed - Unidentified Flying Object - An Exhibition About UFOs" at the RADAR exhibition in Kotka, Finland [062890-090290] Futuro #000 appeared at a number of exhibitions. RADAR | Kotka, Finland | 062890-090290 
Futuro - Tomorrow's House From Yesterday | Home & Taanila
SKOP | Vienna, Austria | 051096-070796 
Futuro - Tomorrow's House From Yesterday | Home & Taanila
Finnish Design Of The 1960's | Utrecht, Netherlands | 053197-070697 
Futuro - Tomorrow's House From Yesterday | Home & Taanila
Centraal Museum Office Space | Utrecht, Netherlands | 0898-0799 
Futuro - Tomorrow's House From Yesterday | Home & Taanila
Vision & Reality | Humlebæk, Denmark | 092100-011401 
Futuro - Tomorrow's House From Yesterday | Home & Taanila
SKOR | Amsterdam, Netherlands | 092801-010702 The photos below of Futuro #000 at SKOR are by Theo Krijgsman. 
Ideal Living | Utrecht, Netherlands | ?-011203 The photo below shows the Futuro around the end of 2002 when it was displayed as part of the Ideal Living exhibition. The photo is courtesy of the website designartnews [Dutch | Google translation to English here]. 
Futuro #000 remained with the Centraal Museum for several more years. In late 2008 it was still located in a courtyard there as illustrated by these excellent shots taken 111608 by Klaas5. 
The prototype Futuro was eventually acquired by the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen and underwent extensive restoration; a least part of that work was undertaken by the company Poly Products and the photo below is courtesy of the company website. 
The video below is by RTV Rijnmond and shows footage of the Futuro nearing the completion of the restoration project. The first use of Futuro #000 by the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen was as the main feature of "Futuro - Constructing Utopia", an exhibition that ran in the museum's Bodon gallery from 052111 to 100911. An excellent set of photos of the Futuro at that exhibition by Happy Famous Artists can be found below in the "original" section of this article. The two videos below by Gair Dunlop give us a look at both the exhibition and the interior of the Futuro. Futuro House, Rotterdam from Gair Dunlop on Vimeo. Futuro House Interior; Relax from Gair Dunlop on Vimeo. In 2012 the Futuro featured in another exhibition in Rotterdam, this time the exhibition "Ballads" by Sarkis Zabunyan. The two photos below are by Ernst Moritz and are featured in a Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen press release. 
A Google search for images of "Ballads" will return many other images. The three below are ones I particularly like; they are displayed with the permission of the photographers. From top to bottom they are:
There are also quite a few videos out there of the "Ballads" exhibition though they generally only show the Futuro is passing. A couple are shown below but a Google Search will return more. The first is by Jos Burger [Futuro at around 0:07] and the second is by anykoen [Futuro at around 1:14]. Original Images & Video 091011 The original Futuro prototype, Futuro #000, was the central feature of the 2011 exhibition "Futuro - Constructing Utopia" at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. The video below is narrated by the exhibitions curator Curator Jonieke van Es and includes great footage of the Futuro along with a historical commentary. The wonderful set of photos shown below show the restored prototype at the "Futuro - Constructing Utopia" exhibition. The photos, shot 052811, are by Happy Famous Artists and are displayed here under CC 2.0. 
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The long and intriguing history of the Futuro House all began with this Futuro, #000. In 1965 Dr. Jaakko Hiidenkari asked Matti Suuronen, with whom he attended school, to design a ski-cabin. Much of the early history of the Futuro is documented in detail in the book "Futuro - Tomorrow's House From Yesterday
Sources & Reference:
" edited by Marko Home and Mika Taanila. In the book we learn that the ski cabin was to be:
"quick to heat and easy to construct in rough terrain." A construction contract was ultimately awarded to Polykem Ltd and in March 1968 the first Futuro was revealed to the press by Polykem at their Hiekkaharju, Finland plant. The Futuro, though it had not yet been given that name, was then moved to a ski slope on the property of Jaakko Hiidenkari in Turenki. It was not until unit #002 [now located in Matsalu, Estonia, appeared at the Finnexpo Fair in London, England in October 1968 that the Futuro actually became the Futuro. In the mid 1970's Futuro #000 was moved from Hiidenkari's property in Turenki to Matti Suuronen's holiday home in Keitele. It remained there for several years before being put into storage on the Metsänkylä estate near Hämeenlinna. The prototype Futuro eventually ended up in the collection of the Utrecht Centraal Museum in the Netherlands. This might very well not have come about had it not been for the emergence of the Futuro as an art object as well as an architectural icon in the early 1990's; a process largely catalyzed by the use of Futuro #000 by Jussi Kivi [Finnish Wikipedia page | Google translation to English here] as the focal point of an installation titled "The Eagle Has Landed - Unidentified Flying Object - An Exhibition About UFOs" at the RADAR exhibition in Kotka, Finland [062890-090290] and perhaps cemented by the use of the same Futuro as part of the Skop exhibition at the Wiener Secession that ran from 051096 through 070796 in Vienna, Austria. The Skop exhibition was the work of German artist Carsten Höller who had also been an exhibitor at RADAR and it is thought that his use of the Futuro for Skop was at least in part due to the favorable impression #000 made on him at RADAR. Holler's exhibition travelled to other cities but the Futuro remained on storage in Vienna. There later followed a request from the Centraal Museum to the Weiner Secession for loan of the Futuro to be a part of an exhibition featuring 1960's Finnish design. Ultimately instead of a loan the Futuro was transferred to the Centraal Museum and became a part of that institutions collection. The Futuro was first exhibited by the Centraal Museum between 053197 and 070697 as a part of the planned exhibition of Finnish design of the 1960's. Over the next several years Futuro #000 appeared as a part of various exhibitions and served sundry other roles including:
The prototype Futuro was eventually acquired by the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands. A press release by the museum dated 051711 announces the acquisition. The press release indicates that the Futuro had been the focus of a two year long restoration process but does not indicate the exact timing of the transfer from the Centraal Museum. The restoration project was conducted with the help of Poly Products. On the company website we read that: "On Saturday 28 May the Futuro, which was restored by Poly Products, was presented as a new addition to the collection of the Boijmans Van Beuningen museum in Rotterdam." Conservator of modern and contemporary art Lydia Beerkens confirms the involvement of Poly Products in an abstract that can be found online here. The abstract gives us a look into the intricacies of the restoration project. We also learn that as a result of the "prototype" status of #000 the museum changed their plans from outdoor placement and regular loans to finding a semi permanent space and indoor exhibition only. A Huffington Post article "Icon of 1960s Design: Matti Suuronen's Futuro House" dated 071711 suggests that the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen acquired the Futuro in 2007. However, we know that it was still physically located at the Centraal Museum at least towards late 2008 [see the photos by Klaas5 at left showing #000 at the Centraal Museum 111608]. Of course that does not preclude the transfer of ownership taking place in 2007; it may just have been that the physical move took place later. The same article is included in issue #18 of VernissageTV Magazine along with some excellent photos; the article is on pages 61-73. The magazine is accessible online here or you can download a pdf file here.  Included among the photographs in the Magazine is the interesting photo at right that shows an identification plate that records "oy Polykem ab" as the manufacturer's name.
The first use of Futuro #000 by the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen was as the main feature of "Futuro - Constructing Utopia", an exhibition that ran in the museum's Bodon gallery from 052111 to 100911. As with most major exhibitions there was interest in the press, in this case as far away as the USA where the New York Times covered the exhibition in an 081411 article titled "A Mobile Utopian House Is Star of a Rotterdam Design Exhibition". In 2012 the Futuro featured in another exhibition in Rotterdam, this time the exhibition "Ballads" by Sarkis Zabunyan. A Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen press release announced that "Ballads" would run from 060212 to 093012 at Submarine Wharf in Rotterdam's docklands. The press release introduces the exhibition by telling us: "The Submarine Wharf in Rotterdam's docklands is currently undergoing a true transformation. The construction of the various monumental sculptures that make up Sarkis' installation "Ballads", commissioned by Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen and the Port of Rotterdam, is well under way. They include an 18-metre bell tower and a 16-meter lampshade in which a spotlight rises and falls to the rhythm of the artist's breathing." and goes on to tell us about the Futuro's role in the exhibition: "The Futuro, a futuristic holiday home, has come to land in the Submarine Wharf, forming an auditorium for Sarkis' videos about water: experiments in form and color." Perhaps the most unique feature of "Ballads" was that visitors to the exhibition actually rode bicycles around the exhibits. A second museum press release provides some additional details along with some nice photos of the exhibition that ended its run 093012. The Futuro remains in the collection of the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen and I await with interest it's next public appearance.
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Got new, updated or corrected information or an image I could use?
I am always looking for additional information, history, details, images, videos; just about anything Futuro I guess - if you would like to contribute please use the Futuro Contact Form at the bottom of the main article or email me. As far as images go I am particularly interested in those that are either significantly better than the ones already on this page or show a different aspect or detail. If you own an image meeting one or both of those criteria I would love to be able to use it on this page but I will simply provide a link if that is your preference. Where permission is granted to use an image on the page appropriate attribution will be provided by means of a link to the original image, a link to a website of your choosing or both. |
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