Futuro House (aka UFO House): Unknown Location, New Zealand: Strange, Weird, Wonderful And Cool Buildings:

AS OF 102913 THE FUTURO HOUSE PROJECT HAS ITS OWN DOMAIN AND ALL UPDATES ARE NOW FOUND ON THEFUTUROHOUSE.COM

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Unknown Location, New Zealand

Featured Image From Nick McQuoid | Image Date 061413

Google Maps | Well OK - Sort Of Google Map

Additional Images

Notes, History & Resources

Update 061613

The featured image above and photos below were sent to me by Nick McQuoid and show this Futuro in a disassembled state on its arrival back in New Zealand.

Nick also sent me this photo of the Futuro as it appeared when used at the by the Bank Of New Zealand at the 1974 Commonwealth games in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Original Images 111012

These Images Previously On The "Lost Soul's" Page

These images show the Futuro in the process of disassembly prior to its being transported from New Zealand to Australia by Paul McNeil.

Update 062313

Nick has now confirmed that this Futuro has been moved to Rangiora, New Zealand; a town some 30 km or so north of Christchurch.

Update 061613

How does the old saying go "What goes around comes around?" In recent email correspondence I have learned that this Futuro, originally located in New Zealand and then transported to Australia has "returned home" to New Zealand. Nick McQuoid, owner of the Kaimaumau Futuro told me he has now added this Futuro to his collection.

Nick also added a little more of the history of this unit telling me that this was the unit displayed at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, New Zealand. The Futuro was subsequently purchased by Paul McNeil and shipped to Australia; it was never reassembled post shipping and actually remained in storage from 1996 until 2013. Nick purchased the Futuro "a couple of months ago" and has now had the unit shipped back to New Zealand. At this time its "destination" is not known to me [and of course the Kaimaumau Futuro is also on the move to location unknown].

Nick kindly sent me some photos of the Futuro being removed from the storage containers on arrival back in New Zealand. Should Nick choose to share any information about his plans for this Futuro [and for the Kaimaumau Futuro for that matter] that I am able to publish I will of course update this page.

Original Information 111012

This Information Previously On The "Lost Soul's" Page

Influential Australian artist Paul McNeil moved from his native New Zealand to Australia in 1987. A Futuro fan and owner, Paul wrote the chapter on Futuros in New Zealand in the book Futuro: Tomorrow's House from Yesterday edited by Marko Home and Mika Taanila.

Paul McNeil found his own Futuro in New Zealand, disassembled it and had it shipped to Australia. The images at left [Original Images section dated 111012] are from the website "Modern-Post Modern" [m-pm.com] and show the Futuro in various stages of disassembly prior to shipping. On the website we learn that Paul first developed an interest in the Futuro after seeing one at a 1974 home show. He watched and waited for a Futuro to come up for sale and eventually he found one. The website appears to no longer exist in its own right; instead it displays the same pages as futuro-house.net but it was archived by the Internet Archive Wayback Machine and is accessible here.

On page 126 of the book Futuro: Tomorrow's House from Yesterday there is a photo of McNeils disassembled Futuro post its arrival in Australia; the photo is annotated "The author's Futuro being assembled in Bungwahl, Australia."

This is an intentionally low quality photo from my copy of "Futuro - Tomorrow's House From Yesterday" edited by Marko Home and Mika Taanila. My intention is to illustrate this article and show the disassembled Futuro in Australia as well as to provide an example of the books content. It is not to provide a copyright infringing image 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!

However in recent and reliable email correspondence it was confirmed that the Futuro has actually never been reassembled and to this day remains in storage in a disassembled state. That correspondence made no mention of the actual location of the Futuro or, though it would be great to know, where the Futuro came from in New Zealand. Given no mention of the location the assumption was that the Futuro was still in Bungwahl.

An article on the Sydney Morning Herald website however seems to "muddy the waters" a little as far as location is concerned. In the article we read that:

"Mambo artist Paul McNeil is a big fan of the Futuro. He has had one shipped over in pieces from New Zealand, to put on his property in the Byron Bay hinterland ... Two years ago McNeil fulfilled his childhood dream of owning a Futuro. He purchased a bright yellow model from New Zealand and is getting ready to assemble it to use as a studio, or "just a fun place to hang out"."

The article is undated as far as I can tell so the "Two years ago" statement really means nothing [the url suggests it is a 2007 article but almost certainly the Futuro moved from New Zealand to Australia prior to 2005 since there is the photo of it in Australia in the Marko Home book and the first edition of the book was published in 2002].

What is interesting about the article however is the reference to the Futuro being located on McNeil's property in the Byron Bay hinterland. Bungwahl is some 250 km or so north of Sydney; Byron Bay on the other hand is more like 750 km up the coast. Any Google search on Paul McNeil will quickly show that he lives in Byron Bay so is the Futuro in Bungwahl or is it in Byron Bay?

To be honest I do not know; in fact I went round and round as to whether to class this as a "confirmed" or "lost" Futuro. Were it not for the mention of Byron Bay on the Sydney Morning Herald website I would probably have listed it as confirmed in Bungwahl and given it a dedicated page but with the mention of Byron Bay I decided to go with "lost" though there is little doubt that while it is disassembled this Futuro does still exist and so for the purpose of the statistics on my main page I am including this in the "confirmed" count unlike the other "lost" units discussed on this page.

Sources & Reference

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.