From UFO-pod homes to the 'House of Tomorrow', these residences were designed to push the outer limits of available technology, predict interior design trends and embody the 'space race' style of the 1950s and 60s made popular in TV shows like The Jetsons.
Click or scroll to explore the 'retro futurist' houses of the 20th century, showcasing how architects and designers foresaw our lives in the new millennium...
Demonstrating the wonders of modern plastics, the Monsanto House of the Future was stationed at Disneyland’s Tomorrowland in Anaheim, California, USA, from 1957 to 1967.
It was a real must-see for children and adults alike!
The project was sponsored by Monsanto Chemical Company in 1953, and was carried out under the direction of Marvin Goody and Richard Hamilton of MIT’S Department of Architecture.
It was imagined that, in the future, we’d be living in mass-produced plastic housing, which they conceived as requiring ‘no upkeep’.
Upon entering the mass-produced house of the future, visitors would embark on a tour of what the late twentieth century would bring, such as pod-like rooms and a little-known invention called the microwave oven.
Within six weeks of opening, the attraction welcomed over 435,000 visitors, with over 20 million sightseers crossing its threshold before the house was closed down.
The Monsanto House of the Future closed in 1967, but it required more than a simple farewell to pass into history.
The glass and reinforced plastic structure was too robust for demolition crews armed with mere wrecking balls, torches and chainsaws. Choker chains were employed to demolish the house into smaller parts, while the concrete foundation still remains today, painted green and transformed into a planter. A sad end for an extraordinary home!
Well known for its spaceship-like dynamic form, this futuristic piece of Palm Springs architecture is famous for another exciting reason. The King of rock ’n’ roll Elvis Presley lived here in 1966, leasing the so-called 'House of Tomorrow' for one year when he was in his early 30s.
The iconic Palm Springs pad was sold in 2022 for a shade under $5.7 million (£4.4m). Thanks to TopTenRealEstateDeals.com, we can take a look inside...
The custom-built four-bedroom and five-bathroom family home was designed for Robert and Helene Alexander of the famed Alexander construction company in 1960. Featuring an ahead-of-its-time design, Look magazine deemed it the 'The House of Tomorrow' after visiting in 1962.
Elvis rented the space age retreat for a year at $21,000 – that's $203,000 (£157k) when adjusted for inflation today.
Inside, the living area features a curved wall of windows providing plentiful views across the terrace, pool and mountain views from a sunken area perfect for a party. The steel beaker-shaped fireplace hood and floating hearth are the futuristic centrepiece of the home.
The 4,695-square-foot (436sqm) home must have been the perfect place for the 'Jailhouse Rock' singer to unwind with his then-fiancé, Priscilla. The iconic pair were reportedly set to marry at the Palm Springs home but had to hold a private wedding in Las Vegas once the press found out about their nuptial plans.
After they’d tied the knot, Elvis and Priscilla reportedly took their private jet back to 'The House of Tomorrow' in May 1967. Here they enjoyed their honeymoon before the Hollywood actor had to return to a movie set.
The spaceship-like winged roof line houses four circular pods, while the primary bedroom suite features panoramic views from multiple curving windows. The home sits in the covetable Vista Las Palmas neighbourhood of Palm Springs and was the largest building constructed by the notable Alexander Construction Company, which built more than 2,000 homes in California during the 1950s and 60s. What’s more, it also boasts the largest pool too.
Built in 1965, this Richard and Dion Neutra-designed home hides among the eucalyptus trees of LA's trendy Silver Lake neighbourhood like a futuristic treehouse. Known as the second Van der Leeuw Research House (VDL II), it stands on the same spot as an earlier Neutra design, which burned down.
While the first iteration was an experiment in work-life balance, housing Richard Neutra's studio as well as his home, this version was a private residence for the architect and his family.
Built on various levels, the home was designed with various features that were state of the art for the time, including gold heat-reflecting privacy glass, a cutting-edge low-voltage system and electric aluminium louvre blinds.
Built-in furniture and glass walls created the illusion of space and were popular mid-century design choices.
As we can see, Richard and his architect son Dion used windows and mirrors to make the most of views over the Silver Lake reservoir and minimise the barrier between outdoor and indoor.
The home has the feeling of an oasis, with a central indoor garden and a series of reflecting pools set over several levels of the house, including the rooftop. The water acted as an extension of the reservoir, which had shrunk considerably since the first house was built there in 1932.
The home, which is now a National Historic Landmark, was a testing ground for new research, theories and materials. It also proved how much space and interest could be fit onto a relatively small lot.
Luckily for architecture fans, Neutra's wife Dione willed the house to the College of Environmental Design at the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. As a result, the home is open for public tours.
Located in Beverly Shores, Indiana, the House of Tomorrow was originally designed for the Homes Of Tomorrow exhibition, part of 1933's Century of Progress International Exposition in Chicago, Illinois.
With an emphasis on modern science and technology, architect George Fred Keck also aimed to create a symbol of optimism in the wake of the Great Depression.
The three-storey dodecagon building measures 42 feet (13m) in diameter and even hosts an airplane hangar, set four feet beneath the ground floor. Built using an aluminium fascia with vermiculite interior walls, its plate glass walls defined the building’s design.
As you can see from this photo, the home was significantly altered after its World’s Fair days.
Inside, most of the rooms are wedge-shaped and designed around a central staircase within the dodecagonal prism structure. Each window was altered in order for residents to be able to adjust the internal environment.
When architect Keck found workers in their shirtsleeves in the midst of a cold winter, he claimed to have discovered solar heating.
While The House of Tomorrow has been vacant since 1999, it was declared a National Treasure in 2016. Fast forward to 2023 and the National Park Service opened bidding to begin the first phase of the landmark home's renovation to begin in 2024, thanks to $4 million (£3.1m) provided by the Great American Outdoors Act.
Having been wrapped up in protective material for over a decade, we can't wait to see how it looks when it's finally unveiled.
The chic, futurist styles and architecture depicted in this gallery inspired a remarkable series of adverts for Motorola that ran between 1962-3.
Commercial artist Charles Schridde based his imagery on plans designed by well-known architects of the day, and made sure to feature many of Motorola’s electronic devices in his illustrations. See how many you can spot…
The couple in this 1963 illustration can take in breath-taking views of the surrounding mountains via their glass dome roof and floor-to-ceiling windows, or they can just watch their favourite variety show on television. And that is, of course, a Motorola television, encased in a hyper-modernist wooden surround.
This 1962 ad for a Motorola stereo Hi-Fi shows a couple relaxing in a round, glass-walled room. With it's achingly modern form, sleek furnishings and position – standing high above a city – it would make a wonderful lair for a Bond villain.
Set on the water, the home featured in this 1963 Motorola stereo Hi-Fi ad is every sailors dream. It's a mid-century idyll of open-plan living, complete with floor-to-ceiling windows and wood and chrome furniture.
However, it's the industrial central column that provides access to a jetty and waiting speedboat that takes this imagined home – literally – to the next level. Note the nautical bedroom complete with rigging and a hanging ship's lantern.
Le Palais Bulles, or The Bubble Palace, stands on a hillside in Theoule-sur-Mer, on the French Riviera. Overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, the extraordinary pink home looks like a strange sea creature hiding among the trees.
The futuristic mansion, made up of rounded rooms with rotating floors, took fourteen years to build and was designed by Hungarian architect Antti Lovag.
Completed in 1989, the otherworldly home was created from concrete poured around spheres made from metal rods and mesh.
Up close, its portals, domes and curves resemble a giant octopus. The building's strange form is thanks to Lovag's free-thinking approach to design and his belief that a straight line is an "aggression against nature". Indeed, he believed that architecture was a form of play, "spontaneous, joyful, full of surprise" – all of which is evident in the Bubble Palace.
Thanks to its space-age design, the property has been used for events, filming, photo shoots and even a Dior fashion show. Fashion designer Pierre Cardin bought the home in 1992 and hosted "magical evenings and unforgettable parties" there before his death in 2020.
"Its curves and its softness makes me see the shapes of a woman, of a mother," he told author Jean-Paul Hesse. "That’s why I feel good there."
The quirky yet luxurious 13,000-square-foot (1,207sqm) has 29 rooms, including 10 bedrooms and 11 bathrooms, as well as a reception hall, multiple pools and waterfalls and a 500-seat open-air amphitheatre.
It was originally listed in 2016 with a price tag of €350 million ($380m/£295m) before being listed again in 2020 for an undisclosed sum.
Designed by architect Pierre Koenig in 1959, the Stahl House can be found nestled within the Hollywood Hills of LA, California.
Also known as Case Study #22, the house was built as part of the Case Study Houses programme and remains an icon of modernist architecture.
The glass and steel building cantilevers 10 feet over the Hollywood hills, providing the illusion of an illuminated floating box.
It is no surprise the building has featured in a multitude of films and music videos, offering a breath-taking theatrical backdrop of the city below.
The home was owned by Buck Stahl, a graphic designer and sign painter who bought the plot in 1954 for just $13,500, which is about $158,000 (£122k) in today's money.
Stahl had originally planned to design and build the home himself, before hiring Koenig in 1957. His family still own the house today and his children, who grew up there, now give tours to the public.
Built in an L shape, the private rooms, like the bedrooms, are almost completely separate from the more public, entertaining areas of the home.
In 1999, the futuristic architecture of the Stahl House was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.
Designed by ambitious Israeli-Canadian architect Moshe Safdie when he was just 23 years old, Habitat 67 is a model community and housing complex in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
This government-sponsored project aimed to reimagine apartment living for future cities. In total, 90 pavilions were built for Expo 67, Montreal’s 1967 world’s fair.
Arranged in varying configurations, Habitat 67 plays host to 354 identical prefab units.
Over 12 storeys, 146 individual homes are stacked in a myriad of sizes and formats. Each unit also boasts at least one private terrace, from 225 to 1,000 square feet.
The future-minded housing complex appears to take inspiration from Metabolism, a Japanese architectural group. This post-war movement championed the idea that architecture should create urban environments that are interconnected and organic.
Here we can see the interior of the courtyard, which certainly seems to embody that idea.
One former inhabitant of Habitat 67, art critic Blake Gopnik, labelled it "the greatest modern sculpture".
“When you walk through it, you get a sense of space unfolding around you," he told Architectural Digest. "Vistas open up and get enclosed by concrete.”
In 2007, it was voted the Best Building of the 20th Century by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada.
Here we have the iconic Futuro pod – an undeniably spaceship-esque prefabricated house designed by Finnish architect Matti Suuronen.
Less than 100 were built during the late 1960s and early 1970s, making these intriguing structures particularly sought-after collectors' items. This one is pictured at the Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Finland.
The portable house is made of glass-filled polyester resin and its interior is decked out with six specially designed bed-chairs on stands.
The pod is heated and ventilated via air channels that run beneath the floor and the living space features this freestanding hexagonal fire pit. As futuristic as the space is, with its oval windows and curved walls, it's reassuring to know that even space-age loos are much like our own.
This Futuro house prototype stands in front of the Pinakothek der Moderne museum in Munich, Germany. When this pod was restored, it was given a door that could open and close electronically at the touch of a button – the perfect way for a spaceman to make a grand arrival on planet earth.
Inside, it's been fitted out with a simple, yet decidedly futuristic bench that runs all the way around the curved wall. However, while it was once open to the public, it closed during the pandemic and never reopened.
Serial number 13, as this Futuro house is now, shows us just how portable and versatile these little pods are. It was first exhibited at the Bayer AG booth at the Hannover Messe, a global trade fair for industrial technology, in 1969. Then it went on to become a radio studio at Spreepark, a now-abandoned theme park in Treptow, in what was then East Germany.
It's now privately owned and sits atop a houseboat in Berlin!
While most modernist buildings are made from raw concrete, panels of glass and natural wood, Casa Gilardi is a modernist marvel with a Mexican twist.
Dreamed up by Luis Barragan in 1976, the colourful home was designed to function as a bachelor pad that could easily transition into a family home as the resident's lifestyle evolved.
Inside, Barragan plays with light and shadow in brightly coloured spaces, as we can see in this corridor. While minimalism and an emphasis on function over form lay at the heart of modernism, Barragan bucked the trend.
"It is alarming that publications devoted to architecture have banished from their pages the words beauty, inspiration, magic, spellbound, enchantment, as well as the concepts of serenity, silence, intimacy and amazement," he said in his acceptance speech for the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1980. "All these have nestled in my soul."
Barragan's favourite colours were pinks, mauves and earth tones, as we see in his most famous – and highly Instagramed – Cuadra San Cristóbal equestrian estate. Here, however, he used bright blues, yellows and reds to break up the space, as we see with this indoor reflecting pool. The bright red column isn't structurally important but was placed "for pleasure" and to bring light into the space.
The colours were inspired by a painting by Chucho Reyes, whom Barragan thought had "an excellent eye for colour".
In his quest to enhance the space with the use of light, Barragan reportedly ensured the interior stucco was very smooth so it didn't cause interruptions in the way light and shadows fell.
The jacaranda tree in the courtyard existed back when the house was built and Barragan was so determined to keep it that he made it the centrepiece of the home, its purple flowers complimenting and clashing with the surrounding colours – mirroring Barragan's relationship with modernism.
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