2024-04-30 01:57:14
Nick Mcquoid fulfilled a childhood dream. As a boy, he rode to school around a spaceship with small windows and trapdoors. “Like she just landed,” he was fascinated, thinking, “I wish I had one.” Being a child, he did not look for what an object was. He learned that it was a valuable piece of architecture only as an adult, and because he felt nostalgic for it, he convinced the original owner to sell it to him.
Area 51 futuro house is one of the sixty preserved futuristic houses designed by Finnish architect Matti Suuronen in the 1960s as accommodation for skiers. Its advantage was a simple structure that can be folded and moved elsewhere. Today, the house is an example of how visionaries used to imagine living in the future. The opinion was that the man of the new ages would be able to fly to another galaxy with the house.
The former owner used Suuronen’s work as a fishing lodge. Nick reached out to him just in time. The “UFO” was in a state of disrepair, in need of renovation, and as its caretaker was getting old, he agreed to sell it if Nick could find a use for it. The New Zealander gave it a new coat and furnished the interior with furniture and style from the 1970s. Today, the colorful cozy house is offered to tourists as short-term accommodation. He wants them to feel like they are at Disneyland.
“Those who come here should disconnect from the outside world. As if nothing else existed. I could have kept the “futuro” just for myself, but it didn’t make sense to me. I wanted to give those interested the opportunity to experience how people thought in the 60s . and the 1970s. These buildings are so rare that most of them are either in museums or privately owned,” says Nick for the American show Living Big In A Tiny House.
In 2022, Airbnb awarded Nick the award for New Zealand’s most iconic accommodation. In addition, this year the Pouhere Taonga National Heritage Agency listed the spaceship among the structures deserving of protection.
Check out the bizarre house.