Out of this world? 10 amazing Space Age homes

Futuro House

"Just one word — are you listening? Plastics," said Mr. McGuire to Dustin Hoffman's character, Benjamin, in the classic 1967 movie "The Graduate." "There's a great future in plastics. Think about it." Benjamin doesn't take the advice, but plastics really were poised to take the world by storm.

Finnish architect Matti Suuronen made the material the heart, soul and everything else of his Futuro House, which debuted in 1968. The UFO-shaped design was originally intended as a somewhat-mobile ski chalet with fold-down seats to sleep eight around the fireplace. To get outside, just lower the retractable steps.

In concept, the UFO homes would have been mass-produced, making them cheap enough to house all Earthlings. Only 96 were built, however — 48 in Finland and 48 more abroad. The oil shock of 1973 raised the price of plastics too high, and the company folded.

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Weatherproof — and alien-proof?

The spaceship-looking Domeshell from Australia is made of polyurethane foam sandwiched between glass-fiber-reinforced concrete walls. This requires less building material than traditional homes, but the completed structure is stronger and more energy-efficient, according to the builder, Domeshells Technology Pty Ltd.

In fact, Domeshells are built to survive the strongest-category cyclone, baseball-size hail, earthquakes, floods, fire and extreme temperatures, the company says. They are also built to be termite- and vermin-proof. In other words, the structures are engineered to withstand the worst nature throws at them — perhaps even an alien attack.

The homes do look like something out of science fiction. The modular design allows owners to mix and match different pods: smaller ones for bedrooms and bathrooms, larger ones for common living spaces.

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Bubble House

An architect from another planet might think differently than Earthlings. Until contact is made, at least there's France's Antti Lovag — who considers himself an anti-architect — and his most famous creation, the Bubble House in Cannes, France.

Lovag's website notes that he "refuses the confrontation of plane, vertical partitions and the aggression of angles. He prefers the conjugation of flexible spaces conceived beforehand by simulation to an orthogonal drawing later destroyed."

Basically, he's designing homes that he sees as more in tune with nature, where straight lines and angles are rare, and human nature, which is itself circular. Built in the 1970s, the Bubble House might appear out of this world, but for Lovag, there appears to be little alien about it.

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Steel House

For Robert Bruno, a sculptor who has spent more than 30 years working on his Steel House near Lubbock, Texas, having a home is secondary to creating something with aesthetic value. The creation, lofted on a bluff, looks like a pad that might be more at home on Tatooine, the planet where Luke Skywalker resides in "Star Wars."

Bruno says he got the idea for the far-out home while working on a steel sculpture that he could stand under, a sensation he describes as "pleasant." With Steel House, he strove to replicate the sensation in something he could actually call a home.

"One of the things that makes this a somewhat different structure from most is that it doesn’t have a skeleton with a skin draped over it. The skin is the structure, so the outside of this house is what holds it all up," he says in a video tour of the home posted on his website.

The building material is quarter-inch steel plate, which Bruno buys as scrap and molds and pieces together with a welder, a cutting torch and a few hand tools. The livable sculpture weighs about 110 tons.

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MercuryHouseOne

With a shape like a spaceship and a planet in its name, the MercuryHouseOne, designed by Italy-based Architecture and Vision, is as futuristic as livable pods come. The firm describes the solar-powered structure as a "mobile living unit." It stands on three feet and is accessible via a ramp.

The architects say nature inspired its design: The shape, they say on their website, resembles a raindrop to "optimize the relation between the outer surface of the skin and the inner volume."

In concept, the pod is a space to relax and enjoy the tranquility of nature. But in case residents desire human distractions, Mercury HouseOne models feature the latest in lighting, audio and video technology for a groovy lounge experience.

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M-vironments and the M-house

Think the future of prefabricated housing is destined to be homogenous and bland? Don't tell that to artist Michael Jantzen, who has designed a series of concept homes called M-vironments. They feature hinged panels on a modular support frame that inhabitants can adjust to create whatever space their hearts desire, whenever they want.

The M-house, shown here, is composed of rectangular panels attached to a grid of interlocking cubes. The panels fold in and out to create spaces for different functions — walls to close off a room, for example, or to open a space to the outdoors. The panel and cube configurations are adjustable, as well.

Like Bruno's Steel House, the M-vironments were never meant to be mass-marketed. "It is more of a functional art concept," says Jantzen, noting that just two have been sold.

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Heliotrope

Although the Heliotrope rotating, solar house may look like something from another planet, its inspiration and name come from a type of plant on Earth that turns to keep its leaves and blossoms facing the sun.

The cylindrical structure has triple-pane windows that follow and soak up the sun in the winter. Come summer, the home rotates so that its back is to the sun, keeping temperatures cool and comfortable. Solar panels on the roof rotate independently and produce energy for the whole home.

Other "green" features of the Rolf Disch-designed home include a rainwater-collection system and an odor-free compost system for waste. Sewage water is filtered through a cascade pond in the front yard.

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Chemosphere

Visitors to the Hollywood Hills are forgiven if they suspect a flying saucer is hovering above the trees. Alas, the sight is actually the late architect John Lautner's Chemosphere, a 2,200-square-foot, octagonal house perched atop a 30-foot pole so it can fit on a too-steep slope.

Leonard Malin, an aerospace engineer, built the home in 1960 and lived in it until 1972. In the next 25 years, the house saw a succession of owners, hosted many parties and was run-down by the time German book publisher Benedikt Taschen bought it in 2000 and restored it.

If the house looks familiar, it may be because it's had numerous appearances on screens big and small, from the ABC-TV program "Outer Limits" in 1964 to the movie version of "Charlie's Angels" in 2000. Its Space Age cred got a boost a few years after it was constructed when "The Jetsons" aired, filled with round homes supported by poles.

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Volcano House

If Earthlings build homes on the moon, they first might want to check out the Volcano House, a dome home plopped atop a volcanic cinder cone amid the moonscape terrain between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

Harold Bissner Jr., a Pasadena, Calif.-based architect, designed the concrete truss dome with tempered-glass walls in 1968 as a weekend getaway for a client, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The three-bedroom, three-bath home in Newberry Springs, Calif., has desert views and an observation deck on the roof.

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Space Age homes for the rest of us

Midcentury architecture is rife with Space Age influences, particularly in the dated playground of the Hollywood rich and famous: Palm Springs, Calif. There, across the street from the tony Palm Springs Racquet Club, architect William Krisel designed Racquet Club Road Estates, a quintessential development for the middle-class masses.

The first homes were completed in 1959, according to a website dedicated to the neighborhood's preservation. The 1,225-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bath homes were built with post-and-beam construction, affording soaring roof lines as well as an open floor plan. Their floor plans were identical, though five roof-line plans provided distinction.

Their kitchens won kudos for their Space Age feel, with an in-wall oven and refrigerator separated by a gas stove and an island for food preparation that provided a barrier between the main living space and the kitchen.

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