109Rangaunu Harbour in the Far North. McQuoid flew
up to inspect it, and arranged to have it transported in
bits to Rangiora. It is white.
A year later (2013) another was added to his
collection. The yellow one, once the Commonwealth
Games BNZ branch, had been acquired by Paul
McNeil and shipped to Australia in the 1990s where
it remained in storage until McQuoid learned of it
and brought it back to New Zealand. A bid to acquire
a third house, located at Raglan, came to nothing;
but in August 2018 he bought one that had been by
the Paringa River in Westland since the 1970s. His
Facebook page records its rescue by helicopter, jet-boat
and other means of transportation. In the meantime
the Kaimaumau one, which he had partly done up,
was sold to MONA (Museum of Old and New Art) in
Hobart. McQuoid also owns a Venturo house, a quite
different small, mass-produced dwelling by Matti
Suuronen, which resembles more a television from the
1960s.
McQuoid has visions of doing these houses up
and using them as tourist accommodation. It is a long
process. Work has involved making new moulds for
wall partitions and for the sleek recliners that the
original European houses had.
The Futuro phenomenon keeps on evolving. From
being one of numerous functionalist solutions for
quick kitset housing in the mid-twentieth century, it
has become a collector’s item for millennialists and
‘an icon of space-age architecture and design’, as
Marko Home puts it.^23 Here form follows fantasy not
function.
- An essential source on the Futuro house is Marko Home & Mika
Taanila, Futuro―Tomorrow’s House from Yesterday, Desure, Helsinki - It includes a chapter on the Futuro in this country by New
Zealander Paul McNeil. - See especially http://www.thefuturohouse.com/Futuro-Rangiora-New-
Zealand.html and http://www.thefuturohouse.com/Futuro-House-lost-
Locations.html. - Rich Pisani, in an email to Grant Major, 22 April 2005.
- Marjory Staples, journalist and author, who writes under the
name of Rosaline Redwood, talked about her Futuro at Huntsbury
Hill, Christchurch, saying it was ‘burglar-proof, noise-proof, rust-
proof, hurricane-proof, and any other proof you can think up’.
Except, in this case, the hydraulic shaft that operated the door had
been put in upside down and the owner was regularly locked in
or out or the door would not shut at all. See http://thefuturohouse.
com/Futuro-Huntsbury-New-Zealand.html. When this house was
sold the new owners added a second to the site, incorporating it
into the house to give it a double-bay appearance.- Wayne Wille, ‘Portable globe house for well-rounded living’,
Science and Mechanics, January 1961, pp. 57–59, http://blog.
modernmechanix.com/portable-globe-house-for-well-rounded-
living/. - Home & Taanila, op. cit., p. 128.
- See, for example, The Press Games Supplement, 24 January 1974.
- Futuro Homes (NZ) Ltd, 120 St Asaph Street, Christchurch, to The
Manager, BNZ Ltd, cnr Colombo & Hereford Streets, Christchurch,
22 February 1974. This and other correspondence is in the BNZ
Archive, Wellington. The BNZ rented the building from Futuro
Homes (NZ) Ltd who fitted it out to the bank’s specifications on
condition the bank restored it to its original state. - Advertisements to appear in the Christchurch Press and Otago
Daily Times, 23 & 27 February 1974. - ‘USES: Vacation House; Motel Units; Ski and Resort area
Lodges; temporary Class Rooms and Housing; Portable Housing
for Airforce, Military and Forestry Personnel; Boys’ and Girls’
Camp Bunks; Tourist Housing and Guest Cabanas for Swim Clubs;
Foreign Government and Migrant Housing; Commercial Sales
Offices; Guest House; Teenage House; Studio.’ (From Futuro Homes
(NZ) Ltd leaflet, ‘Futuro Facts’. From the BNZ Archives.) - See Thames Star, 14 October 1975, p. 12 (photograph); 24 October
1975, p. 4 (advertisement); and 27 November 1975, p. 1 (cartoon).
Leo Schultz was the MP (National) for Coromandel. The Grumpy
Old Limey (see footnote 2) calls the Kopu business Kitset Homes
Ltd; and mentions a businessman, Stewart Graham Harris who
had shares in it and another firm, Peninsular Builders, who were
involved. - The abandoned Futuro is said to have belonged to Mike Zero,
owner of the funky but now defunct shop Hunters and Collectors in
Auckland. - In Home & Taanila, op. cit., p. 120.
- Futuro Homes (NZ) Ltd. (‘Futuro Home Units. Prices as at 1^
March 1976’, p. 1). Shell-only at that date was $10,500. As well as the
St Asaph St address for the office, this leaflet gives a factory location
at 122A Wainoni Rd, Christchurch. - According to opencorporates.comFuturoHomes(NZ)Ltd
existed from 3 September 1972 until5 August1987.
(continued on inside back cover)