FEWER THAN A HUNDRED OF FINNISH architect Matti Suuronen’s sci-fi-inspired Futuro Houses were ever produced, and now fewer than 50 remain, making the odd spaceship vacation home crumbling away in a Royse City, Texas field more sought after than it would appear.  Designed in the late 1960s, the prefabricated Futuro Houses were meant to be a cheap, durable, and stylish little dwelling that could be placed in any environment. Made of fiberglass and plastic, the homes could be broken down into 16 individual pieces and bolted together wherever the owner wanted, from a snowy mountainside to a sunny beach. Unfortunately, the space age design may have been a bit too ahead of its time for most communities, which along with an oil shortage, cut the future of these bulbous vacation shacks short.

There’s not much beyond modern mansions, traditional Texas ranchland, and self-storage warehouses along Royse City’s State Highway 276. I’m 30 minutes from the nearest city, and fields and farms stretch in all directions. I smell the cows before I see them. The hot summer’s day has led the herd to a watering hole where one smart soldier is fully submerged.This small Texas town is the last place I’d expect to find a trippy bit of Finnish architecture, and yet, here lies one of 63 Futuro house skeletons scattered around the world. Designed in the 1960s as a posh, modular ski chalet, Finnish architect Matti Suuronen had high hopes that the pods would transform the art of vacationing.