This was the Future, Vol.13

typed for your pleasure on 7 July 2005, at 4.48 am

Sdtrk: ‘Strange design’ by Midnight movies

I think my usual statement of ‘I’ve seen this house/structure before several times, yet never knew what it was called’ really applies to the subject of Vol.13. I can recall only seeing these digs literally three times in my life: once, when viewing ‘Diamonds are forever’, another time after that, and the third time, during an episode of The Simpsons. When deliberating on what new structure to touch upon with this latest volume, for some reason this structure sprang to mind, and I’ll tell ya, it took me a couple of sweaty minutes looking the bastard up on Google, as I hadn’t Clue One as to what the place was called, or who designed it, for that matter…
Tonight! Or Today, depending on when you read this! We will be spotlighting none other than Troy McClure’s house! (Also known as John Lautner’s Chemosphere House.)

Chemosphere is bisected by a central, exposed brick wall with a fireplace, abutted by subdued seating, in the middle. One side of the house is public, with a small kitchen and blended living and dining rooms including built-in couches below glass windows. The house’s private half includes a master bedroom with bathroom, small storage and laundry rooms, an office made of two children’s bedrooms, and an additional bathroom. Despite being more compact than many new single-family houses, it has most of the essential elements.
quoted from this article

What’s nice to know is that after years of neglect and disrepair, Benedikt Taschen, head of the famous Taschen publishing company, bought it, and has been living there since 1997. Good on you, sir!

Despite the fact that this home was built in 1960, it has an inexplicable late Seventies/early Eighties feeling to it. A lot of Modernist homes constructed round this time were naturally looking towards the future, but this one seemed ahead of its time, even in respect to its contemporaries.
Between aesthetic design from the Sixties and aesthetic design from the Eighties, I’d go with the former hands down, but the Chemosphere is still a unique winner

Random similar posts, for more timewasting:

This was the Future, Vol.42 on December 1st, 2009

This was the Future, Vol.12 on June 3rd, 2005

4 have spoken to “This was the Future, Vol.13”

  1. SafeTinspector writes:

    I wanna house like that! I wanna house like that! I wanna place to live like that! I want to chill in subdued seating next to a bisectual brick wall with a fireplace in the middle of it.
    Hey….is bisectual a word? Sweet!

  2. Jeff "Wolfgang" Lilly writes:

    Herr Katze, I’m sure you’ve been to the Henry Ford museum and taken a tour through the real live actual example of a Dymaxion home they’ve assembled inside? If not, what are you waiting for? If I remember correctly, Dymaxion was even earlier than this…

  3. Davecat writes:

    Wolfgang –
    Sweet baby James, they have an example of a Dymaxion house? Dynamic + Maximum + Action?? I haven’t been to Henry Ford since third grade, but I’ve been wanting to visit.. now I have a new reason. 🙂

    Yeah, Bucky first started building the (very small handful of) Dymaxion homes during the Thirties, if I’m not mistaken. He’s looking to be a good ‘This was the Future’ candidate..

  4. SafeTinspector writes:

    Jeff:is it in the village or the museum proper?

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