Futuro house revival underway in Pieksämäki ahead of Helsinki Design Week
Sunday 19th July 2026 on 15:15 in
Finland
A new Futuro house, a futuristic structure designed by Finnish architect Matti Suuronen in the 1960s, is being built in Pieksämäki ahead of its showcase at Helsinki Design Week in late summer.
The project is led by Erkki Lappi, a local plastics industry entrepreneur who has restored several Futuro houses in Finland and abroad. The new build is commissioned by Dutch-American designer Jan van Dijs, whose company specializes in renovating historic buildings worldwide.
The circular, eight-metre-wide house is being constructed using original molds at Ekin Muovi, a plastics manufacturer in Virtasalmi, Pieksämäki. No blueprints or assembly instructions for the Futuro exist today, requiring Lappi’s team to reverse-engineer the process.
Suuronen’s Futuro houses, made of fiberglass-reinforced polyester, gained iconic status in the 1960s and 1970s. Only about 80–100 were ever built globally, with roughly 20 in Finland. Production halted after the 1970s energy crisis.
Once completed, the new Futuro will travel to Kaisaniemi in Helsinki for Helsinki Design Week, where it will display Marimekko’s latest patterns inside. Lappi previously restored Futuro houses for display in Vienna, Turkey, and Espoo’s WeeGee museum.