Plastic Fantastic Living - Page 5

Oh, yes, the dishwasher. Rather than gurgling suds, it used ultrasonic waves to do its job.

Throughout the house all was plastic—sink and toilet, upholstery, pillows and rugs, built-in furniture, and all 13 telephones, “conveying images as well as sound.”

No need for Bluetooth either. You could walk about the home talking on the phone unencumbered by anything—microphones embedded in plastic walls would pick up your voice in perfect clarity.

It does need to be noted that some of these ‘advances’ were theoretical only, awaiting further development—including gamma irradiation.

Also notable is one futurist prediction the designers of the house got very, very wrong. They assumed—as many people did at the time—that the major problem facing future families would be an excess of leisure.

The house was designed to expand to accommodate extra rooms as needed. “The expanded versions of the house could reflect the added leisure time available to the family by providing do-it-yourself hobby rooms, TV areas, sewing rooms, etc.,” the architects wrote.

The designers also failed to predict that future generations would demand bathrooms the size of bowling alleys. The House of the Future provided only “two small Pullman-like bathrooms.”

Although the house really did look airborne, promoters said the plastic U’s that made up the rooms were strong, a fiberglass sandwich with a foam-plastic insulating core.