When Nick McQuoid first clapped eyes on a Futuro — a UFO-shaped futuristic home — he was a young boy driving through New Brighton in his father’s car.
“That kind of turned into a core memory to me,” recalled McQuoid.
After the Canterbury earthquakes, McQuoid saw another Futuro in a storage yard near Christchurch Airport.
McQuoid observed that it was “still standing” and his interest was piqued again.
Today, he owns one fully restored Futuro, which he lets via Airbnb, and is about to begin building a second, which he retrieved from a paddock near Sydney and shipped back to his Ohoka property.
“I’ll begin restoring it very soon to set up another Airbnb in a mystery location,” he shared.
McQuoid picked up an Australasian-wide Airbnb award in his first year as a host. Managing the Area 51 Resort, which includes additional accommodation, a swimming pool, spa and sauna, has become his full-time occupation.
The Futuro dwelling was designed by Finnish architect Matti Suuronen in 1968. Only around 100 homes were built worldwide, and they became known as flying saucers or UFO houses due to their eye-catching shape.
McQuoid told Seven Sharp that Suuronen did not think the design looked like a UFO.
‘Mathematical perfection’
“The reason for the shape of the ellipse was, in his own words, it was like the golden ratio,” explained McQuoid. “It’s perfect for giant wind forces and snow load, and everything about it is mathematical perfection, in his opinion.”
In New Zealand, the first Futuro was displayed at the 1974 Commonwealth Games, where the Bank of New Zealand outfitted it as a temporary branch. That yellow Futuro is now the restoration project sitting in pieces in McQuoid’s shed.
He’s since discovered the Department of Conservation once used his fully restored Futuro as a back-country weather station, which was then used by a farmer to store dog feed.
Heritage New Zealand researchers have unearthed more of its history and recently awarded the Ohoka Futuro Category 1 heritage status.
“It challenges people’s minds as to what heritage actually is,” believes McQuoid. “A heritage building doesn’t have to be a 100-year-old miners’ cottage; it can be a plastic UFO.”
His expanding complex includes play equipment once used in McDonald’s restaurants and restored “species” — arcade machines.
“I’ll probably end up on one of those hoarding TV shows, and they’ll have to drag me out of here,” laughed McQuoid.
He’s already onto his fifth guest visitor book. The latest remarks from Canadian visitors: “The best place we’ve stayed in New Zealand.”