Head in the Clouds
Where will we live in the future? whether In flying homes or skyscrapers, for the imagination at the turn of the century there was only one answer: up high…
Piero Gondolo della Riva
German picture card announcing an extraordinary flying car upon which there is a house covered by a wonderful hanging garden, 1900; plate by manufacturer Digoin & Sarraguemines from the early nine hundreds shows a flying object that pulls up to a balcony French picture card from the series En l’an; 2000 Edifici Trasportabili. Images ©Piero Gondolo della Riva
“What will the home of the future look like?” writers and illustrators in the past asked themselves when they imagined the year two thousand or eras thereafter still. The first answer, in general, was the following: houses will be very high, destined to hold a large number of inhabitants divided into tiny apartments. For example, Jules Verne, in his novel Paris au XXe siècle (written around 1862, but published posthumously in 1994), imagined that, in 1960, convertible furniture would have existed, a pianoforte that turns into a dinning room table with chairs attached by pressing a button – for the meagre houses.
As opposed to solid scientific projects, in most cases, they came in the form of striking and fanciful visions
The magazine Le Miroir (2 February 1913) showed, on the other hand, a very peculiar futuristic house in the shape of an upside down pyramid, while a rare plate by the manufacturer Digoin & Sarraguemines from the early nine hundreds shows a flying object that pulls up to a balcony. The famous French writer and illustrator Albert Robida, that we have already mentioned several times in this column, imagined, rotating flying homes in his novel Le Vingtième siècle, published in 1883.
Towards 1937, the long drink Byrrh distributed a splendid series of postcards entitled 24 regards sur l’avenir, one of which, number fifteen, presents a cylindrical skyscraper equipped with a runway on the roof.
The houses of the XXX appear on the 1933 Christmas edition of the magazine Le Miroir du Monde: the skyscrapers are so high that they disappear into the clouds!
The 1933 Christmas edition of the magazine Le Miroir du Monde; futuristic house in the shape of an upside down pyramid published in Le Miroir (2 February 1913); rotating flying homes by Albert Robida, Le Vingtième siècle, 1883, Towards 1937, form the series of postcards entitled 24 regards sur l’avenirthe, Byrrh. Images ©Piero Gondolo della Riva
The future home isn’t always envisioned as a building anchored to the ground: there were to be mobile homes, such as Edifici Trasportabili in the year 2000 shown on a Ramornie beef extract picture card in the early nine hundreds, or like Maison automobile that appeared at around the same time on a French picture card from the series En l’an 2000. They even went as far as imagining that they would have invented flying houses! Already in 1845 an edition of the publication Le Charivari gives us an example, showing us a building held up in the sky by some hot air balloons, while a lovely German picture card from the 1900 announces for the XX century an extraordinary flying car upon which there is a house covered by a wonderful hanging garden.
Towards the 1900’s it was very fashionable to try and imagine the wonders that the new century would have brought. It shouldn’t then be of any surprise if as opposed to solid scientific projects, in most cases, they came in the form of striking and fanciful visions.
