Xanadu Houses
Xanadu Houses were an innovative architectural project initiated in 1979 by Bob Masters, featuring futuristic designs and advanced technology. The first house was built in Wisconsin Dells, while the most famous version was constructed in Kissimmee, Florida, to attract tourists drawn by the nearby EPCOT Center. These homes were designed to be energy efficient and were quickly assembled using polyurethane insulating foam over inflatable forms, resulting in bright white structures with curved lines that evoked a science-fiction aesthetic. Each house was equipped with an integrated computer system, automating various household tasks and aiming to enhance family interactions around high-tech entertainment centers.
Despite their ambitious vision, the Xanadu Houses fell short of becoming viable living spaces, as they were never occupied and primarily served as tourist attractions. Visitors often found the small, curvy rooms to feel cramped, and the futuristic designs did not resonate with mainstream tastes. Additionally, rapid advancements in technology rendered many of the homes' features outdated. Ultimately, the three Xanadu Houses met their demise in the 1990s and early 2000s, highlighting the challenges of aligning innovative architectural concepts with the preferences and needs of potential homeowners.
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Xanadu Houses
Experimental homes designed to showcase new architectural methods and home technology
Place Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin; Kissimmee, Florida; and Gatlinburg, Tennessee
The three Xanadu Houses built in the United States in the 1980’s were meant to showcase and promote new architectural methods and home automation systems, though in reality the houses were merely tourist attractions, and their methods and ideologies were never widely adopted.
The Xanadu House project was born in 1979, the brainchild of Bob Masters, who envisioned a future of ergonomically designed houses built with novel materials and featuring advanced computer technology. The first Xanadu House was designed by architect Stewart Gordon and built in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. The second, and by far the best known of the houses, was designed by Roy Mason and built in 1983 in Kissimmee, Florida, to take advantage of the tourist population drawn to the area by Disney’s Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT) Center. The final house was located in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
The houses were designed to be energy efficient and very quickly built by spraying polyurethane insulating foam over inflatable balloon forms. The resulting structures were bright white and had gently curving lines, both inside and out, which, visitors often thought, resembled something from a science-fiction film. An integrated computer system controlled virtually every aspect of the homes’ functioning, from watering plants in the greenhouses to suggesting nutritious menus and helping to prepare meals. The designers intended for such labor-saving devices to leave more time for families to come together around the “electronic hearth”—a high-technology entertainment center featuring multiple televisions, video games, stereo equipment, and, in at least one of the homes, a video screen showing an image of a cozy fire.
Impact
Though they were meant to showcase serious architectural possibilities for the future and to change the way people interacted with their shelters, in truth the Xanadu Houses never quite rose above the status of curiosity or tourist attraction. The Kissimmee Xanadu House, by far the most popular of the three, attracted more than one thousand visitors per day during its peak of popularity in the mid-1980’s. Despite their grand vision, however, the architects never really reckoned with the tastes and preferences of ordinary home buyers. No one, in fact, ever lived in any of the Xanadu Houses.
The rooms in the houses were small, and the curved walls could make them feel cramped and cavelike; the building materials were not well suited to stand up over the long term to the ravages of weather; and many people found the designs, reminiscent of science fiction, strange and even ugly. Perhaps most important, rapid developments in technology made many of the homes’ “futuristic” features quickly obsolete. The Wisconsin and Tennessee houses were demolished in the 1990’s, and even the once-popular Florida house closed in 1996 and was demolished in 2005.
Bibliography
Mason, Roy, et al. “A Day at Xanadu.” Futurist 18 (February, 1984): 17-24.
Mason, Roy, Lane Jennings, and Robert Evans. Xanadu: The Computerized Home of Tomorrow and How It Can Be Yours Today! New York: Acropolis Books, 1983.