JF Ptak Science Books   Quick Post   [Part of a series on the History of the Future]

Say “hello” to the “telescope house”, an unusual idea in small house design, found in Popular Mechanics for the March, 1945 issue, just before the end of WWII in Europe.  It was designed by F(rank) J. Zavada (1916-1998?), and it is a tidy little place:  four rooms on the first floor and two bedrooms on the second, the house is made to collapse and expand vertically and horizontally.  I don’t see area  mentioned, but it looks to be on the order of 400 sq ft or so. 

[Detail]

This design put me in mind of a much-inferior idea: the rolling house of the future (offered in the September, 1934 issue of Everyday Science and Mechanics). Etienne Boullee it is not. The house does, however, roll, for whatever that is worth, and if that is a positive thing then that would be one advantage it would have over a non-rolling house. (I don’ get to write that phrase very often.) And it rolls exclusive of  some rolling platform, which somehow seemed like  a better idea than just having a more-traditional house with wheels.  Presumably the rolling house would be filled with E. Lloyd Wright nothingness, so there will be no displacement issues. 

[Read more about the Rolling Houses and Glass Homes of Futurlandia here.]