In the early 1980s, an enterprising group of futurists invented a novel idea for housebuilding, involving polyurethane foam and huge rubber balloons. They built three of the structures over a ten year period (the most famous in Kissimmee, Florida), and then proceeded to cram in every single piece of 60s and 70s proto-technology, and make it into a plausible sci-fi tourist attraction.

The glaringly white, completely rounded and bulbous, roughly mottled structure looked like something right out of a Star Trek scenery matte painting, and nearly every interior decorative element looked like something right out of Woody Allen's Sleeper.

The technological wonders inside the house ranged from the dubiously useful 13-inch video fireplace, to the non-technical solar water heater, to the confusing 3-screen TVs, to the completely non-existent sonic clothes washer, to the amusing yet frightening fire escape slide.

Add to this just about every uniquely clever and posh furnishing from any 60s-70s James Bond movie lair, and you've got the Xanadu House of the Future, an attraction which didn't quite manage to survive into the 21st century.

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