There’s nothing new in imagining what the future might look like, and science fiction is far from the only artform with a monopoly on doing so. However, as the future becomes the present, so does our imagined future become part of our past. And here are a few illustrations of that process…
Houses of the future
The House of the Future by Peter and Alison Smithson, Daily Mail Ideal Home Show 1956
The House of the Future by Peter and Alison Smithson, Daily Mail Ideal Home Show 1956
The House of the Future by Peter and Alison Smithson, Daily Mail Ideal Home Show 1956
The House of the Future by Peter and Alison Smithson, Daily Mail Ideal Home Show 1956
The House of the Future by Peter and Alison Smithson, Daily Mail Ideal Home Show 1956
The House of the Future by Peter and Alison Smithson, Daily Mail Ideal Home Show 1956
Frigidaire Kitchen of the Future, 1956 Motorama
Clothes of the future
Pierre Cardin with his models, late 1960s
Advert for a tuxedo rental company – wtf?
Bubble hats for Braniff International Airways, Emilio Pucci
Cabin crew uniforms for Braniff International Airways, Emilio Pucci
We lost a bit of the future we used to have only a couple of days ago, when Neil Armstrong died following heart surgery. The US space programme of the 1950s and 1960s has always fascinated me because of its optimism for the future. It gave us “Space Age” as a term of approval, and I for one mourn the Space Age we nearly had within our grasp. Here are some photographs to remind us of lost times…
space
British Aerospace HOTOL
NASA space ferry concept
Nuclear-powered ferry to the Moon (from Look and Learn)
Von Braun design for a lunar lander
Cabin detail from von Braun lunar lander
NASA Moon colony, with LRV in foreground
roads
Ford FX Atmos concept car, 1954
Bubble cars
Still the best-looking car ever, the Lamborghini Marzal
Lamborghini Marzal – so futuristic, you have to wear a spacesuit to drive it
Ferrari 512 S Speciale, by Pininfarina
Ferrari 512 S Speciale – could only be driven by people without heads
fashion
When you wake up in the future, this is what the nurses will look like (Pierre Cardin)
In the future, everyone will wear a bucket on their head because of climate change (Pierre Cardin)
What to wear when the sea levels rise (Nina Ricci)
Even on the Moon, they will need to keep their beer cold (Paco Raban, I think; and Frigidaire)
For when astronauts go hungry (Paco Raban again, I think)
Neil Armstrong can rest easy, knowing the Moon will be kept clean
I want a time machine so I can go back to the 1960s and then go forward to the future they thought they were going to have. You know, the one with moon bases, jumpsuits, jetpacks, foodpills; where capitalism actually worked and everyone was happy and prosperous; and the only thing spoiling the clear blue skies were the sonic booms of supersonic bombers and airliners crossing the Atlantic in two hours…
Until someone actually invents that time machine, feast your eyes on these:
Aeroplanes
Convair XB-46
Artwork of the Convair XB-42
Convair XB-43 (a jet-powered version of the XB-42)
Buildings
Kamzík TV Tower, Bratislava
Kamzík TV Tower, Bratislava
Slovak Broadcast Building, Bratislava
The Memorial and Museum of the Slovak National Uprising, Bratislava
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Niterói (Oscar Niemeyer)
Liberty Pantheon, Brasilia (Oscar Niemeyer)
Fashion
In the future, everyone will wear beige (Space: 1999)
In the future, everyone will wear string vests (UFO)
In the future, everyone will dress like humbugs (Pierre Cardin)
In the future, everyone will wear black– no, wait… (Raumpatrouille Orion)
In the future, everyone will wear high-heeled waders (Pierre Cardin)
There’s an unfortunate tendency for these retro-futurist posts to go all a bit boys-toys-ish. That’s understandable, given that Cold War supersonic fighters and bombers did, well, did look pretty cool. Likewise the cars. And, sadly, hunt for contemporary fashion photos and it’s almost impossible to find ones depicting men in space age outfits – it’s all women. Even the sales photographs for the giant computer brains generally have women posed as if operating them.
Anyway, this time around there are… planes, cars, some house interiors, and some fashion. A few of the fashion photos show designs by Pierre Cardin, who probably deserves a post all his own…
Aircraft
Avrocar
A proposal to turn the Concord into a supersonic bomber
Saunders Roe Sr.53 rocket- and jet-propelled interceptor
How the crew entered the Tupolev Tu-22 Blinder supersonic bomber
The observer's cockpit in the De Havilland Sea Vixen
The cockpit of the Boeing Stratocruiser airliner
A proposed supersonic bomber based on the Bell X-3, from the cover-art to Secret Aerospace Projects of the US Navy by Jared A Zichek
Cars and Trucks
The cars of tomorrow
Cadillac Cyclone concept car from 1959
General Motors Firebird III from 1959
Chevrolet concept truck by Luigi Colani
Dodge Deora from 1967
And this is how you got into the Dodge Deora
Fashion
Space age hats. I think.
Pierre Cardin fashion
More Pierre Cardin fashion
And yet more Pierre Cardin fashion
Emilio Pucci-designed bubble hats for Braniff Airlines
Interiors and Appliances
A space age computer
The tap is a real retro design but the ad is, I think, a spoof