Robert Heinlein's' House of the Future'

In 1950 the science fiction writer Robert Heinlein's' House of the Future', author of Starship Trooper, built a new house in the Broadmoor district of Colorado Springs. It was featured in the June 1952 edition of the US magazine'Popular Mechanics' under the title 'A House To Make Life Easy'. The article asked the question, "In what kind of house will the captain of a space ship live during his stopovers on earth?"

In the article, Robert Heinlein gives a tour of what he described as "a house that's called extreme today but may become conventional before the 20th century has run its course". The tour shows off Heinlein's innately clever design abilities. Many of the features are now common in more recent houses. Although his direct influence is probably nil, his ability to see future developments is again impressive. The house, city, and its substantial bomb shelter are featured prominently in the novel Farnham's Freehold. The house was sold when the Heinlein's moved to Santa Cruz in the mid-1960s.

The house has been renovated and enlarged at least once. The bomb shelter, built in early 1963 (after Heinlein announced they had no shelter at SeaCon, Labor Day 1962), apparently survives in almost original condition, but the house was extensively renovated and expanded in 1981, with a second floor larger than the original footprint added. The original house, now the first floor, retains the same floor plan, but there are varying reports about how much of the original interior remain. At least some of Heinlein's clever details and fittings have been removed or replaced, while some others remain.