Tales of Future Past v2

In 1968, Jean Maneval (1923-1986) thought he was on to a winner. He'd designed a house made out of six plastic shells that could be neatly stacked inside one another and transported with their connecting bits to the building site in a single truckload. Just drive it up to the prepared site, unload, bolt it together, hook up the utilities, you're just a few throw pillows away from moving in.

Like many another plastic home designed in the '60s, Maneval's “Bulle“ à 6 coques shared the towering strengths of having no privacy and a kitchen with dimensions more suited to a Wendy house, but this one had the added benefit of being coloured so that it blended seamlessly into the landscape. Here we see at right an experimental resort of “Bulles“ blending into the Pyrenees. You may have to strain a bit to pick them out, but I assure you, they're there.

Despite these obvious advantages, the "Bulle" went out of production in 1970.

Only thirty had been sold in two years.

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