Modern mission: house of the future, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1929

Residential Architect, July, 2004 by Meghan Drueding

danish Modernist Arne Jacobsen may not have invented the house, but he certainly had ideas for improving it. He gave them form in his plans for the House of the Future, designed in 1929 with Hemming Lassen. The project, which was temporarily constructed for a Copenhagen exhibition but never permanently built, featured some elements that seem sensational even now. A helicopter landing pad covered the roof, an underground port held space for watercraft, and a vacuuming doormat whisked dirt from visitors' shoes.

The cylindrical house filled a more serious need as well, providing a blueprint for the 27-year-old Jacobsen's later exercises in comprehensive design. He and Lassen created its furnishings, fabrics, and daring color scheme, foreshadowing his down-to-the-doorknobs approach to famous commissions such as the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen (1956-61).

Confined to paper and models since 1929, the House of the Future may again exist in three dimensions. A Denmark-based group of Jacobsen devotees hopes to build the house on a site north of Copenhagen and use it as a cultural forum. The proposed building makes up part of a larger project called House of Arne Jacobsen and is slated for completion in 2006.