The Xanadu Houses were a series of experimental homes built to showcase examples of computers and automation in the home. In the early 1980s, a Xanadu house was built in three different parts of the USA.
The Xanadu house in Kissimmee was the largest of the Xanadu homes built.
The houses were built in Kissimmee, Florida; Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin; and Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Built with novel construction and design techniques, the homes became popular tourist attractions during the 1980s.
THE HISTORY OF THE XANADU HOUSE PROJECT
Bob Masters was an early pioneer of houses built with rigid insulation. Before coming up with the Xanadu concept, Masters designed and created inflatable balloons to be used in the construction of houses.
Masters built his first balloon-constructed house exterior in 1969, taking less than three days during a snowstorm. He was convinced that these dome-shaped homes constructed from polyurethane foam would work. And so Masters created a series of show homes across the United States.
Tom Gussel, a business partner of Bob Master’s, chose the name “Xanadu” for the homes. Xanadu is a reference to Xanadu, the summer capital of Yuan, which featured prominently in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem “Kubla Khan.”
The first of the three properties to open was in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. It was designed by architect Stewart Gordon and constructed by Masters in 1979. During its first summer, it had 100,000 visitors.
The Xanadu house in Wisconsin Dells.
The second Xanadu house, and ultimately the most popular, was designed by architect Roy Mason. After meeting Masters at a conference in Toronto. Mason believed Xanadu houses would alter people’s views of homes as more than just shelters against the elements.
“The house can have intelligence, and each room can have intelligence.” The estimated cost of construction for one home was $300,000. Roy Mason planned to create a low-cost version at around $80,000, to show that homes using computers didn’t have to be expensive. However, an inexpensive Xanadu house was never built.
After Disney opened the Epcot Center in 1982, Masters, Mason, and high school teacher Erik V Wolter decided to open another house just a few miles away in Kissimmee. The second home opened in 1983. At 6,000 square feet, it was considerably larger than the average house as it was built to showcase.
During its peak, the house in Kissimmee attracted more than 1,000 people every single day. The third, and final, Xanadu house was built in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
The Xanadu house in Gatlinburg.
Each of the three properties featured futuristic technology. The house in Florida has fifteen rooms, all controlled by Commodore microcomputers.
The kitchen was automated by “autochef,” an electronic dietitian that planned well-balanced meals. Meals could be cooked automatically at a set date and time. If new food was required, it could be obtained via teleshopping through the computer system or from Xanadu’s own greenhouse.
The kitchen inside one of the Xanadu homes.
The futuristic dining room with a sunken dining table.
The master bedroom inside one of the properties.
The bathroom with a sunken Jacuzzi.
The view from one of the properties.
While every room in the house had novel futuristic features, the Xanadu house never really took off with the public.
THE HOUSE TODAY
By the early 1990s, the Xanadu houses began to lose popularity as the technology used was becoming obsolete. As a result, the homes in Wisconsin and Tenneesse were demolished. The house in Kissimmee continued to operate as a visitor attraction until 1996.
In 1997, the house was put up for sale and sold for office and storage space. However, by 2001, the house had suffered greatly from mold and mildew due to lack of maintenance. Despite the deteriorating condition, it went back on the market with an asking price of $2 million.
The Xanadu house in Florida left abandoned and used by the homeless.
In the years after, the property was left abandoned and lived in by the homeless. Then in October 2005, the last of the Xanadu homes were demolished.
One of the Xanadu houses being demolished.