World Art Utopia

UFO Houses — Wanli, Taiwan

Two weathered, saucer-shaped holiday houses, one yellow and one white, on concrete legs with metal stairs, on an overgrown hillside at Wanli, Taiwan
Artwork FileWanli, Taiwan

UFO Houses

SeenDec 2025

Feicui Bay (Emerald Bay), Wanli District, New Taipei City, Taiwan · around 1980

Photo: Johan Jönsson (Julle) / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0); taken 12 August 2023; full photo, resized.

On the beach at Feicui Bay in Wanli, on Taiwan’s north coast, stands what is left of a holiday development of plastic houses: round, saucer-shaped ones on concrete legs and boxy ones with rounded corners. Businessman Su Ming (蘇銘, 1922–2000) built them around 1980 as replicas of the Futuro and Venturo houses of Finnish architect Matti Suuronen. Most were abandoned or torn down over the following decades; according to Commercial Times, a photographer who returned in February 2026 found only four saucer houses left, and a Munich museum reports large cleared areas in 2026. Source Source Source Source Checked

The newest dated free photos (camera date 22 December 2025, Wikimedia Commons) show a stained saucer house with graffiti and derelict Venturo-type houses still standing. Newer reports without a dated photo: Commercial Times (3 March 2026) says photographer Chang Wei-heng found only four saucer houses left in February 2026, and the Pinakothek der Moderne exhibition text (show 1 July–30 September 2026) says ‘Many buildings have been demolished’. A search on 10 November 2026 found no news of a complete demolition and no dated photo newer than December 2025. Source Source Source Source Checked

More photos

A white boxy plastic house with rounded corners, red trim and dark glass walls stands behind a round bed of plants, with large hotel buildings in the background.
2022 A kept-up Venturo-type housePhoto: Outlookxp / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
A weathered yellow saucer-shaped house on concrete pillars with a curved stair, graffiti on its shell and overgrown steps leading up to it under a gray sky.
2025 The saucer house that was for salePhoto: Revirvlkodlaku / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)
A ruined boxy plastic house with rounded corners, missing windows and graffiti stands among weeds under a tree, with another such house and the sea behind.
2025 Derelict Venturo-type housesPhoto: Revirvlkodlaku / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

💡 5 things to know

  1. Replicas, not Finnish originalsThe Pinakothek der Moderne calls the buildings “simple replicas of the famous VENTURO and FUTURO plastic houses designed by Finnish architect Matti Suuronen”. Futuro historian Marko Home, quoted on TheFuturoHouse.com, says Su Ming visited the Finnish maker Polykem in 1975 and then “decided to design its copy instead of licensing the Futuro’s manufacturing rights”; Home calls the copies unauthorized. Taiwan’s CNA puts it more loosely: the houses were “自北歐引進” (introduced from Northern Europe). Source Source Source Checked
  2. The name means ‘space houses’Local press calls the development 翡翠灣太空玲瓏屋 (roughly ‘Feicui Bay space houses’) and, by nickname, 萬里飛碟屋, the Wanli UFO houses. A police officer told CNA they are also known as 太空屋 (‘space houses’) and 海上璇宮 (‘palace on the sea’). Source Source Source Checked
  3. About a hundred houses, mostly the boxy kindAccording to Marko Home on TheFuturoHouse.com, “Altogether the village had 100 houses, mostly Venturo copies but also some Futuro copies.” The site’s own count of the round ones was 13, of which nine were left by 2014. Source Reported
  4. Sun and salt windThe museum says “The unfavorable location and the harsh weather conditions led to the rapid decline of the complex”. Taiwan’s Economic Daily News (via My Housing magazine) names strong sun and salty sea wind that made the shells brittle, a fading tourist market and high upkeep costs. Source Source Checked
  5. One came up for sale in 2025In September 2025 NextApple News reported that a saucer house on Riguang Road was listed by an estate agent at NT$16.8 million, with a stated building age of 45.1 years and 17.84 ping of floor area. Readers on the PTT forum asked: “那邊不是都變廢墟了？” (“Hasn’t that place all turned into ruins?”). Source Source Checked

📍 Where it is

The houses stand along Riguang Road beside the Feicui Bay (Emerald Bay) beach in Wanli District, New Taipei City, on Taiwan’s north coast. The map point is the camera geotag of a December 2025 Wikimedia Commons photo of the saucer house that was for sale (25.186472, 121.685983); Chinese Wikipedia gives almost the same point (25.186487, 121.685814). Source Source Source Checked

Open in Maps

🗓️ Sightings

  1. 202026 Jan

    Mostly derelict, one unit lived in · CNA

  2. 20228 Mar

    Intact Venturo-type house · Outlookxp, Commons

  3. 202312 Aug

    Yellow and white saucer houses · Johan Jönsson

  4. 202526 Sep

    One saucer house listed for sale · NextApple

  5. 202520 Oct

    About five saucer houses left · Economic Daily News

  6. 202522 Dec

    Saucer house with graffiti · Revirvlkodlaku, Commons

  7. 2026Feb

    Four saucer houses left · Commercial Times

  8. 2026Jul

    “Many buildings have been demolished” · Pinakothek

Green stamps mark dated photographs; amber stamps mark records or reports; red stamps mark loss. Publication dates are not camera dates.

🗞️ In the sources

Central News Agency (CNA)26 January 2020

萬里翡翠灣太空玲瓏屋 飛碟造型廢墟感十足

“目前多已荒廢，不少被樹枝遮蔽、窗戶破碎，或被噴上充滿街頭感的彩色噴漆”

Headline: “Wanli Feicui Bay space houses: UFO shapes full of ruin atmosphere.” Quote: Most are now derelict; many are hidden by branches, have broken windows or have been sprayed with street-style colored paint.

Read the source →

Commercial Times (工商時報)3 March 2026

頹廢飛碟屋化身攝影藝術！《再見，飛碟屋－張維恒攝影展》谷關神木谷展出

“今年2月他再次前往翡翠灣，發現僅剩最後四座飛碟屋”

Headline: “Decaying UFO houses become photographic art! ‘Goodbye, UFO Houses – Chang Wei-heng photo exhibition’ on show at Guguan Shenmugu.” Quote: This February he went to Feicui Bay again and found only the last four UFO houses left.

Read the source →

Pinakothek der Moderne2026 (exhibition 1 July–30 September 2026)

Faded Future | Taiwan Fotografien von Michael Nischke

“Large areas of wasteland appeared for the first time in 2026, and it seems as if everything has been completely wiped out. Many buildings have been demolished, as has the once-overgrown vegetation – FADED FUTURE.”

Read the source →

✅ The facts

Name
翡翠灣太空玲瓏屋 (Feicui Bay ‘space houses’); nicknamed 萬里飛碟屋, the Wanli UFO houses Source Source Source Checked
Location
Riguang Road, Feicui Bay (Emerald Bay), Wanli District, New Taipei City, Taiwan Source Source Source Checked
Built by
Businessman Su Ming (蘇銘, 1922–2000) Source Source Source Checked
Developer company
Tiangong Development (天工開發公司), according to Chinese Wikipedia, which cites 1978–79 Min Sheng Bao reports Source Reported
Built
Around 1980: “約莫興建於1980年前後” (Economic Daily News); building started in 1980 (Marko Home on TheFuturoHouse.com); the unit for sale in 2025 was listed as 45.1 years old Source Source Source Checked
Other dates given
Pinakothek der Moderne: “In the early 1980s”. CNA: introduced in the 1970s (“1970年代…自北歐引進”), and in the same report built “30多年前” (30-odd years before 2020). Asia Media Centre: homes built 1978–1980. We lean towards around 1980 with design and sales work in the late 1970s, which fits most of the sources and the listed house age. Source Source Source Conflicting
Design
Replicas of Matti Suuronen’s Futuro (round) and Venturo (boxy) houses, in glass-fiber reinforced plastic (FRP); not built under license, according to Futuro historian Marko Home Source Source Source Checked
Number of houses
About 100, mostly Venturo copies, according to Marko Home on TheFuturoHouse.com Source Reported
Decline
First houses abandoned “just a few years after completion” (Pinakothek); sun, salt wind, falling tourism and upkeep costs are the reasons given Source Source Checked
January 2020
Mostly derelict; two saucer houses already removed, leaving only their metal supports; one unit still lived in; a caretaker employed Source Reported
For sale 2025
One saucer house listed at NT$16.8 million (both sources); on Riguang Road, 17.84 ping, 3 bedrooms, according to NextApple Source Source Checked
Saucer houses left
About five in October 2025 (Economic Daily News); four in February 2026 (photographer Chang Wei-heng in Commercial Times) Source Source Reported
2026 clearance
“Large areas of wasteland appeared for the first time in 2026 … Many buildings have been demolished, as has the once-overgrown vegetation” (Pinakothek der Moderne) Source Source Reported
Status
Partly standing. Newest dated photos: 22 December 2025 (a saucer house and Venturo-type houses, derelict). Newest report: four saucer houses left in February 2026; large cleared areas in 2026 Source Source Source Source Checked

🔗 Related

All sources & image credits

Last checked: 10 November 2026 · How we verify art