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AN ALIEN spaceship-inspired house that has been bringing traffic to a standstill ever since it “landed” in Port Alfred 40 years ago may take off for East London soon.

The owner of the iconic Finnish designed Futuro house, Art du Randt, yesterday said he was seriously considering unbolting the 16 cake slice- shaped panels of the fibreglass flying saucer and trucking it to his backyard in Gonubie.

“The UFO is old and falling apart … we must make a plan to try and save it before it is too late,” Du Randt told the Dispatch.

Originally used as a head-turning holiday home – complete with bath, flushing toilet and full kitchen – the past 40 years have not been kind to the “plastic ellipsoid shaped flying saucer”.

Unique features like “airplane hatch”-styled retractable stairs and space age interior have disappeared thanks to a steady flow of tenants – some non-paying and others decidedly furry.

Housing everyone from vagrants to hippy surfers , the UFO was even turned for some time into a giant kennel for a “pavement pointer” and her large brood. Although keen to move and restore the only Futuro house in South Africa to its former glory, Du Randt said taking the house apart and re-bolting it together was “not a Mickey Mouse job”.

Unsure of what the UFO would become in its new Gonubie home, the Brooklyn Lodge owner said he hoped it would prove a popular tourist attraction.

Ideas range from a playroom for kids to a novelty pub.

Still attracting a steady stream of gawkers from all over the world, the UFO will be sorely missed by 14-year- old Port Alfred schoolgirl Sammy-Jo Koen, her envious friends and other locals who have become very attached to the place.

Her mother, Jenny, who lives in a cottage next to the UFO, told the Dispatch she would love to restore the place to its former glory. “If I had pictures to see what it looked like inside, I would try fix it up like that.”

Built on steel “landing pad” stilts, the flying saucer – which measures three metres high by eight metres in diameter – has been converted into a bedroom for Sammy-Jo and is a popular hang- out for her friends.

Designed by architect Matti Suuronen, only 100 of the houses were built during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The late Duncan Bowker – the son of the original owners Oliver and Eva Bowker – told sister publication Talk of the Town some years ago about the fuss the house caused.

“Workmen in green overalls were assembling it and, upon seeing this, an out-of-breath Bathurst farmer rushed off to tell the town a spaceship with aliens had landed in Port Alfred.”

The house was bought in 1970 for about R6000. - By DAVID MACGREGOR, Port Alfred Bureau