Nomadic Futures: 12 Home Design Solutions for Changing Urban Lifestyles

MIO Nomad Portable Modular Walls

Sure, you can hang curtains to subdivide a too-large room for privacy and functionality, but they don’t provide much more than visual separation – and they definitely don’t look this cool. Going way beyond a mere room divider, the MIO Nomad portable modular wall system is a portable flat pack partition consisting of recycled, double-wall cardboard panels. Each box contains 14 square foot sections of walls, so you can buy as many as you need and put them together however you like. The slits in the panels make it possible to create a closed-wall system, or more of an open weave you can see through.

Travelbox Portable Hotel Room

The Travelbox from Juust is another traveling bedroom in a box, which unfolds to reveal a bed, chair, table, storage and a bicycle. It’s more robust than a lot of similar systems, so it doesn’t exactly pack down to a box you can carry around by yourself at 6.8 feet long, but you could easily ship it or have a couple helpers move you in and out of dorms, sublets and other temporary living situations in a single pass.

Magnetic Wall Hanging System

When you know you’re only going to be living in a particular space temporarily, do you bother putting holes in the walls to hang things? Does your landlord even allow it? The Magnektik hanging system can be a cool option if your walls happen to have metal studs. It uses ultra-strong magnets to mount objects to the wall. If you’re not renting, or you’re willing to take on a bit of a project, the system also allows you to insert metal plates inside your walls, spackle and prime the surface to look new again, and then have free reign to switch things up as often as you want. Decide you want that framed photo to be about four inches to the left? Realize the shelf you just put up is crooked? No problem. With magnets, it takes seconds to fix.