Trend research: Nomadic House.
Moving Interiors

There is also clear evidence of nomadism inside the domestic environment. Rooms merge into each other, their functions and usage become hybridised and, consequently, furnishings and accessories migrate from one room to another, instantly conforming to the need of the moment, the desire for change or the shifting stages of life.  

This means that furniture and objects are no longer necessarily confined to a specific physical space or to a particular room but are adaptable, moving around to suit an increasingly flexible configuration of spaces that is not ordained a priori once and for all. Living rooms can be temporarily turned into offices or bedrooms, the kitchen is populated at all hours of the day and even the confines of the bathroom, the room seen as the most intimate, are conforming to the rest of the house little by little.  

This has driven the need for light, portable and easily moved furnishing elements that allow for flexibility and freedom of movement in living spaces that, moreover, are steadily shrinking.  

Designed by France’s Ionna Vautrin for Lexon Design, Clover is a contemporary take on a lantern. Basically it’s a portable, USB-charged lamp that can be hung anywhere in the house. 

The lamp has a four-hour life and has two different light settings; it is water-resistant and can be used alone or in clusters, to form a veritable chandelier. Clover provides an ideal solution outwith the domestic walls, hung on the branches of garden trees, for example, or tied to a bike as an extra lamp, or to a handbag for use as a torch. Its simple, playful design means that Clover plays to everyone’s imaginations and needs, becoming a “piece” of home on the go.

Of all home furnishings, the bathtub would appear to be the least mobile, yet German designer Carina Deuschl has unexpectedly turned its staticity on its head.

Xtend is a prototype foldable and portable bathtub that quite literally enables bath enthusiasts to take a bath wherever they like, at home or away. The black frame is made of carbon fibre and combines design, practicality and comfort. The interior is made of contrasting white fabric, and is soft yet highly durable as well as completely waterproof. 

Xtend opens and closes intuitively and can be used and connected wherever there is running water, i.e. in any domestic space, or anywhere outside the home – from gardens to hotels – and is emptied by a pump system after use. 

It is a pop-up bath solution, perhaps for use when the bathroom is occupied, or alongside a shower for people lacking a tub of their own, or even for a relaxing soak while camping, for example.

Chinese designer Mario Tsai – founder of the ZZ Design Studio – has come up with a set of coffee tables “predisposed” to be moved frequently in complete safety, thanks to a slim rectangular frame that serves as a handle, enabling the tables to be picked up like a basket, with just one hand. 

To this end, the tables consist of a light, minimalist metal and wood structure, which is perfectly stable when “at rest”.  The set is made up of coffee tables of different shapes (round and oval) and sizes which, thanks to the differences in height, can also be placed on top of each other to create more space.

diPende is an original small design object that is light and extremely useful. Its constituent parts are extremely simple: a bamboo bowl/container, a polystyrene cable and a pulley system that enables it to be hung anywhere in the house and at various heights.

diPende can be used as a bedside table, a catch-all tray, a toy box or as an acrobatic container for all those little everyday objects that clutter things up, specially in small spaces or where they have no particular place of their own. 

The Italian designers, Lorenzo Dalla Benetta and Luca and Simone Giordani, describe it as a hanging space-saver, an elevator for free spirits, and it might best be described as a “camping-style" object.