Living out of boxes

Transferable jobs have meant people live out of boxes. Often, it becomes difficult for them to buy new furniture every time they move. This way, they have to start all over again from scratch, to redesign or buy furniture to suit their needs. This type of exercise every now and then can become frustrating.

We all wish we could move the entire furniture, including the fixed ones, to wherever we were shifting. There are many companies who have thought of this room-in-a box concept, enabling people to pack their entire homes and furniture into boxes. Companies like Targa Italia lets you pack and transport your entire kitchen, fixtures storage and all. Designed by Piero Esposito, this unique kitchen-in-a box neatly fits into wooden boxes. In this handy transport mode, you can move your entire kitchen to a new location. Upon arriving at your new place, simply unpack and say hello to instant cooking, storage and dining space.

The idea behind this is to create a mobile yet functional kitchen space. For many of us who spend our lives on the go, this room-in-a box option can help you take a well-loved part of your household with you. In cities like Mumbai, where space is a major concern, the furniture needs to be very carefully designed keeping form and function in mind.

Kitchens should be designed in such a manner that functionality and space for dining are both taken care of. For this, again the kitchen should be a brilliant blend of formal simplicity and ingenious engineering. In a closed position, each element of the kitchen should be carefully outlined like a line drawing on paper. The bolder lines denote the essential elements of the lamp, table and seating objects.
Melanie Olle has designed this type of kitchen and dining set to boldly display its purpose even when pushed away into a wall, which is a very good space-saving design.

Open or closed, preparations for a meal can be made using any one part (or combination of parts) that make up the overall design, cupboards and drawers closing and opening, but seats and table also sliding in and out as needed. Once ready for guests, the essential elements remain in play while the rest of the preparatory functions are hidden behind the smooth surfaces of a simple lined wall. This kind of fold-away interior design idea could be applied throughout the house to great effect, with slide-out fixtures and furniture of all kinds.

Bedroom solutions
Similarly, the room by ODA has created a modular-collapsing and expanding dwelling system that solves your bedroom interior design problems with one stylish, simple and reasonably affordable space creating design object.
This room-in-a box bedroom solution expands and contracts as needed to conform to user requirements. Built-in seating, storage, lounging, reading and viewing spaces make for an ever-varied, whimsical interior design that also defines itself as a singular, fully-connected object set apart from the space it is within.

Functionality and space
It may seem impossible that a bookcase, wardrobe, bed, mattress, multiple stools and more could all start out tucked away in a simple rectangular box-but yes, an-all-in-one interior design with everything needed for a living room, bedroom and office can be packed into one small box. 

As mentioned before in places like Mumbai, with very small living spaces, designers plan furniture in such a way that it accommodate almost every piece of furniture needed to live a comfortable life, but keeping practicality and space in mind, they tuck furniture into walls, giving the owners space to breathe. Space is a luxury many of us cannot afford, so it becomes important that we make the most of it. Permanent walls are a pain to work around as each person requires his/her own spatial configurations.

What if we did away with them and packed everything into a mobile, modular unit that branches out as needed to create dynamic spaces to suit individual needs. One can create a divider system that can allow maximum flexibility without sacrificing style and individuality for each set-up or section within a given arrangement. A degree of privacy can be maintained within any interior layout as the central walls organise any space. Electrical networks need only have one route into the partition system and then can spread internally.

Use right tools
It is possible for everyone to keep these practical designing ideas in mind and get their furniture designed in such a way that it can be easily dismantled. All you need to do is use the right hinges and channels, available in Indian markets today. Kitchens, puja rooms, murals etc. can all be easily removed and fixed in another place, when required. A room-in-a-box approach can be a great space saving furniture solution, covering everything from portable kitchens and mobile living rooms.