Qiangwei Zhu

Abstract

The Nomadic Product, a furniture design for the modern urban nomad, explores how a multifunction product can achieve the goal of providing easily transportable and transformable home furnishings.

At present, the nomadic lifestyle has become an emerging trend by a segment of the young population. Urban nomads are a small but diverse segment of society that live and work in urban areas, most of whom choose to rent homes, rather than purchase them, when they move to a new location. They regularly transplant themselves to new cities across the globe following their next career opportunity or educational pursuits. In doing so, they have to travel with all their personal belongings or choose to part with them and leave objects behind.

I classify myself as an urban nomad under this definition. In the past year I have moved five times, which includes living in several apartments and traveling around the world to distant countries. This endless moving of my personal belongings has caused many frustrations and problems. During each of the moves, I continually thought how great it would be if a product existed that could help simplify the process of moving from one place to another.

This thesis focuses on a Nomadic Product designed for like-minded individuals who rent homes in various places and change locations multiple times in a year. The final product is titled the L.I.M.E. (Living In Mobile Ease), and solves the problem of traveling with personal belongings as well as helping to ease the process of moving.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Furniture design; Moving, Household--Equipment and supplies--Design and construction; Modular construction; Sustainable design

Publication Date

11-11-2014

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

Industrial Design (MFA)

Department, Program, or Center

School of Design (CIAS)

Advisor

Stan Rickel

Advisor/Committee Member

Bruce Leonard

Advisor/Committee Member

Efe Kababulut

Comments

Physical copy available from RIT's Wallace Library at NK2260 .Z48 2014

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

Plan Codes

IDDE-MFA

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