Nomad Furniture: design, case studies, and philosophy

introNomad Furniture: design, case studies, and philosophy

(Dedicated to the Instructables member who said he wanted more ‘nomad furniture’ essays.)

If any of you have a doubt after seeing the second paragraph, let me say now that this Instructable is indeed about material things you can build, and, yes, it is aptly titled “nomad furniture” despite that the second and third paragraph and perhaps following paragraphs (I write extemporaneously) seem at first to betray “The Writer-to-Reader Contract.” Enough said. I need not say anything more about lack of patience for inductive ideas in today’s “I want it NOW” society. I need say little about some poet’s greatest of all lines from a poem I can’t find right now (paraphrased), “My students want to tie a poem to a chair and beat a confession out of it.” No siree, this Instructable is and will be stripped down the merest of dripping wet skeletons....pretty soon.

The Statue of Liberty-From-Massive-Possessions would have a base inscription rather like this: “Send me your over-burdened rooms, your bent-spines, your over-complexified psyches, your materially confused masses.” He would look like .... (I think it should be a “he” in this case, and let me justify that.)

The Statue of Liberty-From-Massive-Possessions should be in the form a slender but well-made male who looks as if he would not choose to carry a lot of stuff even if offered it for free; if he looks like a weightlifter....big problems (as our Statue of Liberty does -- she’s one tough one, that’s for sure; if Godzilla attacked, she would thrash him to jelly with her Flaming Torch of Freedom, and head-butt holes in him with her Radiant Spike Helmet of Destruction). A beefed-up Statue of Liberty-From-Massive-Possessions would seem to have formerly lived a life-style enabling him to carry great burdens of consumer junk, and perhaps, like any addict, be ready to go back to that life again. OK.

Well, few people need to be convinced that even a settled-stuff-ridden society such as America does not have some aspects of nomad life-style. Our cars today are as good as the houses of another generation even considering the space issue (engineers can solve that easily with inflatable space) -- by the blind and earless gods! 1,000 watt radios, AC, TV’s CDs, DVDs, GPS, SR, and cup holders that take, hold out, reach out, clutch dearly. With fold-down rear seats, sleeping in your car was never easier, assuming you don’t have a van. What is VW Bus nostaligia but a contemporary myth used to justify our unfulfillable (if you pay taxes) yearnings for nomadism? Our daily backpacks carry survival gear that could keep us going a week (below the 40th parallel), in good books, snacks, and rain-wear, if we can only find a water source. Finally, our life-paths partake strongly of nomadism -- college-student life is the best example, but we do tend to move around a lot. Are you convinced yet?

OK, after you graduate, you may be divorced/divided (flip the coin, heads, you stay together, tails, not). You will be moving. To smaller a place. What a great time for nomad furniture? Or what if you stay married, or never marry and stay with your Other, or have a series of insignificant shallow relationships, but you have to move any way because you were laid off, fired, became bored, or promoted (“Sally, you can have that vice-president job, but you’ll have to move or commute to Wyoming.”)....?

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY -- You all need nomad furniture. Read the rest of this Instructable to see a nomad bookcase (an early and a later version), side stand/desk stand (was used for both), computer desk (alluded to in my “Fun with Office Rectangles” essay), map-table/map storage box, and night-stand (you will need some rest when you are finished here).

Note that all the stuff I build is so simple that the construction steps simply leap out at you without the need for extra words here; this leaves me room for the more important ideas surrounding these material things.(http://www.instructables.com)