Nimble Urban Dwellings Re-enabling Permanent Impermanence

This paper considers an evolutionary type of urban dwelling—where permanent impermanence may be a preferred state for those who favor nimble dwellings that are better able to respond to change. These changes may be socio-economic, geographic, technological, environmental, cultural, employment-related, or simply the result of unanticipated disruptions. The goal of this research is to describe a system which enables improved functionality, flexibility, and desirability for modest, yet highly diverse, urban dwelling solutions based upon an evolving, open-source system of digital design standards. Given that consumer product designers have, for more than a decade, successfully utilized digital technology to design and produce highly desirable products, this paper asks whether urban dwellings might benefit from concerns more in keeping with those of consumer products.