Nomad - A study on furniture you don‘t hate moving with

Abstract: We live in a world where people move in-between countries every day, every month, every year. Family, work, education, those are only some of the motivators for getting out of the comfort zone and starting a new adventure, sometimes even abroad. This dissertation investigates students and how they handle the furniture of their private living spaces during their time in academic mobility. Academic mobility generalizes the state of moving for an academic purpose, for example starting a bachelor’s programme and therefore having to move to a new city or country. For many students, this leads to a decision that has to be made: Will - and can - they transport the already possessed furniture to the new environment, given that it is not or only partially furnished, or do they organize new furniture once they arrive? To get more detailed information on how the situation used to be and still is, a survey was created to investigate students moving behaviour and how they dealt with the furniture situation. Furthermore, the most important interior objects were bed, desk and closet, which are needed for living and working. Leisure items like a couch or a side table were rated way less important. In general, the research shows that there is an issue with furniture in the life of a mobile student. Moreover, the target audience has problems with handling the situation to a level where they are 100 % satisfied and that creating alternatives needs to be investigated further.