Many businesses rent a large space and construct walls to create individual spaces for various activities within the business. Why not construct an apartment house with various wiring and plumbing capabilities embedded inside the exterior walls and the floors and the ceiling so that one could rent a specific area and have standard walls installed for specific needs. That way, when a family becomes smaller as the children grow up and leave, less space is needed and a smaller apartment could be constructed in the same building, or as space needs expand, another room could be added when space becomes free. Renters could negotiate with each other to trade space.Obviously, a certain core of outside hallways and stairways and elevators would have to have some permanance.
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I am for, except that there would be bulding code issues with regards to fire wall protection, and complexities of mechanical systems in such installations.
Now, maybe some fixed "unit-ettes", Which can be joined with a neigbouring "unit-ette" to make a larger one, with somewhat portable interior partition (keeping in mind mechanicals, namely plumbing)
interior walls give you no fire wall protection....they burn quite nicely indeed! electrical stuff can all be in the floors as it is done in a lot of modern buildings...they are covered and practically invisible unless used and far better then wall circuits. It all depends on the layout of the house/apartment...it think its a great idea and I am certain that if you look at some modern building construction, albeit not apartment buildings, you will find that movable walls etc all are being used already. This is certainly one thing I will consider when building. As to plumbing for kitchen/bathrooms/mudrooms...just consider locating these properly as they will essentially be non movable. In Kitchens, except for sink and stove, check european kitches where pretty much all is movable as well as to change the layout as one is in the mood.
There are actually two ideas here:1. Switching rooms from one apartment to another. This is doable, but there is a problem with electricity. Unless you have an easy way to change over the "switch" room's circuit(s) from one meter to another, you will end up with the other tenant paying for the electricity for that room. This is a constant problem with old houses that are converted to apartments, and often when a tenant finds out that part of another tenant's space is on his electric bill, he protests vigorously. A similar issue with heating. Setting up a separate heating zone for the switchable room is expensive, and if you don't, you will end up with another tenant having thermostat control over the heat in that room.2. Movable walls between apartments. In addition to the issue already raised, that it's hard to make movable walls fireproof enough to meet fire codes, there is the issue that it's very difficult to make movable walls soundproof, and in this day and age, soundproofing between units in a modern apartment house is essential.
cisco2: Depending on the construction, interior walls certainly do give you fire protection. Most of it, though, is in the drywall you put on the walls.
IIRC, 3/8ths inch drywall is rated for between 30-45 minutes, while 1/2 inch drywall can last up to an hour.
RHMorrison: An easy solution to the elecricity problem is to put all of the tenants on one meter, and split the bill evenly. Some apartment complexes do this for various utilities.
An attempt at something similar was done a few years ago, with mobile homes "stacked," using a metal framework for support, to make a 3-story, low-rent housing complex. I think there were maybe as many as a dozen housing units in all. The tenants liked it for the cheap rent, the neighbors complained because it was an eyesore. The developer's grandiose plans for expansion died in the face of intense public ridicule; the media was unnecessarily cruel (on the other hand, they were really UGLY).
Not quite the cocept being spake of (big area inside a building, with "portable" walls.).
Wat you speak of is known in the UK as microflats. I have also seen old shipping containders put together to make homes.
There aren't any insurmountable problems concerning the design and construction of this idea, the problems are going to be legal and regulatory. Most likely, any changes would be done when tenants move in or out; rearranging the interior walls could be done as simply as landlords now paint apartments and/or replace carpeting when the old tenants move out- mount the walls so that they move on tracks that are covered by flooring and ceiling material which is removed and replaced when tenants change. Negotiating enlarging or reducing apartment size is an issue between tenants most landlords would want to get involved with.
Since flexible space within a structure is routinely done for businesses I wonder why it seems a problem for living tenants. Payments for electricity might be managed by having square foot modules of electrical output labeled by input codes in the current that could be assigned to the current (in both senses of the term) user.