Over the past few years I have been creating wooden boxes that can be stacked together to form shelves, with the intent that any object stored on this shelf could be transported by the disassembled boxes. Initially I used finished grade 1×8 and 1×2 poplar wood and countersunk screws to create boxes approximately 15″Lx15″Wx23″H. I currently have 5 such boxes stacked as shelves in my living room:
The concept germinated from an undergrad studio project from 10 years ago (CUArch, studio critic David Shove-Brown) for the design of a single one bedroom apartment. I organized the proposed apartment layout around a continuous 12″ deep wall of cubbies, a floor to ceiling 1’x1′ grid, which served as both spatial dividers and storage. This project was heavily inspired by the Stuart-Hobson Middle School Library in Washington DC (CUA Design Collaborative, 2006). The lattice in the apartment becomes shelves, windows, portals, and countertops depending on room and use. They are very much a permanent installation in the apartment, meant to be a scaffold in which each resident places their possessions.
The scale of furniture (as opposed to the scale of building) lends itself to quick and cheap opportunities to explore and execute design ideas. Each of the five boxes shown above cost about $50 in raw materials and took about an hour to fabricate. A friend suggested using old shipping pallets, using wood glue and a nail gun to fasten the pieces together. I ended up using furring strips (rough 1×2 and 1×4 pieces of lumber), in tandem with his fastening technique, to make 10 more boxes. Each box measures 13″Lx13″Wx16″H and costs closer to $15 in raw materials; fabrication still takes about an hour per box.
Adam Achrati 
Love these! May put in an order for the spring…