The last time I encountered EPS foam it was sandwiched between twin sheets of 1/2 inch OSB to make up the modular walls of a SIPs home. I knew the stuff had great insulative properties, but it never occurred to me it might make an excellent finished product all its own. That particular inspiration was left to the Netherlands’ Tim Vinke, who recently conceived of “Kruikantoor,”: “a portable office made from EPS foam and covered with a coating of polyurea hotspray.” The choice of materials allows for easy assembly and take down, and it deeds Kruikantoor its particularly intriguing aesthetic–a look I’d place somewhere along the continuum between the mise en scene of Alice in Wonderland and The Empire Strikes Back.

Kruikantoor. Desigend by Tim Vinke.

Some readers may not remember that a pivotal moment in that last film revolves around the Carbonite freezing/preservation of pilot Han Solo for later delivery to Jabba the Hut. The process leaves the visage of a catatonic Solo imprinted in what looks like melted bronze–an artifact that the former creature eventually uses to decorate his walls. Kruikantoor reminds me of this first because it is lightweight and eminently transportable, and second because, in its portable state, it looks like a facsimile of “chairness” and “deskness”–preserved there in the two-dimensional plane of its EPS foam niche. Of course, Vinke’s piece is much easier to revive than the chemically-altered Solo. One simply has to remove the airy pair of chairs and single table to be left with a handy wall of storage (complete with a light electricity connection). When the time comes for the budding entrepreneur to re-locate, simply re-insert said items into their respective slots, tip the whole ensemble on edge, and wheel away to the next place of business.

For another ingenious portable living contrivance, check out Casulo’s Life in a Box or The Oda Room.

Via DesignBoom.