nomad’s automobile imagines future of mobility with hybrid habitat-vehicle unit

Retrospective on Aleksa Milojević’s The Nomad’s Automobile

Aleksa Milojević’s The Nomad’s Automobile was presented in the Future gallery of Motion. Autos, Art, Architecture at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, curated by Norman Foster. The 2022 exhibition examined the automobile through artistic and cultural perspectives, with one gallery dedicated to speculative proposals addressing the future of mobility. Milojević’s project contributed to this framework by exploring independent movement in response to resource scarcity, urban congestion, and shifting living patterns.

Set in the year 2086, The Nomad’s Automobile proposes a mobility system designed for existence beyond conventional urban structures. The project imagines a context in which movement is limited to individuals operating outside established societal frameworks. Within this scenario, the vehicle becomes a self-contained unit integrating transport, habitation, and professional utility.

Nomad’s Automobile in motion | all images courtesy of Aleksa Milojević

Nomad’s Automobile: a compact, self-contained mobile habitat

Formally, the vessel combines elements of a racing bed, a toolkit, and a personal archive. It operates as a compact mobile habitat, enabling its occupant to carry tools, equipment, and personal objects necessary for work, daily routines, and travel. Drawing references from literary odysseys and road films, designer Aleksa Milojevic frames mobility as both functional and narrative.

The structure functions as an extension of the rider’s body, conceived as protective armor that mediates between individual and environment. Its modular configuration supports varied modes of use, from solitary occupation to temporary social interaction. Integrated components accommodate activities such as trade, shared rituals, food preparation, or bathing, positioning the vehicle as both private interior and social interface.

By consolidating living necessities and professional tools within a single system, the project formalizes mobility as a complete lifestyle infrastructure. The design blurs distinctions between isolation and exchange, autonomy and encounter, proposing a model in which survival, work, and social interaction are embedded within one mobile framework.

rendered image showing a gathering event around the Nomad’s Automobile