It's very much a trend with design groups all over Europe working on multi-functional living collections which adapt easily to meet all our living needs. Conventional boundaries of living room, bedroom and kitchen dissolve when people try to maximize their space by arranging them into multi-functional open places, where the zones of relaxing, sleeping, cooking and cleansing overlap. This approach, long a feature in Italy, is becoming a Softroom, a UK-based design group, have devised a concept called "maison canif", which draws inspiration from that old diehard, the Swiss army knife, where all elements open up from a central base.

Melandas Home Concepts has launched a modular livingroom system called modus concept which is a flexible lounge living room where people can replace sofa arms with, for example, a bookshelf or a table.

Belgium company Verfaille/Juventa has launched a high-class modular furniture system in the UK that can move with you when you move house, and Italian company Dirade has devised an "easy-living house" with interchangeable eating, sleeping and working areas.

This trend is good news for the first-time buyer because they are able to build up their collection of units gradually and spread the expense. It is good for the indecisive too because if you realise the work surface is too far from your hob you can simply move it, and good also because you can mix and match your units, blending old with new.

Moveable kitchens are, therefore, big business. David Rafter, of Arena Kitchens, Dublin, has noticed the trend moving towards free-standing kitchen units over the last couple of years and would estimate a ballpark figure of 10 per cent in the market now catering for this growth area. "Two or three years ago there were only a handful of the free-standing steel appliances on the market, because everyone wanted integrated units. Now manufacturers are supplying appliances with a modern steel finish that you can take with you," he says.

Arena kitchens also design for the European market and found that in countries like Germany or Italy they were simply given an empty shell to work with as people there take everything with them when they move - including the kitchen sink. "There is a huge rental market in Europe; people traditionally don't own their houses and so the need for moveable furniture is born of necessity rather than fashion," says Rafter. "In Dublin, people are seeing designs from the European trade shows in magazines and are influenced by them. This then is becoming the trend," he says.

"Today there are more young people in Dublin living in apartments than ever before and so they too are more drawn to investing in free-standing modular units that can move with them."

Yvette Martinez, business development and marketing manager of Habitat in Dublin, believes the success of the free-standing kitchen is down to versatility. "With a fitted kitchen you've got to work around the structure if you buy a new unit or appliance - you also have to do a lot more planning because it's going to be a permanent fixture. Young couples starting off don't know what their needs are, so as they acquire more things they need to be able to move them around."

An increasingly popular concept which is reflected in Habitat's kitchen display is the Alivo free-standing range, predictably designed in Italy. Made out of solid beech, all units are self-assembly which means they can disassemble to pack and go.

They also carry a versatile modular range which offers a choice of new furniture lines including the Polish-designed "Bedinabox" (£550.17) with oak veneer - a compact unit which doubles as a seat during the day and unfolds The least flexible room in a house in terms of furnishing and fittings is the bathroom but at this year's Casa Barcelona trade show a new bathroom concept was launced by Italian firm Ideal Standards. It was designed by UK-based architect David Chipperfield and the shower, bidet, toilet or sink can be moved around the room. The units simply plug into the plumbing system in much the same way as an electric socket. So if you need to move on you can simply pack it up and take it with you - the underfloor plumbing of your new home is, of course, a consideration for the success of the transition.