This reminds me of a concept from William Gibson's "Neuromancer": What were called coffin racks; frameworks to hold modular units. The modular units could be apartments, small offices, shops, etc. The units could be swapped out for other ones when demand for space changed.<p>This also sounds like some of the capsule hotels near some airports in Japan, although the capsule hotels are much, much smaller. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsule_hotel" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsule_hotel</a>