You could use the ngSwitch directive:
<div ng-switch on="selection" >
<div ng-switch-when="settings">Settings Div</div>
<span ng-switch-when="home">Home Span</span>
<span ng-switch-default>default</span>
</div>
If you don't want the DOM to be loaded with empty divs, you need to create your custom directive using $http to load the (sub)templates and $compile to inject it in the DOM when a certain condition has reached.
This is just an (untested) example. It can and should be optimized:
HTML:
<conditional-template ng-model="element" template-url1="path/to/partial1" template-url2="path/to/partial2"></div>
Directive:
app.directive('conditionalTemplate', function($http, $compile) {
return {
restrict: 'E',
require: '^ngModel',
link: function(sope, element, attrs, ctrl) {
// get template with $http
// check model via ctrl.$viewValue
// compile with $compile
// replace element with element.replaceWith()
}
};
});