Shipping Container

Having last looked at a temporary use of shipping containers as building blocks, with O+A's festival backdrop Amsterdam, we're back in permanent territory (as permanent as new buildings are, that is) with 4D and A Architects' shipping container housing at New Jerusalem Orphanage at Gauteng, South Africa. The project is among the more ambitious uses of shipping containers we've seen, using 28 containers in all. Gizmag spoke briefly to its designers to find out more about it.  Read More

Shipping containers have formed the backdrop to the Over het IJ Festival for more than two decades, but for its twentieth anniversary, festival organizers decided to go one better, creating a "temporary city" for festival-goers and performers alike.  Read More

Yoav Messer Architects' competition-winning "Econtainer Bridge" will become what could well be the first bridge to be made from disused shipping containers. The bridge will cross the Ayalon River granting entry to the planned Ariel Sharon Park which will transform 2,000 acres of the Hiriya waste dump into a nature reserve to the southeast of Tel Aviv.  Read More

Discarded shipping containers are proving to be convenient building blocks for everything from classrooms to houses to hotels. Container hotels, such as the Snoozebox, have especially popularized the idea of a "pop-up" structure that can be easily assembled in a short amount of time. But while the Snoozebox offers a low-cost alternative to a full-sized hotel, the Sleeping Around container hotel acts more like a portable bed and breakfast, providing guests with a comfortable place to rest in much more intimate locations.  Read More

Being trapped inside a leaky shipping container on a hot day would probably give a fair approximation of being in a sauna, but thankfully Canadian-based design studio Castor provides something a bit more refined with its Sauna Box. Starting with an 8 ft (2.4 m) square shipping container, it has added a fully-functional wood-burning sauna with a cedar interior and a solar panel to power the lights.  Read More

With Tony's Farm, international architecture studio Playze has done its bit for the recycled-shipping-container-as-architecture movement. The organic farm's new building is toward the more ambitious end of the scale, incorporating numerous recycled containers, cut up and configured to create remarkably light, open interiors.  Read More

Independent schemes in the New York, USA and Brighton, UK are putting the humble shipping container to work as an effective source of low-cost housing to combat the problem of homelessness. The two schemes are poles apart in scope, and designed to address vastly differing causes of homelessness, however.  Read More

Sturdy, convenient to transport and relatively cheap – these are some of the factors that have made the conversion of shipping containers into modern living and working spaces an ever growing trend. Maziar Behrooz is no stranger to this process and Gizmag recently caught up with the Manhattan-based architect to discuss his latest project.  Read More

"What," I ask you, "could possibly be better than a shipping container that's been converted into a house?" "Nothing," you say. "There's nothing better. Nothing at all. Not even iPad mini" "I know," I nod with smug condescension bordering on the zen-like, "I thought so too." But that was yesterday. Today, courtesy of Module R, there are models of shipping container houses. They're big, too, though thankfully not so big that they won't fit inside your actual shipping container house (stop me if this is getting too meta).  Read More