12 Ways To Use Shipping Containers As Offices, Housing and Art
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto 
on 10.27.09
I was poking around in the Google Sketchup 3D Warehouse and amazed to find dozens of interesting designs for shipping container housing by designers of all abilities from all over the world. There seems to be no end to the enthusiasm for them. A case still can be made that they are designed for freight, not people, but imaginative responses keep coming. We did a roundup last year, but have covered enough new projects to do another.
Live the Box Competition: Housing from Shipping Containers
Most of the container projects we see are for single family housing; the Live the Box competition looked for multiple family accommodation, a much more pressing need.
"So often, those with limited means feel they are being sequestered and forced into something substandard," [organizing architect] Mr. Stone said. "Why would they want to live in shipping containers if no one else does?" And then it occurred to the architects: "We should figure out how to create housing so cool that everybody would want to live in it."
Theater Space Built From 28 Shipping Containers
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Shipping-Container "Box Office" Breaks Ground in Providence
Sure, shipping container buildings are nothing new conceptually, but when was the last time you actually saw one being built in the US? That's what we thought. Earlier this week in Providence, Rhode Island, a new project broke ground. An office space made from reused shipping containers, the "Box Office" is being built on a land parcel in a post-industrial neighborhood of the city and is quickly becoming an attraction for local start-ups.
Lottery Tower is Built From 55 Shipping Containers
Architect's models used to be as accurate as possible; now that there is computer modelling, they seem to be becoming more expressive and a lot more fun. Lars Behrendt has designed this tower out of 55 shipping containers, evidently for the purpose of choosing the winning numbers of a lottery.
Shipping Container Radar Tower Proposed For Rotterdam
The Port of Rotterdam ran a competition for the design of a 70 meter (230 feet) high tower for a radar and observation platform. Designboom shows NL Architects' proposal to build it out of shipping containers, an appropriate choice for one of the world's busiest container ports.
IDS09: BSQ. Design Studios' Office in a Shipping Container
BSq. Landscape Design has modified a shipping container, which will be their "mobile, off-grid professional design office."
Next: Container Houses
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