The advent of the intermodal shipping container forever changed the global economy, by allowing for efficient and affordable international shipping of all products. Since they were brought to wide international use in the late 1950s, intermodal containers have become the backbone of international commerce and are used to ship over 60% of all traded goods across the globe. Despite the long lifespan of a container- up to 25 years- persistent trade imbalances, market fluctuations, and increasing shipping costs have resulted in thousands of containers left to sit idle in shipyards around the globe, lacking the freight to fill the containers and too expensive to be shipped empty. In fact, empty containers account for an estimated 10% of existing container assets and 20.5% of global port handling. And while used containers accumulate in port cities around the globe, new containers continue to be produced. An estimated 1.5 – 2.5 million TEUs (twenty foot equivalent) are manufactured annually, predominantly in China.
As these large, durable, long-lasting steel containers continue to amass, taking up valuable real estate in cities around the world, and becoming not just an eyesore, but an environmental concern, there is a growing international movement to reuse, recycle, and generally reposition them, particularly as living and working spaces. This “containitecture” trend is rapidly evolving to become one of the more popular alternative building methods, bolstered by containers’ inherent stability, relative affordability, and ease of transport. Containers are currently used in sustainable and green building, as student and affordable housing solutions, as well as emergency housing and shelters during disaster relief and recovery. Design possibilities and uses are near endless, and as businesses and cities continue to utilize containitecture more often, more visibility is being brought to the form. Specific examples of how containers are currently being repurposed around the globe include:
Sustainable and green housing:
Myriad websites, blogs, publications, organizations, and businesses, particularly throughout the U.S. and Europe, are devoted to inspiring and reviewing residential container home designs, often with a focus on making the homes completely self-sustaining. Houses range from simple, cost-effective one-container designs to elaborate high-design architecture using multiple containers.
International companies and businesses:
Companies and organizations around the world have been experimenting with containitecture for years. Examples include PUMA City, a transportable retail and event space made of 24 containers for Puma sneaker company, Chick-fil-A mobile restaurant, Illy Café, Coca-Cola Pop-Up shops and vending machine structures, the Common Ground Mall in Seoul, Container City office space in London, and thousands of other small cafes, shops, restaurants, and businesses. In 2007, Starbucks built its first LEED certified shipping container store in Washington and the concept was such an immediate success that almost 50 more container stores have opened around the country since.
Affordable and student housing:
Containers are also used to meet a variety of affordable housing and student housing needs; aside from being cost-effective, they are uniform, modular and stack-able, which helps developers achieve high density on a relatively small area of land. In 2013 Atira Women’s Resource Society in Vancouver, Canada,built Oneesan, a shipping container social housing development, and Memphis, Tennesee is currently planning an affordable container apartment complex. The Wenckehof is a popular student village in Amsterdam comprised of 1,000 containers and the largest development of its kind. In Berlin, Germany, containers have been recently used to house asylum seekers; in Brighton, England, 36 container homes were installed as an affordable, temporary housing option for low-income residents; and French architects 2A Design built a five story, 216 room modern student housing development in Pau, France.
Disaster recovery and emergency needs:
Repurposing containers for housing and shelters during natural disaster recovery is often seen as the largest and most useful alternative for containers. Given their inherent qualities- extremely durable, sturdy, stackable, and uniform – containers offer a low cost, easy-to-transport solution to emergency housing. As natural disasters become more frequent and expensive, cities, non-profits and government organizations are taking a more pro-active approach to find fast and affordable solutions to the housing crisis and massive displacement that dominates most post-disaster recovery efforts. According to Monica Altamirano and Arjen Hydra, writing about disaster resilience for The Future of Construction, there is “a compelling need for the engineering and construction industry to create resilient infrastructure and housing to withstand disruption, absorb disturbance, act effectively in a crisis and recover quickly afterwards.” Increasingly, containers are considered an ideal solution to these crises, as storm-resistant structures, emergency shelters and temporary housing.
After the 2011 earthquake destroyed the town of Onagawa, Japan, renowned architect Shigeru Ban designed and installed relief housing built of shipping containers; in the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti, one relief organization built a hotel using containers while others built small solar-powered medical clinics; containers were used as a temporary base camp for emergency responders to Hurricane Charley in Punta Gorda, Florida; and New York City’s current disaster recovery housing plan includes creating modular apartments out of shipping containers
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