Shipping containers. You’ve seen them on trains, on the back of trucks, at ports and piled onto cargo ships. There more than 20 million of those steel 40 by 8 feet (12 by 2.4 meter) boxes scattered around the world. That’s more than were needed even before the current economic slowdown. Today, as many as one million shipping containers may be sitting around unused. The surplus is especially profound in the United States, northern Europe and China.
Given the planet’s excess of shipping containers and shortage of affordable housing it only makes sense that people would make the connection. “Container architecture” has become a specialty in itself. The benefits are obvious: Containers are relatively cheap (around US$1,200~1,500 each). They are, by definition, portable. And they are durable (made to survive rough treatment and resist salt corrosion). A container house can be built, on average, 40% faster than a comparably sized traditional house. And then there’s the environmental benefit of putting surplus containers to use instead of letting them slowly rust in a landfill.
Thousands buildings made of shipping containers are today being uses for offices, stores, restaurants and private residences. There are several excellent books documenting the most interesting among them. Here are five shipping container buildings we think are especially cool:
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Visit a Harmonique Domespace house and you’ll instantly take note of its sleek, curved exterior and the wood-laden interior filled with skylights and dramatic ceilingscapes. But here are some things you won’t notice, at least not right away:
• The entire house rotates! The rotation is so smooth and gradual as to be imperceptible from both inside and outside the house (imagine trying to see the movement of an hour hand on a watch). The dome owner can direct the house to point in a particular direction by use of a remote control. But primary purpose of the rotation is to make optimal use of the solar panels that line the roof of the Domespace and the passive solar properties of the house’s many windows. Which brings us to . . .
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For sale:
Secret cave dwelling. 3 bedroom. 2 bath. Perfect for an evil genius’s impregnable fortress or headquarters for league of superheros. Gorgeous kitchen. Spacious quarters for army of minions.
You know these are tough economic times when even Bruce Wayne-types have taken to selling knickknacks on eBay to raise a little extra money. Knickknacks like, say, a stamp collection. Or an antique pitcher. Or a 15,000 square foot house built into a cave.
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Snails seem to be happy living in their shells. So why can’t people? Happily live in oversized snail shells, that is.
That’s what a couple in Naucalpan, Mexico wondered. They contracted the architectural firm Senosiain Arquitectos, the firm came up with some sketches of what a snail-house might look like and soon the Nautilus House was born. (See some of their design sketches, and photos, after the jump).
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Yurts, the glorified tents that many a nomad and sheep herder in Central Asian calls home, have been catching on among lawyers, doctors and vacationers in the developing world.
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In some cities it seems like all the apartment blocks look the same. At the Waldspirale building, in Darmstadt, Germany, everything is different.
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From an excellent New York Times article we bring you The Best House in Paris. With a design heavy on glass and steel this house has such a modern look it is nearly impossible to believe that it was actually built in 1931. It’s design ushered in the modern era of European architecture and inspired, among other buildings, Paris’s famous Pompidou Center. From the article:
The house has been compared to a Surrealist artwork, a theater stage and an operating room. That effect is animated by the play of light. During the day the facade has a strange milky glow; at night floodlights illuminate the wall from the outdoors, so that it glows like a lantern, bathing the salon in amber light. A single-story dining room and a smaller salon are set just off this central space, so that you are always conscious of its dramatic scale.
Photos below:
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We love architecture that can look cool while also blending into its local environment. Architect Robert Harey Oshatz designed a house in Portland, Oregon that does exactly that. From Oshatz’s website:
Located on a flag lot and a fast sloping grade provided the opportunity to bring the main level of the house into the tree canopy to evoke the feeling of being in a tree house. A lover of music, the client wanted a house that not only became a part of the natural landscape but, also addressed the flow of music. This house evades the mechanics of the camera which makes it difficult to grasp the spaces as they flow inside and out. One has to actually stroll through the house to capture it’s complexities and it’s connection to the exterior with the use of a natural wood ceiling floating on curving laminated wood beams which pass through a generous glass wall which wraps around the main living room.
See more photos and descriptions from the architect below.
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