Containers are all the rage throughout the world, their practicality has been put to the test in a multitude of ways and they always come out victorious.
Don’t take it the wrong way, but with almost complete certainty, your building is outdated, obsolete, lacking in adaptation to modernity. And no, it is not your fault, nor is it the fault of the community of owners, it is not even the fault of the architects, engineers, contractors and other professionals who took part in its construction. Nothing could make them foresee that the most versatile modern element for building buildings would be a simple metal box. And there are already multiple examples of what can be done with one or more containers (large metal boxes, but boxes, after all), and today, here, you can discover some of these metal buildings.
The NYC double-decker container
The first building is found in Amagansett, New York, a two-story volume designed by the architectural studio MB Architecture for a family to have their vacation home: cheap, practical, bright and well located. Who cares more?
2. Ceiling for the most disadvantaged
Well, they gave more, specifically to create Hilda L. Solis Care, a 232-bed complex built with the famous shipping containers in downtown Los Angeles. Some facilities created to give shelter to the most disadvantaged that, when they were built during the pandemic, were installed by installing one bathroom per room, which reduces the risk of contagion. These three-story buildings are the work of NAC Architecture.
3. The maximum efficiency of packaging
And since there are no two and three without five, we present you in third place the Stow Away Hotel, a building executed in 2019 with 26 containers. Embracing the environmental reason with manifest animosity, the entrepreneurs of the business decided to place solar panels on the roof, stack the metal boxes up to five floors and install maximum efficiency heating systems. Designers: Doone Silver Kerr.
4. Luxury homes inside containers
And without leaving the year we traveled to Sao Paulo to discover what the architect Marilia Pellegrini taught us: luxury homes fit in containers. She bought two containers and turned them into what she called a micro house, transforming 18 square meters into a high-end home… To do so, she used furniture from Nendo (a Japanese brand) and a dekton envelope, a material from Cosentino (made in Spain). Fabulous.
5. The container cafeteria
Perhaps one of the designs that I like the most from the sample that we bring you today is this one. Perhaps it is because of my predilection for a good coffee, because of its location inside a park, because of the oriental aesthetic that attracts westerners so much, or because of a sum of all. The Infeel Architects studio has placed this container cafeteria near Hsinchu, Taiwan City, and I am a fervent admirer (look at the tables that lead to the metal box).
6. Mini independent houses
And now we travel to the network, where we can buy the Gaia Pin-up house, a container equipped to be energetically independent. You only need a little more than 18,000 euros (plus shipping) to receive this wonder in blue. The company, which we already knew in these pages, boasts of creating mini homes. This is made up of a maritime container that uses solar energy (it has solar panels) and wind energy (wind turbine) to have an energy supply any month of the year.
7. The best views in Georgia
One more turn and we «kill it». You are viewing images of a container located in front of the sea in Tbilisi, Georgia, a complete declaration of intent: Enjoy life!! The idea came from the MUA architecture studio, who are willing to experiment with materials in search of the best architectural solutions, in this case a container converted into a vacation home facing the sea, quite an experience.
8. The PUMA City Event Building
What big brands do not sign up for this? Mistake!! Puma commissioned the LOT-EK team in 2008 to provide it with a transportable event space. And LOT, who are specialists in this, created a mobile structure of twenty-four shipping containers that they called PUMA City. A building for events and sales that has traveled through several ports of the Orb… it has three floors, terraces, projections, offices, shops, toilets, etc. In total: 1,021 square meters of leisure.
9. A container pool… who gives more?
Finally, the best way to be inside a metal container… and, believe me, you will totally agree: a swimming pool. The Modpools company is one of the many that takes advantage of containers to offer something different to the real estate market. But he goes a little further, and offers us to fill them with water, not furniture, oh, my goodness! How would you like to have one…