In today’s world there is need of building homes, which are tough and sturdy. Shipping containers can be reliably used as the foundation for such houses. Moreover, the best thing about shipping container houses is their portability and inexpensiveness. Recently, an architect named, Patrick Partouche came up with an idea of making a house with eight shipping containers within the countryside of Lille, France. The house is designed for single family use.

The most interesting aspect of the recycled shipping container house is its design and structure, which are both high tech. The construction was done by transporting containers through trucks and assembling them with cranes. It took three days for completing the whole setup. For the interior, the designer used industrial style, while not forgetting the use of quality material. The interior is stylized with checker plates, exposed conduit and metro wire, and it blends well with the exterior aesthetics of the container house. The architect has also used materials such as industrial lamps for lightning, old trunks for storage, handrail made out of wire,welded pipes and corrugated steel.

This house is a true reflection of how we can deal with durability and cost constraints of today’s world. It is symbolic of the new cult of innovative architecture, which employs the reuse of sources like shipping containers, without putting much strain over scarce resources.

This is exactly what a couple have done in San Francisco in their 127 foot loft. The industrialized apartment was complemented nicely by the addition of two shipping containers that are used as the home’s guest bedroom and home office as these photos show.

On paper, a giant dormitory built off site, out of environmentally friendly shipping containers sounds great. The project saves vast amounts of both time and money, and limits the impact on the local community. The question that was asked at the time was, “what are we subjecting our students to by forcing them to live in a used, but nicely modified, shipping container?” The first image that comes to mind is that the containers will be backing hot in the summer, freezing cold in the winter, and with the student opening and closing 8’6” steel doors every time they need to go out.

The dormitories are very different from this. Every room in the dormitory has a private bathroom, balcony, kitchen, separate sleeping and study areas, and large windows that provide a great amount of daylight. The heating is supplied by a centralized natural gas boiler and for added security; each dorm room is equipped with a central phone connected to the main entrance.

The dormitories have incorporated environmentally friendly systems in their design. One of which is an integrated water collection facility whereby the roof of the facility is designed to collect and disperse rain water that serves as insulation for the building.

Shipping containers were used to showcase apparel brands at this year’s Bread & Butter Berlin (BBB). The containers were in an exclusive D.O.C.K (Department of Contemporary Keynotes) area where the limited floor space — always a problem at tradeshows — was utilized in an innovative way to maximize the number of exhibitors that could show their wares. The shipping containers were stacked on top of one another, in an industrial-looking setup that blended with the warehouse setting.

Bread & Butter is a well-known biannual tradeshow held in Berlin, Germany, that exhibits selected brands from across the world at the forefront of street and urban wear. The event attracts buyers and fashion enthusiasts globally to its Summer and Winter exhibits.

Though it seems like you can get Starbucks coffee just about anywhere, only one store near Seattle in the USA can serve it to you from inside of used shipping containers. This week construction of a Starbucks out of four used High cube shipping containers. It will also be the only store to be setup for walk-up and drive-thru only—no lounge will be constructed.

More than just a quirky idea, there are (at least) two practical reasons for this type of assembly. The first is that it will almost certainly reduce the cost of store construction. The owner of an architectural firm that has experience building with new and used shipping containers, stated that construction in residential applications usually cut costs by 20 per cent, and the amount of construction time by up to 40 per cent in certain applications.

The other reason is that since shipping containers are very portable, they may open up new business opportunities. A Starbucks spokesman gave the example that a store could be assembled form used shipping containers in temporarily available locations, and later be transported and reassembled elsewhere. It seems this might also be a good way to test new locations before investing larger sums of money on permanent structures.

How long before we see these Starbuck stores made from used shipping containers appearing around the UK at festivals and events?

Nestled among the mansions of celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow and Paul McCartney is a brand-new “beach box” home made out of used shipping containers.

Developer Andrew Anderson said he will sell the home for what he calls an “affordable” price of under $1.5 million. That’s in an area where about 32 homes about the same size have gone this year for an average of $4.8 million.

But its new neighbors are not expected to have any NIMBY problems. In fact, they’ll hardly believe the building’s humble past. It’s all steel and glass with only one nod to its previous life — one wall and one ceiling made of exposed steel.

Besides the relatively modest — by East Hampton — price, the home’s major selling point is its eco-friendliness.  Everything used in its construction, not just the shipping containers, has been recycled. And the large glass panes will make it easier to heat on cool, sunny  days.

“Our goal is to be eco-friendly and to maintain a small carbon footprint,” Anderson said.

He said the land cost $300,000 and, unlike Rome, the house was built in just about a day.

On a Sunday a few weeks ago, six 18-wheeler trucks drove up carrying six used shipping containers. The next day, the house went up — complete with windows and electricity.

The two-story, modern-style home is about 2,000 square feet and sits on .17 acres — and can accommodate a small swimming pool or large lap pool.

Anderson said it’s the first beach house built from used shipping containers in the Hamptons, and one of the first in the northeast. He plans to build six similar houses in the Hamptons, and more if all goes well.

“I always had a love for industrial design and the idea of using containers just lent itself perfectly to a pop-up mall concept,” says Boxpark’s creator Roger Wade, who has collaborated with the owners of the site next to Shoreditch High Street station, empty for 40 years, to build a five-year structure.

He took his inspiration from single shops in shipping containers such as the Puma City store in Boston and Illy Café in New York – a coffee shop in a container with walls that open out to create seating areas.

But the idea of using shipping containers also comes with economic benefits. “Most traditional retail developments try to sign their tenants up to five- and 10-year leases. In this current economic environment, for new retailers who may not have had their own space before, that is a real liability,” says Wade, who leases space for as little as one year.

“It offers arguably the most cost-efficient and flexible way for new entrants to gain exposure in the retail market,” says Boxpark’s retail agent Mark Phillipson.

And they aren’t the only ones finding that boxing up makes sense.

Look around central London at the moment and you’ll spot great white boxes overhanging the roads attached to building sites operated by construction and civil engineering firm Sir Robert McAlpine. According to the company, the temporary structures house office space, changing rooms, meeting rooms and even canteens for staff working on the projects – all fitted into cabins when permanent spaces nearby are not cost-effective or convenient.

Meanwhile, the Container Café, which opened up next to the Olympic Park last year, is increasingly busy with customers wanting to get a glimpse of the site for the Games taking its final shape. The entire View Tube complex in which the café is housed, and which also contains classrooms and arts spaces, was built using recycled shipping containers.

Art, it seems, also feels very much at home in the container. In just over a week in London, Open Gallery will exhibit works in shipping containers at the Crunch Art Fair at Hay-on-Wye.

“A trip to Miami’s Art Basel showed me the potential of shipping containers,” says Bianca Brigitte Bonomi, one of the Crunch organisers. “Running along the beach, they offered galleries and visitors a completely different experience to the conference-like interior of the fair and created an exciting space for artists to interact with. Crunch is a quirky festival, and is all about giving people something new, so it seemed fitting to incorporate these containers into the space.”

Similarly, CABIN/ET, a recycled shipping container situated in east London, just off Columbia Road, is hoping to open up for art exhibitions as soon as funding becomes available.

It’s a ripple that has spread from cash-strapped Portugal where – since its Ministry of Culture has been shut down for five years due to lack of funds – art agency P28 found funding from shipping companies and last year started housing its exhibitions in containers. London artist Sonia Boyce exhibited her work in the boxes in Lisbon earlier this year.

When times are tight, clearly you have to be boxing clever.

CargoGuitar consists of eight giant steel strings stretched across the interior of the shipping container in a half-twist design. The horizontal bar at one end of the strings holds them in place and frames the container doors. The vertical end is outfitted with tuning pegs that can actually change the sound scales of the instrument! For those who want to practice their guitar solo, CargoGuitar is in fact electric, featuring two 1/4 inch input jacks plugged into corresponding amplifiers.

While exploring the inside of a massive guitar is a visual experience in itself, the artists were also interested in the kinetic vibrations and physical responses to the space. With this in mind, they made sure the guitar strings glowed in the dark, allowing visitors to experience the interactive sound container through different visual atmospheres. With the lights off, visitors can choose to close their eyes and feel the guitar’s resonating vibrations or open them to witness the glowing strings dancing in the dark while being played.

Defying what many often think of architecture, sound, and art, CargoGuitar won an award in the Art in a Container International Competition and will be on view at the Kobe Biennale in Japan for the rest of the month.

Earlier this year maritime authorities reported that three reefer containers exploded or caused a fire, resulting in two fatalities in Vietnam and one in Brazil.

The explosions were believed to be the result of contaminated gas added to the containers’ refrigeration units during servicing in Vietnam.

In the Port of Seattle alone there is a growing stack of 80 refrigerated shipping containers which is sitting by itself, isolated from the rest of the port for safety reasons.

A GVCT Refrigerated Shipping Container

The US Coast Guard said it is working with the terminal operators to keep the 80 containers away from everyone, but worryingly admits there is no specific plan yet for dealing with them.

The Pacific Maritime Association, which represents the various terminal operators in the USA, said it is looking for a solution to checking each shipping container to see if it poses any risk. These at-risk containers are being turned away from terminal operators, and as a result, they remain out in the public.

The three reefers that exploded were operated by Maersk Line, but since the danger was reported all carriers are scrambling to find any reefers that have been repaired in Vietnam since February.

Maersk has removed all its 844 reefer containers that have been repaired in Vietnam.

Shipping containers have replaced damaged buildings in what is being called the world’s first pop-up container mall; although similar designs have been seen in the UK recently.

The brightly coloured shipping containers are stacked and lined ready to attract shoppers back into the old city mall and have proved very popular with sixty-five retailers registering for the container mall with a maximum of only 27 being accepted.

After months of pulling buildings down construction workers are flat out putting the new shipping container shops up. As the photo shows it is a race against time with paths still to be sealed and landscaping to be done.

 Update 27/10/11

A British developer has threatened legal action against the organisers of Christchurch’s “pop-up” inner city mall, alleging they’ve copied a similar project planned in London.

It has been reported that Directors of the London Boxpark development in Shoreditch, contacted the organisers behind the Cashel Mall Restart project In Christchurch NZ, claiming they have infringed on intellectual property rights.

The Cashel Mall development, a temporary pop-up mall with 60 containers creating 27 shops, opens this coming weekend. Boxpark, which also comprises of 60 containers, is due to open in December.

Last week the project architect behind the Christchurch project said it was the first pop-up mall in the world although he was aware of the London project. However, Boxpark markets itself as “the world’s first and only pop-up mall”, and while they had initially supported the Restart project, Boxpark were surprised to hear it referred to as a world first.