Shipping Containers: Not Just for Shipping

t may not be for everyone, but shipping containers have become an increasingly popular element to modern construction for developers, homebuyers, and really anyone looking to make a public display of their “green”-mindedness. Just do a Google image search for “shipping container home” and you’ll be bombarded by examples from mostly the past decade, many of which boast top notch design too. And while some good examples of their use in commercial real estate exist as well, I’m surprised we haven’t seen more of them “popping up” (as many describe their completed construction).

As for those good examples…

The Freitag Shop (left) in Zurich, Switzerland is the tallest structure to be made of shipping containers. It’s a fitting design for the retailer, whose products are also made using reclaimed materials. Puma City (right) is a temporary structure that travels to different cities around the globe. It was designed by LOT-EK, an architecture design studio based in New York, known for their innovative ways of incorporating recycled material in their projects, especially using shipping or cargo containers.

London’s Boxpark (left) claims to be the world’s first pop-up mall, featuring a variety of shops, galleries, and cafés. It also considers itself a temporary structure, lasting five years in its current location before popping up somewhere else. And one of the largest structures to be built using the containers is the Papertainer Museum (right) in Seoul, South Korea’s Olympic Park.

As the largest seaport in the Mid-Atlantic region, Baltimore seems like a great city to adopt the eco-friendly practice of using these containers for real estate, be it commercial or residential. If one were interested, Baltimore-based container companies like K & K International and Dolphin Sea Containers might be a good place to start.

  by Ross