Cargotecture – What is That?
Posted by Stephen Shang on Wed, Aug 08, 2012 @ 08:00 AM
How did all this begin? This overabundance of discarded re-purposed shipping containers - now becoming structures of …. in some, cases multi-million dollar homes?
A plethora of containers that were originally used for the movement of goods and staples to North America from Asia, and to a lesser extent Europe, have been discarded for the last decade. This abundance was created from a deficit in manufactured goods coming from North America for the last two decades. Essentially, it is cheaper to purchase a new container in Asia, then ship an empty one back.
The uses of these discarded empty containers is varied, creative, imaginative and has helped create an industry term - cargotecture. A term used to describe the re-use of this discarded material into architectural projects of various size, value and use. ("Cargotecture" is a term that was coined and trademarked by the firm Cargotecture to denote its unique way of converting these units. In recent years the term has become widely used throughout the industry synonymously with the term container architecture.)
Let’s look at some of the most recent and interesting structures that have been built out of the use of repurposed shipping containers. Container architecture at it’s best!
- Mobile Media Display - A New Zealand company uses repurposed shipping containers to house a mobile unit displaying film, TV and music videos
What do you think the next innovative use could be to be included in the container architecture list of examples?