Applications of shipping containers in the 21st century

APPLICATIONS OF SHIPPING CONTAINERS
IN THE 21ST
CENTURY
Collection of Blogs
Written by
Tuomas Poukkula

Table of Contents
EPILOGUE .......................................................................................................................9
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................................14
1. WHERE DID ALL THE DUCKS GO?......................................................................16
2. CONTAINER HOMES – SOLUTION FOR STUDENT HOUSING........................18
3. LUXURY CONTAINER HOTELS............................................................................21
4. FIRST CAMEL MILK PRODUCTS SHIPPED TO EUROPE..................................24
5. NEW BUILDING MATERIALS – CONTAINERS, SNOW, LEGO AND BEER! .26
6. CONTAINER HOUSES – THE NEXT BIG AMERICAN DREAM........................29
7. THE WORLD’S BIGGEST MOBILE FRIDGE SAILED IN PARIS .......................33
8. CONTAINER SHOPS – THE NEW HOT TREND IN MODERN RETAILING!....36
9. CAN CONTAINER POP-UP SHOPS CHALLENGE E-COMMERCE? .................40
10. SHIPPING CONTAINER SWIMMING POOLS!...................................................44
11. BATHING MADE MOBILE WITH CONTAINER SAUNAS...............................47
12. THE SOLUTION FOR OVERCROWDED PRISONS – CONTAINER JAILS.....51
13. PARTY IN A BOX! GOING WILD IN CONTAINER NIGHT CLUBS! ..............54
14. REEFER CONTAINERS – THE BEST TOOL FOR SHIPPING PENGUINS! .....56
15.THE CURE THAT LOWERS AGRESSION CAUSED BY HIGH
TEMPERATURES................................................................................................59
16. SHIPPING CONTAINER BUNKERS – THE CURE FOR NATURAL
DISASTERS AND TERRORISM?.......................................................................63
17. CONTAINER GREENHOUSES – THE URBAN ORGANIC HEAVEN ..............66
18. BETTER EDUCATION OBTAINED IN CONTAINER SCHOOLS .....................71
19. SHAKESPEARE REBORN IN CONTAINER THEATERS ..................................74

20. COCA COLA SAVES LIVES WITH SHIPPING CONTAINERS!........................ 78
21. SHIPPING CONTAINER ARCHITECTURE – ONE OF THOSE ACCIDENTAL
INNOVATIONS.................................................................................................... 81
22. WHAT IF APPLE WAS STARTED IN A SHIPPING CONTAINER?.................. 85
23. AN ANTARCTIC PREFAB SHOWS THE TRUE POTENTIAL OF SHIPPING
CONTAINERS...................................................................................................... 88
24. SHIPPING CONTAINER HOSPITALS – THE FUTURE OF SAVING LIVES ... 91
25. PLACES TO FALL HIGH AND STAY ALIVE ..................................................... 95
26. SHIPPING CONTAINERS – THE WORLD’S MOST SUSTAINABLE
RESTAURANTS................................................................................................... 99
27. WALKING ON THE STREETS OF THE CITY OF CONTAINERS .................. 102
28. CONTAINER SUMMER PAVILIONS – LUXURY FOR THE MODEST ......... 105
29. LAS VEGAS CONTAINER HOTELS – VIRTUES IN THE CITY OF SINS ..... 108
30. CRUISE SHIPS RESTING IN CONTAINER HAVEN ........................................ 111
31. CONTAINER ARCHITECTURE – A DIALOGUE WITH NATURE................. 114
32. CONTAINER GARAGES – THE NEW HOMES OF HARLEYS ....................... 118
33. SÃO PAULO PRESENTS MARVELLOUS CONTAINER ART ........................ 120
34. IN CONTAINER HOMES WINTER IS ALWAYS OUTSIDE............................ 123
35. CONTAINER LIBRARIES – THE LITTLE HELPERS OF INSPIRATIONAL
EDUCATION...................................................................................................... 126
36. AFGHANISTAN’S FUTURE IS BUILT ON SKATEBOARDS AND
CONTAINERS.................................................................................................... 129
37. HOW TO CONQUER THE CHALLENGES OF SHIPPING CONTAINER
ARCHITECTURE?............................................................................................. 131
38. SHIPPING CONTAINERS AND OTHER AMAZING SWIMMING POOLS .... 135
39. BILL GATES’S SHIPPING CONTAINERS TURN POOP INTO ENERGY!..... 139

40. FLOATING CONTAINERS – ASSISTANTS FOR NAVY SEALS....................142
41. CONTAINER BATHHOUSES FOR HEALTHY HEDONISTS ..........................144
42. CONTAINER OBSERVATORY – THE BEST PLACE FOR FIRST DATE! .....146
43. PLEASANT WAITING IN CONTAINER TRAIN STATIONS...........................149
44. MUSIC MADE PHYSICAL IN A GIANT CONTAINER GUITAR!...................152
45. CONTAINER B&B COMPLETES YOUR DREAM VACATION IN SPAIN!...155
46. CONTAINER MICRO HOMES WILL REVOLUTIONIZE AFFORDABLE
HOUSING ...........................................................................................................159
47. CONSTRUCTIONS THAT DEFY THE LIMITS OF SHIPPING CONTAINER
ARCHITECTURE...............................................................................................162
48. THE MANY ARCHITECTURAL APPLICATIONS OF SHIPPING
CONTAINERS VOL. 1.......................................................................................165
CONTAINERS VOL.2........................................................................................169
CONTAINERS VOL. 3.......................................................................................173
CONTAINERS VOL.4........................................................................................176
CONTAINERS VOL.5........................................................................................179
CONTAINERS VOL.6........................................................................................182
CONTAINERS VOL.7........................................................................................185
CONTAINERS VOL.8........................................................................................188
CONTAINERS VOL.9........................................................................................191

CONTAINERS VOL.10...................................................................................... 194
CONTAINERS VOL.11...................................................................................... 197
CONTAINERS VOL.12...................................................................................... 200
60. THE ARTISTIC MASTERPIECES OF SHIPPING CONTAINERS.................... 203
61. CONTAINER ISLAND RESORTS – AMERICA’S NEW DUBAI...................... 206
62. CONTAINER HOMES – ONLY THE QUESTION OF MAKE OR BUY........... 209
63. ILLUMINATING A CONTAINER CAVE WITH IMPROVISED NARRATIVE212
64. SHIPPING CONTAINER BEER GARDEN – SACRAMENTO’S LITTLE
GERMANY......................................................................................................... 215
65. CONTAINER TOWERS OF DEEP DIVES AND HIGH FLIES.......................... 217
66. THE CONTAINER SHOPS OF ALLURING ASIAN BEAUTIES ...................... 220
67. HOW ACADEMIA CHANGES WHAT WE THINK ABOUT SHIPPING
CONTAINERS.................................................................................................... 223
68. ROCK CLIMBING ON THE CONTAINERS OF BANGALORE ....................... 226
69. CONTAINER HOUSES – AFFORDABLE HOMES AND A LOT MORE......... 228
70. CONTAINER HOUSES – HOBBITS IN THE MORDOR OF ARCHITECTURE231
71. GOOGLE – THE NEW CREATOR OF CONTAINER ARCHITECTS............... 235
72. CONTAINER HOMES – THE ILLEGAL SAVIORS OF ECONOMIES AND THE
ENVIRONMENT................................................................................................ 237
PROLOGUE ................................................................................................................. 240
REFERENCES.............................................................................................................. 243

9
EPILOGUE
When I’m writing the epilogue of this book it’s almost four months since I started my
internship in Shanghai Metal Corporation. I still remember clearly the first day I
stepped out of the elevator at the 20th
floor of Yu An building and saw the empty recep-
tion desk. At that time it was still summer, a typical hot and moist Shanghainese sum-
mer. My shirt was already wet when the HR manager took me to the office and showed
me my becoming working station. That awkward memory or at least its emotional in-
fluence has been replaced with other great memories.
To be honest, I had no idea at the first place why did I come to SMC or what should I
do there. They had just started doing content marketing by writing blogs, posting them
on Wordpress and sharing them on Facebook and Twitter. Since then the way content
and social media marketing strategies have been modified various times. After two
months I was promoted as the head of social media marketing and after our CEO Bryan
Wang wanted each department to design a development strategy for social media, I
knew I had to teach myself this ball game.
Social media marketing is not an easy task, because there is simply just so much to
do with it and needs to spend the whole day with managing all the platforms. My work-
ing hours were normally from eight to five but most of the days I needed to stay longer.
When I started at SMC it was mainly Twitter and Facebook with a little bit of Insta-
gram and without any particular idea on how these media could help the company to
position itself in the scope of all the possible interest groups. Another problem was that
our blogs seemed to have a very short life. The major part of our blogs, the blogs creat-
ed by other interns before me did not seem to spread in the Internet. There were many
blogs that had been viewed only once or twice during it weeks of months of age. Today
SMC gets from five views to six hundred views per blog.
I believe that like products, blogs also go through different states after they are
brought to the public. They reach a certain level of majority in some stage after which
their popularities drop gradually. Blogs are different from products since they move to
different stages faster. They can also be resurrected and put back to a new loop. This is
possible because most of the social media are actually streams. The number of impres-
sions that a post generates, say, on Twitter is related to the amount and speed o posts
other put in the stream. Putting hashtags puts the posts to different streams which have
different speeds. Therefore timing has a crucial role in collecting impressions and en-
gagement. Retweeting puts posts back on top of the pile, at the first position in streams.
Not only Twitter work like this. Also many content curation and social bookmarking
services such as Reddit or Digg are streams. It’s not always the content itself that gener-

10
ates engagement. The content has to be timed perfectly. It is more practical to post them
again. A notorious entrepreneur and the world’ 500 richest man Mark Cuban has once
said that companies that do social media fail in the sense that they trust too much that
their posts will last. I tried to fix this problem in SMC.
Creating quality content that engages people is even more challenging. I spent a lot
of my free time trying to figure out how to get people read my blogs. I literally used my
free time since my boss is a highly sophisticated CCTV system in our office and time
for to watch people (please do not mind the sense sarcasm of sarcasm in this phrase).
Still I sort of got the hang of it. There is a rule that says that content needs to interesting,
informative and entertaining. Good articles fit into all of these dimensions. I know some
of my colleagues concentrated either the entertainment or the informative aspect. Some-
times I even tried too much to make my articles entertaining. I was even criticized by
one of my colleagues of not writing professional articles that would engage our existing
customers and give a direct contribution to sales. I never believed I could generate sales
by writing an article. Besides, if I did, how could one track that a customer made a pur-
chasing decision based on my blog? I don’t see this scenario ever happening in B2B. I
found more realistic to try to write articles that people would find interesting enough to
share and thereby create buzz, visibility and in the long run, revenue indirectly. There-
fore I needed to make my blogs interesting, informative and engaging.
At the end of the day, the content is done for social media platforms, platforms that
encourage social interaction. I did not find it reasonable to write about steel’s grades,
melting temperatures, alloys and all that stuff. I’d rather encourage contacting our sales
personnel for those questions. I wanted to balance between the three dimensions.
Social media marketers usually want to achieve a certain goal; to make their posts go
viral. It happened to me, at least relatively speaking, when my article “Liquid Packaging
Made Famous by a Watch Company” was shared in two active forums. The article was
about how a Spaniard watch company Festina packed its waterproof watches in plastic
bags to demonstrate the watches quality. At that time we did not share our articles in
many platforms but it still generated almost two hundred views in one weekend. Just for
comparison I need to say that our total number of views for May where 147. This article
was published in August which was our best month at that time with 3,600 views. The
article’s links to SMC’s liquid packing machine generate traffic even today.
On August the 22th I wrote my best article, at least in terms of number of total views.
“Container Houses – The Next Big American Dream” became the all-time number one
SMC article in one day. It was shared by The Professional Builder Magazine, which
brought a lot of viewers from the US region. After doing some research I noticed that
there is a huge market and a lot of people interested in shipping container houses and
shipping container architecture. Many people are struggling to get affordable living fa-
cilities for themselves and their families. I saw that the name of the article should repre-

11
sent hope and express a way for people to fight their fears and to solve this problem. I
knew I took a risk of making a statement that container homes are an incarnation of the
American Dream. I was afraid that the article would narrow the views only to the Unit-
ed States leaving my numbers really low. Now that the article has generated over 1,300
views and it is still doing that, I wonder if saying that container houses are the American
Dream was a long shot after all.
There is little I know about creativity. Even though my blogs filled the SMC top 30
list, I still wasn’t able to repeat what I did with the American Dream. People sometimes
ask me how to write engaging articles. I’ve noticed that the most common mistake that
people make is that they rewrite the articles that already exist. Why would someone
share your articles when they can share the original ones? That’s why I have to encour-
age people to write value-added articles. By value-added I mean doing something that
has of value and does not already exist. We can always give our own insights, use met-
aphors or our intellectual capital to bring out the value-adding part, the part that makes a
difference.
Steve Jobs once said that creativity is about connecting the dots. The catch is that you
need first to find the dots. In SMC we were assigned with products that our articles
should be about. Those products were a set of dots. The other dots we needed to find
ourselves. Maybe there was an event you encountered in your daily life, something you
have read about or some other things you can associate with. Those events, experiences
and intellectual capital are the other set of dots. If you find a way to link the dots be-
tween these sets, you will write great articles. It is really not about the products, it’s the
other set that makes a difference. It works for blogs since they should reflect the person
behind them. When you read these blogs about shipping containers’ applications you
will surely come to think how twisted my mind really was. In some blogs I tried to be
funny and some blogs were to bring my intellectual insights into play. I’m sorry if my
messages won’t get to you but sometimes it is just difficult to put ones ideas into words
and phrases.
I became specialized in shipping containers. This book is therefore only about the
blogs I wrote about containers and how they can be applied in various contexts. It was
more than fascinating to find out in how numerous ways they could be used. What’s
more I’m not the only one. These blogs and the shipping containers-related posts in so-
cial media generate the majority of traffic to SMC’s website. Maybe the company
should try to position their container products from houses and shipping tools to cover
all of these applications. Anyway, that is not my ball game anymore since I will leave
SMC and leaving this book behind me.
Sometimes I still feel amazed on how shipping container, steel crates meant for ship-
ping goods across oceans, became most essential materials in today’s affordable hous-
ing industry. Many products that have had a huge impact in our daily lives were invent-

12
ed by accident. Potato chips, Coca-Cola, cornflakes and Play Doh are only some in-
stances. Shipping container architecture also fits into that category. I even dedicated a
blog about this topic.
There is a massive oversupply of shipping containers. They are brought to ports by
import driven countries such as the United States. Some containers drop off board dur-
ing shipping. My first blog “Where Did All the Ducks Go” discusses this topic. It is a
story about lost containers that shipped rubber ducks that disappeared along with their
container. Most of them are never found but some them have been encountered in very
interesting locations including Antarctic regions. This is one of amazing stories related
to shipping containers and one of which I found extremely interesting.
The containers that find their ways to their destinations are really seldom sent back.
The costs of sending the containers back empty are just too high. Some countries that
are very active in exporting can reuse them in shipping goods. For example based on
my market research on the Chilean shipping industry, Chile reuses 87% of imported
shipping containers in exporting goods. The countries that are not really active in ex-
porting have environmental issues with having hundreds of thousands of abandoned
shipping container piled in their ports. The United States is probably the best example
on this.
In the USA there seems to be a big number of households that are trying to find ways
of building their own homes with relatively low costs. These reused shipping containers
offer them hope. There are also some businesses that purchase containers from ports and
build custom-made houses out of them. There are also many people who want to build
their houses themselves. On paper it seems a really good option, as used containers
costs approximately one to two thousand US dollars per unit. There are still a lot of
challenges that could escalate into failures of these DIY projects or at least leverage the
costs higher than in conventional building. In my blogs I tried to cover as many benefits
of shipping container architecture as possible and also remind the people about the pit-
falls related to it. You will also encounter this consensus in these blogs.
There is so much that one can create from shipping containers, besides architecture I
also discussed how shipping containers are used in arts and academic research. Actually
my blog of a container kaleidoscope became one of my most popular blogs by generat-
ing over 600 views in one day.
Still, most of my container blogs are related to architecture. There are container ho-
tels, container garages, container swimming pools etc. I tried to write at least one blog
of each architectural instance. I even gathered them together on a series of container
architecture. “The Many Architectural Applications of Shipping Container Architec-
ture” encompasses twelve chapters that are recaps of my former articles.
Container homes are becoming more and more the mainstream in affordable housing
but I personally believe that these other architectural applications will follow. There

13
seems to be a lot of interest towards this topic. In Facebook there are a lot of groups
related to container architecture. I used to share my articles on these interest groups. The
shares generated a lot of engagement and likes in our Facebook page and also brought a
lot of viewers to my blogs. The links on blogs directed the stream to the company web
pages. This is how I learned to use organic Facebook marketing efficiently. I think there
is just too much discussion on how one should use paid marketing in Facebook. I am
not saying one shouldn’t use paid advertising. I’m just saying that one should always
keep in mind the essential lessons of marketing; to divide the focus groups into seg-
ments, to target and focus on creating content that tackles a certain target groups fears
and interests. Sharing container housing blogs in container housing Facebook container
housing groups is an example of how the fundamental lessons of marketing are done in
practice.
Practice also goes to show that when people are reached with content they can asso-
ciate with, they will give their own insights. In social media I tried to encourage people
to speak out what problems have they encountered and what are they interested in. Their
replies gave me insight on writing more blogs about container architecture. I’m not sure
if my blogs became a part of solutions to their problems but at least I managed to create
discussion. Sometimes it is good to be wrong. I sometimes received comments how the
information I offered in my blogs was outdated and not true. I got all of my information
from secondary sources, in other words, from articles written by other people. How
could I have known the information was incorrect? The catch is that if I didn’t share my
blog, nobody would have spoken out and shared their knowledge. This is the true power
of social media. At its best, it generates discussion and sophisticates people. We just
need give people a little push. Even though my blogs did not always get positive feed-
back, they still gave the push and now many people are wiser.
I hope you will also get wiser and generate your own opinion when reading these
blogs. They were with passion and under pressure. I tried to write them in as common
language as possible but due to my wide educational background, one Master’ and two
Bachelor’s degrees in university I sometimes made the language too sophisticated.
Please understand my point-of-view while reading them. I ensure you’ll encounter sto-
ries that will trigger your interest. They all sure triggered mine.

14
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I learned a lot during my internship in SMC. I learned a lot about social media, con-
tent marketing and how businesses are traditionally run in China. My boss Bryan Wang
is a really traditional Chinese manager and I understand his criticism that social media
efforts cannot generate sales for him in the short run. Even though there were some ide-
ological differences I still learned a lot from him. I think I learned the most from my
foreign colleagues. They have given a huge contribution in my people and organization-
al skills. These people truly left a mark. The people in marketing Camilla, Siobhan, Sil-
via and Ayu and the people in inquiries department Tom, Nicolas, Pasquale, Nishant,
Dominick, Jonathan, Mario, Henry and Jordan made me think about things I would
have never figure out with my bounded rationality. The conversations about what was
wrong and how things should be done opened many aspects that I will certainly consid-
er in my next businesses. The conversations with the locals also expanded my cultural
and linguistic abilities. Even though I’m not an expert of China I now understand it bet-
ter and I’m more fluent in speaking the language.
Of all the people I also have to thank my girlfriend Zhang Zhihui who most of the
days came pick me up at work and at home forced me to rest and stop thinking about
work related issues. During my internship she promised to marry me and move with me
to Finland. She is a woman who requires a lot of attention. It is a good thing since I
have all my life suffered from focusing too much on work or school related issues dur-
ing my free time. I hope she will continue on helping me to deal with stress and stay by
my side. A lot of gratitude needs to be given to her family, especially her mother who
has made so many sacrifices on raising her as the third child in a society that allows
giving birth only to one child. Also my family has made huge sacrifices by letting me
move to China and start a life here. I hope this book will make them proud of what I
have achieved here.
All of these people and many others I was associated with during my internship have
impacted on how I managed as employee and how have I grown more mature from the
day I started here. The blogs in this book are sorted according to the time they were
published. Thereby they might show some traces of my personal development. I hope
you can experience at least a bit of entertainment when reading them. They were all
written based on public information on the Internet. Therefore I’m in great gratitude
with authors of the original articles. I’ve listed all of their work in the references and
given them an ID number in the brackets. You should also check these sources and
share them on social media platforms. At the end of each article there is a section that
shows which references are associated with my blogs. I’ve also tried to give honor to

15
the information providers, the protagonists and the companies mentioned in my articles.
They have all done great work and given a huge contribution to the development of con-
tainer architecture industry. I wish that the stories and the attached pictures will help
them to create presence and extend their brands. It has been my objective to help them.
Therefore I wish they will not get angry with me by using their names and pictures.
These blogs are actually success stories. Stories that change the industry and the world
we live in. I hope you will enjoy reading them. You can always check them and my
other blogs also online at http://goo.gl/NF9NYl.
Tuomas Poukkula // SMC Editor
Shanghai, November the 28th
, 2014

16
1. WHERE DID ALL THE DUCKS GO?
AUGUST 8, 2014 SHANGHAI METAL CORPORATION
On January 1992, over 29,000 rubber ducks, turtles and frogs fell from a cargo ship in
the Pacific Ocean. Since then, these plastic toys have been floating around the world
passing Japan, Alaska and Hawaii. Some of them have spent their years frozen in an
Arctic ice pack.

17
Over 22 years ago, a 40-foot steel shipping container was knocked down due to
rough seas and huge waves. Along with several other containers, all the bath toys were
knocked overboard.
Some estimates suggest that up to 10,000 containers fall into the ocean every year.
The World Shipping Council, whose members represent 90% of the world’s container
ship capacity, say that figure is grossly exaggerated and estimate that on average no
more than 350 containers are lost annually.
Due to severe weather and high seas, accidents or incorrect stowage, there are now
shipping containers littering the seabed all around the world. Many float on the surface
for months; some rupture and release their goods, but most eventually sink to the bot-
tom — creating deep-sea stepping stones between ports across the globe.
Since the accident, oceanographers have tried to track all the bath toys. Only about
3% of the missing toys have been reported. It is also estimated that there are only about
a few hundred items left drifting in the world’s seas. CNN has published a map that
indicates where the toys have run ashore. See references for further details.
References: [1-4]

18
2. CONTAINER HOMES – SOLUTION
FOR STUDENT HOUSING
In Finland there is a high demand for student homes as the number of available apart-
ments in student villages is getting lower. Due to the low supply, students are also
forced to pay a very high monthly rent. Some students have to pay over 800 Euros rent
every month. According to a survey conducted by the Finnish periodical Iltalehti, 40
percent of the thousand respondents said that their funds are really low due to expensive
rents. They are now designing economical student homes, made of containers.

19
Harri Nordling, a Finnish container home designer, has designed beautiful container
student homes. The container homes can be applied to build multistoried blocks of flats
using containers. This sort of solution has already been applied in Sweden. Container
homes are easy to build. They are also low-cost and environmentally friendly.
The only obstacle for applying the solution seems to be on the legislative and ideo-
logical aspect. The local decision makers need to be convinced and societal acceptance
needs to be acquired from a large audience. The container student homes have been
presented in the city of Pori, where the solutions have gained positive feedback both
from the city’s authorities as well as from the public.

20
The designed student homes are 14 square meters, including a bathroom, a living
room and a kitchen. They also plan to design a garden and some room for recreation on
their roofs. It is yet uncertain when the container homes can be mounted, but it only
seems to be a matter of time.
References: [4-5]

21
3. LUXURY CONTAINER HOTELS
AUGUST 14, 2014 CONTAINERSSMC
A container hotel system is a new trend to take the hotel business closer to a specific
clientele. Besides, the hotel solutions are made for luxury consumers offering them a
wonderful experience.
For example an UK company Snoozebox offers portable hotel services to any loca-
tion or any events. The portable lodge has 40-400 rooms and each room has a flat screen
and a Wi-Fi.

22
Sleeping around is a Belgium pop-up hotel company located in Antwerp. It offers
container hotel rooms that are equipped with rain showers, box-spring beds, iPod dock-
ing stations and air conditioning. They also have rooms with saunas.
A luxurious looking container hotel village has also been built in Changzhi, the city
of Shanxi province in China. In addition to their high-end indoor design, Xiang Xiang
Xiang Pray House is located in Taihang mountain gorges area giving the village a beau-
tiful natural environment.

23
China is a major exporter of container homes with over 3 million containers shipped
in 2011. CNN Travel writes that the idea came from the Japanese when they imported a
large amount of containers to build temporary homes for the survivors of the 2011 tsu-
nami earthquake.
Sources: [6 - 10]

24
4. FIRST CAMEL MILK PRODUCTS
SHIPPED TO EUROPE
The dairy product business is a highly competitive industry in Europe with players such
as Danone Group, Unilever and Nestlé owning the biggest market shares. A United Ar-
ab Emirates based company is differentiating itself from the biggest players by shipping
camel milk to Europe.
The Emirates Industry for Camel Milk and Products is now bringing its camel milk
products to European consumers. It is the first company that the European Commission
has granted the license to ship camel milk products to Europe. The first products under
the ‘Camelicious‘ brand were shipped in 2013 and they consisted of camel milk pow-
der, fresh camel milk and camel whey powder.
Camel milk is a really low fat type of milk and has more calcium than any other
milk. Also its Vitamin C content is 3-5 times higher than cow’s milk. There are no
known allergies for camel milk and also people suffering from lactose intolerance are
able to digest it.

25
Shipping Camel Milk is also a new application for cold chain logistics. The cold
chain involves the transportation of temperature sensitive products along a supply chain
through thermal and refrigerated packaging methods and the logistical planning to pro-
tect the integrity of these shipments. There are several means in which cold chain prod-
ucts can be transported, including refrigerated trucks, refrigerated cargo ships as well as
by air cargo.
Sources: [11 - 14]

26
5. NEW BUILDING MATERIALS –
CONTAINERS, SNOW, LEGO AND
BEER!
Most of us probably share a concept that houses should be built out of, say, wood, stone
or concrete. But as we can see, the variety of building materials is actually larger than
we would have thought.
For instance in Finland’s city of Kemi, every year they build a large castle of ice and
snow. In the castle there is a chapel for couples to get married, a restaurant and a hotel.
The hotel rooms’ temperatures are about -5 degrees Celsius. The hotel also has a lounge
with a sauna and a heated swimming pool. The lowest room rate is 125 Euros. More
information about the snow castle can be found through references.
The Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew Buddhist temple in Thailand is constructed from a
million glass beer bottles. The mosaics made of beer bottle lids create mesmeriz-
ing patterns to the walls. The green glass walls also diffuse light beautifully in the tem-
ple.

27
A Top Gear celebrity James May built a two-story house which was able to be lived
in. For building the house he used over three million Lego blocks, yes, Lego. Another
famous Lego building is in Hungary’s Budapest where they have built a Lego tower of
over 34 meters tall (114 feet). The tower has been confirmed as the world’s tallest Lego
tower by Guinness World Records.
Shipping containers are getting more mainstream in building relatively cheap but
luxurious accommodation. For example in Finland they are building student apartments
out of used containers. In China they have a luxurious container village.

29
6. CONTAINER HOUSES – THE NEXT
BIG AMERICAN DREAM
The container housing industry is becoming mainstream as it is now a sub category of
affordable housing. Building a home out of shipping containers enables also medium
income consumers to hire an architect in a very reasonable price. Thereby, container
homes might be the next American dream.

30
Companies have also noticed the advantages of container housing. For instance Star-
bucks has already installed its container coffee shops in Seattle and London. Container
homes also come with a pretty nice design.
One of the benefits of shipping containers is their modularity. They are made as same
sized and designed to be piled up and fit optimally in cargo ships. Containers are like
Lego blocks. You can pile them up and thereby even create a multiple floor or a multi-
ple wing mansion.
Shipping containers are also designed to be able to resist rough weather in seas.
Thereby they are made of really durable and tough material that ensure the safety of a

31
container home. In addition, the material is really simple to modify. Cutting, reforming
and other modifications are done by welding which is a simple and cheap procedure.
Building a nice patio with a jacuzzi is suddenly affordable.
Also one great thing about containers is that they are available in all over the world
and their transportation is extremely convenient. Containers are designed to fit in a
standard shipping cargo leaving no blank space in the ships. Because of the new main-
stream use of containers, their weight-to-value ratio is to increase.
The benefits of container homes have been recognized worldwide. For instance, in
Finland, container housing is becoming a great solution for offering affordable student

32
homes. Also the world's hotel industry is going wild of containers as new companies
offering transportable accommodation solutions emerge. Container hotels are also in a
luxury top-end category in the hotel industry.
China is a major exporter of shipping containers and Shanghai Metal Corporation is
one the know players.
Sources: [22-30]

33
7. THE WORLD’S BIGGEST MOBILE
FRIDGE SAILED IN PARIS
The Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Notre Dame, Versailles, Moulin Rouge, those are the places
to visit in Paris. In 2009, the city of love also became famous of a creative marketing
campaign.
The Korean electronics company LG set up a creative marketing campaign for their
ecological fridge. The company, one of South Korea’s largest chaebols, turned a 70 me-
ter container ship into the world’s biggest fridge that sailed up the Seine from Le Havre
to Paris between June 22 and June 25. The vessel transported cooking ingredients that
the famous 3-star Michelin chef Alain Passard cooked for visiting journalists.

34
LG’s ecological fridge uses a patented “Linear Compressor” technology that is to
lower energy consumption up to 20 percent compared to other conventional fridges. The
new fridge technology has also received an A+ rating from the EU.
Refrigerated containers, or reefer containers, are mainly used for shipping tempera-
ture sensitive products even with extremely long distances. Reefer container technology
enabled for instance the shipping of Camel Milk from the United Arab Emirates to Eu-
rope.

35
As businesses are getting more aware of the benefits of refrigerated containers, new
uses for them are emerging. Reefer containers are basically tools that combine mobility
and cold chain. One can set up a temperature sensitive business and still vary
its location. For example, Atlanta’s Botanical Garden used a refrigerated container to set
up a mobile bio-secure research laboratory for their research on frogs in 2011. Reefer
containers are also convenient in, say, open-air events where organizers need to keep
their heavy loads of Red Bulls and Coca-Colas chilled all the time.
Like LG, Shanghai Metal Corporation‘s reefer containers also use environmentally
friendly and energy efficient technology that generate a really low CO2 footprint. We
also apply high standards in their quality assurance.
Sources: [31-35]

36
8. CONTAINER SHOPS – THE NEW
HOT TREND IN MODERN RETAIL-
ING!
Conventional retailing includes setting up a store in a fixed location and paying the rent
for the use of the real estate. Modern retailing on the other hand, is mobile, meaning that
instead of waiting for the customers to come to you, you will be able to easily relocate
your business closer to your customers. This simple procedure is going mainstream and
it can only be done with shipping containers. Boxman Studios have listed some benefits
of container stores.

37
Wherever there is a container pop-up store there is always crowd, there is no ques-
tion about that. This phenomenon has been proven by various consumer brands includ-
ing Nike that “just did it” and designed a shipping container to reach its lacrosse mar-
ket, making 38 stops in 52 days across the U.S.
Another reason why container pop-up stores attract consumers is that they are
equipped with electricity generators that can be used to set up Wi-Fi hotspots. While
surfing online they can also admire ads on containers’ vertically extended walls and
perhaps scan your company’s QR code with WeChat.

38
What’s more, container pop-up stores are 100 % customizable. Containers come with
various kinds of door solutions, letting companies customize to pop-up stores according
to their brands.
Adidas also executed a successful pop-up campaign in 2012’s Boston Maraton where
it attracted many people among 27,000 runners. The German sports brand also showed
its creativity by bringing a shoe box shaped container store to Chicago’s Lollapalooza
music festival in 2010.

39
Especially clothing companies are going for pop-up retailing. Besides Nike and
Adidas, also Lacoste and Uniqlo have had their container shops to visit California and
New York.
Generator enabled and refrigerated containers have also made it possible for restau-
rant businesses to step in the pop-up business. During the construction of the new World
Trade Center in New York City, the fast food chain Subway offered the workers an ex-
clusive Subway store consisting of three stacked containers moved higher and higher up
the building as the building grew. Starbucks has also opened some innovative drive-thru
container stores across the U.S.
References [36-43]

40
9. CAN CONTAINER POP-UP SHOPS
CHALLENGE E-COMMERCE?
SEPTEMBER 1, 2014 SHANGHAI METAL CORPORATION
E-commerce enables new innovative retailers to a start a business with a relatively small
initial capital. As it is easy for new businesses to emerge and new products to be offered
with affordable prices, e-commerce can benefit the sellers, buyers and societies. Still,
the advantages of traditional retailing exist and, luckily, the cost-related disadvantages
might be diminished with the use of shipping containers.
The use of shipping containers in retail real estate can break most of the disad-
vantages related to traditional retailing. By default traditional retailing suffers from high

41
fixed costs, long leases, expensive rates and inflexible terms to name but a few. Also, as
setting up a store takes forever, the costs tend to add up. Even though shipping contain-
ers are not originally designed to be used as real estate, they still are the most optimal
solution.
Shipping containers are designed to be shipped in extreme weather conditions in
rough seas. Therefore they offer the best protection towards any weather, even against
hurricanes. They are built of durable material and are sized according to international
standards. Therefore they are also modular and stackable allowing retailers to compile a
retail center according to her own taste in a very short time period. Even a shopping
mall can be built in three to four months from scratch. Containers are also affordable,
say, a used container may be sold by about US$1000.

42
E-commerce cannot fight back traditional commerce in certain areas. Security issues
are always on top when establishing an online store. Possible credit card frauds might
scare the customers away which forces businesses to invest a lot of money to buy ex-
pensive information security services and develop a secure payment infrastructure. Also
it is very likely that an online retailer might suffer major goodwill losses as customers
become disappointed when the received products do not match with the products
viewed online.
Containers shops as a form of traditional commerce enable face-to-face communica-
tion with customers and thereby better possibilities to create mutual trust between
sellers and buyers. It will also be possible for sellers to present more expensive alterna-
tives and thereby collect bigger profits. Container shops are not also tied to a fixed loca-
tion but can be relocated many times.

43
By default, container shops cannot get to the same cost category with e-commerce.
Nevertheless, in a long term even maintaining an online store raises its maintenance
costs and online retailers will be forced to start reaching for the advantages gained only
via traditional commerce. The good thing is that, one is not forced to choose only one
option. One can have them both, and create a combined retail infrastructure that has all
the advantages of both online and offline retailing.
The suggested hybrid solution can only be implemented with shipping contain-
ers. Shanghai Metal Corporation has a long experience in offering shipping containers
for the use of housing, hotels and offices.
References: [29, 44-51]

44
10. SHIPPING CONTAINER SWIM-
MING POOLS!
As the readers of our former articles have seen, shipping containers have others ways of
use besides logistics. Containers are not only convenient in student housing, hotel in-
dustry, affordable housing and retail, they also work as nice swimming pools.
A traditional swimming pool’s installation costs might be between US$6000 and
$50,000 not to mention excavation and decking costs. A shipping container, on the oth-
er hand, can be purchased with approximately $2000. The additional costs consists of

45
making the pool water proof by lining the interior with a water-proof lining or welding
and painting the interior. Also, regular pool filters, pumps and fixtures should be fitted
to the container as well.
Shipping container pools have attracted crowd in many public events. For instance
the fashion brand Tommy Hilfiger introduced a container swimming pool in Berlin’s
Bread and Butter fashion trade show in 2011. Also the city of New York has arranged
some container pool parties in Manhattan.
Also consumers have engaged into container pools. For instance, Stefan Beese, an
experimental architect who used a 30 cubic cargo container to turn his New Orlean’s

46
backyard into a luxurious swimming zone. What’s more, he only needed about $5,000
to $7,000 to do that.
If you are looking for an inexpensive swimming pool solution you might want to
consider using a shipping container. Shanghai Metal Corporation has been a reliable
provider of shipping containers for years. SMC’s open top containers can become excel-
lent swimming pools. For winter swimmers, we also offer refrigerated containers.
References: [52]

47
11. BATHING MADE MOBILE WITH
CONTAINER SAUNAS
There are a number of ways how to reuse used shipping containers. Besides houses,
offices, hotel, art galleries, stores and pools, shipping containers can be now used as
saunas. A Canadian design studio Castor has designed the first container sauna.
The 8 ft container is a fully-operational sauna box that uses wood for heating and solar
energy for lighting. The mobile sauna also comes with an integrated iPod stereo and an

48
electric guitar hook-up. Also additional creature comforts such as a magnetic truck light,
castor stool, and bronze antlers are included.
Sauna is originally a Finnish invention and is deeply rooted into the nation’s way of life.
The Finnish history of using sauna for bathing and staying healthy spans over two thou-
sand years. The Finns have a sauna in every house but they also place saunas in the lake
or seaside of their summer cottages. Finns have formerly used portable saunas especial-
ly in military. Those saunas are most commonly made of tents.

49
The Finnish Sauna Society has made a list of sauna’s health benefits. Taking a sauna
bath is studied to enhance sleep quality and memory, to lower blood pressure, increase
energy levels and to cause good mood just to name but a few.

50
According to an article of Gizmag, Castor has sold about 10 units. The Sauna Box is
priced really high-end with US 41,000 price tag. It is still unclear when the Canadian
company will get competitors.
References: [53-58]

51
12. THE SOLUTION FOR OVER-
CROWDED PRISONS – CONTAINER
JAILS
Shipping containers are made to be durable. Because of their strength they are also an
ideal building material that can be used to build safe homes. Actually, the safety level of
shipping containers is so high that they can be used also to build prisons.

52
In Australia’s Victoria, the local government is establishing a prison system made out of
containers. The plan is to set up 50 containers for a hundred prisoners until Christmas.
Victoria is an area of overcrowded prisons, and therefore containers bring an excellent
solution for the problem. Australia is also planning to apply the same solution in other
areas as well.
Victoria’s prisons are meant for medium-security prisoners. The next question could be,
taken the fact that shipping containers are as they are, how can one increase their securi-
ty level? Modifying the prisons environment would be the only option. Setting up an
Alcatraz style prison in the middle of an area of water area would work. That is actually
something that can be implemented with containers.
The idea of floating container recreation centers is being implemented in Europe. The
city of London is planning to construct a village of shipping containers on the River
Thames. The 15-acre site would have 50 homes, cafes, bars and restaurants. They have
also implemented some smaller scale projects in the Netherlands.

53
Whether it is container apartments or just tools for shipping goods, Shanghai Metal
Corporation can offer the solution. SMC’s shipping containers that can be used accord-
ing to clients’ preferences. To know more about SMC containers, please visit the com-
pany website.
References: [59-66]

54
13. PARTY IN A BOX! GOING WILD
IN CONTAINER NIGHT CLUBS!
Shipping Containers are designed to transport freight in rough weather conditions for
long distances. They are also all built according one international standard, so that the
loading of container ships can be optimized. Later on, their structure inspired architects
to design modular houses and now containers are used also e.g. as hotels, stores and
offices. Now they are also building night clubs out of containers.

55
Shipping containers have strong foundations on each of four corners. The founda-
tions enable stacking and piling them into huge real estate complexes. A Singaporean
company Venue VBox is using this feature to build mobile discotheques out of contain-
ers.
The company’s “Night Box” pop-up nightclub is a container systems that can hold
500 people. Such systems are applied also in other countries. For instance New Orleans’
2009 and 2010 Voodoo Music experience event has had VIP lounges made of shipping
containers. It has been more common for businesses to open a temporary bar for crowd-
ed events by using a single container. Used containers cost between US 1000 and 2000.
The price, mobility and overall attractiveness makes containers a great solution for ar-
ranging mobile parties.
References: [29, 67-68]

56
14. REEFER CONTAINERS – THE
BEST TOOL FOR SHIPPING PEN-
GUINS!
People are shipping some strange things these days. A British news service Metro lists
10 weirdest items that people have ever shipped. The list includes a dead cat, a live
hamster and a hot shepherd’s pie. The Denizen magazine writes about a person who
shipped Heinz ketchup from the United States to Singapore. FedEx has also gathered a
list of the weirdest items they have ever shipped. Some items are temperature sensitive a
therefore require a refrigerated shipping container. What could be a good example of
such an item? Well, penguins!

57
The FedEx Corporation actually shipped nineteen African blackfoot penguins that
were saved from the Hurricane Katrina in 2006. The penguins traveled with two sea
otters in airfreight back to New Orleans from California where they spent their eight-
month refuge. The chartered flight of US$100, 000 was donated by FedEx and the pen-
guins had a nice reception with a purple mat waiting them at the airport.
Unlike African penguins, antarctic penguins live in very extreme conditions and can
survive a cold breezy weather. For example Emperor Penguins are one of the most
warm-blooded animals on the planet enabling them to breed even in low temperatures
of -30°C (-22°F) and while putting up with winds of 200 kmh (125mph) and more. The
emperor penguins can maintain a 38°C degree body temperature mostly by huddling
with other penguin buddies in a flock.

58
Besides an international shipping permission, shipping temperature sensitive items
such as penguins, otters or camel milk, one needs are frigerated shipping container.
Shanghai Metal Corporation has a long experience in supplying high-quality reefer con-
tainers. In SMC only sells environmentally friendly reefer containers that have a low
Co2 footprint. Our containers can maintain a temperature of -35°C at the lowest. More
information about our refrigerated containers can be found in SMC website.
References: [69-72]

59
15.THE CURE THAT LOWERS
AGRESSION CAUSED BY HIGH
TEMPERATURES
Many philosophers, writers and narrators have for ages shared a common belief that hot
temperatures increase violence and aggression. Even in the English language we use
expressions such as “hot tempered” or “hot headed” to describe the character of an ag-
gressive person. Scientists have also been interested in this connection for years, and
through various studies, they have also found evidence for the correlation.
Many laboratory, field, correlational and archival studies give a unanimous result:
hot temperature causes violent crimes. The emphasis is on the word violent, because
contradictional studies show that crimes also do occur in lower temperatures but they
are most commonly non-violent. Also archival studies show that when the weather is
hot e.g. a baseball player is more likely to hit the pitcher with a bat.

60
Still, the correlation between high temperature and violence is not flawless. For in-
stance, what if everybody stayed at home on a hot day? Wouldn’t that prevent at least
some occurrences of violence? Time is also a critical factor in this sense. Most of the
violent crimes occur during the time when masses of people are most likely to engage in
activities at the same time. In general, when a third variable changes the correlation be-
tween two variables so remarkably, we are talking about the Simpson paradox. In this
case time changes the situation so that the relation between temperature and violence
needs some modification.
Scientists have redefined the correlation and state that when the temperature rises
above an uncomfortable level, the probability for aggression and violence rises as well.
Therefore it is really important to ensure that especially public places such as
schools, shopping malls and even prisons have an enhanced air conditioning system. A
research also shows that drinking cold beverages will decrease the probability of be-
coming angry..

61
Especially today, during the times of increased global warming, it is really important
for countries and cities to keep their citizens cool. Today when we discuss global warm-
ing, the emphasis seems to be on natural disasters or effects on agriculture. What we are
very likely to forget that because global warming raises temperatures, the crime rates
will also increase. Most global warming experts predict that if temperatures rise be-
tween 2°F and 8°F (1.1°C to 4.4°C) the rates of violent assaults will also increase by
approximately 80,000 annually.
A new business idea for areas suffering from global warming (which by the way
means everywhere on the planet) is to establish pop-up cooling rooms, places where
temperature is substantially low and where people can spend a short time to cool down.
This can be easily implemented with refrigerated shipping containers whose tempera-
ture can decrease drastically (on extreme even below zero). In order to decrease crime
rates and increase public safety we really need to keep even the common people cool
and prevent their blood from boiling.

62
Shanghai Metal Corporation is an experienced supplier of high quality refrigerated
containers that are equipped with fresh air conditioning system and have a low Co2
footprint. More details about our reefer containers can be found in SMC website
(www.smccontainer.com).
References: [73 – 81]

63
16. SHIPPING CONTAINER BUNKERS
– THE CURE FOR NATURAL DISAS-
TERS AND TERRORISM?
Due to their widely applicable physical features, shipping containers have become a
good alternative for affordable housing, mobile retail and building hotels just to name
but a few. Shipping containers can also be used as protective shelters for natural disas-
ters or terrorist attacks.

64
There are a lot of options for choosing appropriate material for building a safe bun-
ker. Even though shipping container is not possibly the best alternative, due to its wide
availability and cheap price, for average consumers it is perhaps the only option. A used
shipping container can be purchased with approximately US$ 2000. The United States
use over a million shipping containers annually to import products from abroad but be-
cause it is expensive to ship them back, most of them stay in the US. According to some
estimates there are over 700,000 used shipping containers laying in US ports waiting for
new use.
Even though containers’ walls are designed to resist rough weather even in extreme
conditions, most people like to bury their container bases in order to make it invisible.
Still, one needs to take into consideration that the containers’ steel roofs are not made to
last heavy loads. Containers are designed to lie on their four strong corners. The four
corners also enable stacking various layers of containers. So therefore, after digging a
hole for the container one should design a frame that supports adding a gabion basket on
the container. The gabion basket filled with rocks will protect the container. See original
articles for more detail.

65
Where the containers’ exterior surrounding has some limitations, the interior design
is basically free for users’ own imagination. Today some containers come with an elec-
tric generator and bathroom solutions making the containers livable apartments.
Shanghai Metal Corporation has a long experience in offering high quality containers
for shipping and housing. For more details of our containers and container houses,
please see SMC’s website.
References: [158 - 165]

66
17. CONTAINER GREENHOUSES –
THE URBAN ORGANIC HEAVEN
What if you wanted to eat locally produced and reasonably priced fresh organic fruits
and vegetables during cold winter? Now it is possible, thanks to shipping containers.
Companies such as Freight Farms and PodPonics have introduced a new business
model that converts second hand shipping containers into high-quality greenhouses that

67
can be relocated almost everywhere. Every shipping container is manufactured accord-
ing to ISO standards and they are also designed to be stacked into multiple layers. This
enables the establishment of even bigger greenhouse complexes.
One major advantage of container farms is that now farms can be located closer to
the places where the food will be eaten. Thereby, say, restaurants can minimize their
shipping costs and still offer their customers fresh and high quality food. Also the tech-
nology associated with the business ensures a safe plantation of fruits, herbs and vege-
tables.

68
Damien Chivialle‘s model of urban farm units (UFU) has a system that uses live
fishes and to to fertilize and recycle the farms water. Every container has a fish tank
whose water flows in a closed circuit. The fish feces are broke into pieces that are uti-
lized as fertilizers. The system also produces some methane for the farms secondary
energy source.
Also PodPonics’ solution is said to use 90 % less water because the water is recy-
cled. The roots grow in water, not in soil. This solution minimizes the use of fertilizers
and enables the adding of nutrients only as needed. PodPonics’ and Freight Farms con-
trol systems can both be operated with a smart phone.

69
The use of shipping containers as green houses seems to enhance the nutritional val-
ues of vegetables, herbs and fruits. It also enables companies to produce them closer to
the people who end up eating them. Because of a really low Co2 footprint and lack of
pesticides, urban farms create ultimate food safety. Now this food safety can also be
enjoyed by average consumers because the cost of maintenance of urban farms seem to
be feasible. For example PodPonics’ containers cost US 1800 to 2800 depending on
their condition.
In order to establish an urban farm, shipping containers need to be pur-
chased. Shanghai Metal Corporation is a reliable provider of internationally standard-

70
ized shipping containers. More information can be found on SMC website
(http://www.smccontainer.com).

71
18. BETTER EDUCATION OBTAINED
IN CONTAINER SCHOOLS
Today shipping containers are used to build apartments, hotels, stores and saunas to
name but a few. But why does it make sense to build schools out of containers?
The first reason is that especially old wooden school buildings are likely to have
mold issues that may cause severe health risks. For example an article of a Finnish sci-
ence magazine Tiede states that every second school in Finland has mold issues. Stu-
dents are therefore either forced to stay in their mold school or move to another school.

72
Container schools could be installed in relatively short time and with relatively low
costs.
The second reason can be studied from Samsung. In 2012, the South Korean elec-
tronics chaebol established a shipping container school in the South African village of
Phomolong as a part of its corporate-social responsibility program. The school offers its
21 students premium education facilities with solar powered electricity system and
notebooks, an Internet connection and Samsung Galaxy tablets.
In Orange County California, creative architects had an over three month project of
expanding the Waldorf School in Costa Mesa by using shipping containers. It took 99
days to build four buildings out of 32 shipping containers. The eco-friendly construction
project cost two million US dollars which was estimated of being 10-20 percent cheaper
than an “old-school” building project. Also it would have most likely taken more time
than 99 days to finish by using other material than shipping containers.

73
There are many types of internationally standardized shipping containers. Some have
an open top and some can be opened from the sides. Thereby it gives designers limitless
opportunities to develop mobile education facilities. In order to solve mold related prob-
lems or take education to less developed areas, governments, nonprofit organizations
and companies’ CSR managers should look for containerized education solutions.
Shanghai Metal Corporation is a proud provider of shipping containers. The wide
variety of container products can be seen in our website http://www.smccontainer.com.

74
19. SHAKESPEARE REBORN IN
CONTAINER THEATERS
We cannot all be masters, nor all masters cannot be truly follow’d. -
a Quotation from Shakespeare’s Othello
The modularity of shipping containers enables creative architects to design beauti-
ful container homes and hotels. Open top containers can be turned into swimming pools.
Open side containers can become excellent theaters.
In 2013 a local architecture studio O+A designed the architectural setting of the
20th Over het IJ Festival and transformed Amsterdam’s shipyard into a huge restaurant

75
area with theatrical stages. The building of the “container city” took four days, and an-
other two days to take down, lasting only two weeks in between.
Shipping containers theaters have also been used in Miami. In 2012, the actors of
Microteatro por Dinero performed in 15 minute short dramas for 15 people six times a
night in a shipping container. The concept of “por dinero performance” (in English for
money) has its roots in Madrid where local actors turned an old bordello into a commer-
cial mini theater and spread the word in social media.

76
Besides drama, shipping containers have also been used as movie theaters. Container
mini theaters showed short films in New York in 2011. The event was a part of USA
Network’s Character Project and it also was supported by the director of the Alien Sa-
ga, Ridley Scott. Audience was placed in 18-seat air conditioned screening pods to
watch the shorts. The tour also took place in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago.
It is yet unclear when does this “Broadway in a box” concept spread globally and go
mainstream. Still, because of these events, mobile mini theaters will gain popularity in
cinema and drama industries.

77
Whenever there is a need for shipping containers, one can always contact Shanghai
Metal Corporation. SMC’s wide collection of shipping containers can help companies
to pack great entertainment in a box. For more information about our shipping contain-
ers, please visit the SMC website (http://www.smccontainer.com).

78
20. COCA COLA SAVES LIVES WITH
SHIPPING CONTAINERS!
One of the world’s most valuable brands Coca-Cola is utilizing shipping containers in
its corporate social responsibility program in developing countries within the bottom-of-
the-pyramid (BoP) category. Together with Deka R&D and other major investors in-
cluding UPS and IBM, the beverage company is installing container kiosks that will
provide drinkable water for three billion people in the world that suffer from the lack of
it.

79
These Ekocenters are to provide purified water for communities that have a limited
access to safe drinking water. The modularly designed kiosk is made out of a 20 ft ship-
ping container. The container is empowered with Slingshot technology that is responsi-
ble for the purification of water.
The kiosk is also meant to generate entrepreneurship in developing countries, espe-
cially among women. Along with these kiosks Coca-Cola has also launched
their 5by20 program that aims to generate 5 million women entrepreneurs by the year
2020.
As discussed in our previous article about container shops, setting a container kiosk
is a considerable business also in developed countries. Coca-Cola has redeveloped the
concept and is now using the Ekocenters for offering locally tailored mix of products,

80
services and resources that also include sustainable energy, wireless communications,
refrigerated vaccination storage, health education, and other functionality to jump-start
entrepreneurship opportunities and community development.
This CSR project begun in 2013 as Coca-Cola set up its first Ekocenter in South Af-
rica. The company aims to install 1,500 to 2,000 Ekocenters by 2015 in Africa, Asia and
the Latin and North America.
As shipping containers gain more ways of use, Shanghai Metal Corporation is also
becoming happier in offering international customers high-quality standardized ship-
ping containers. For details about the large variety of products, please visit
SMC website.

81
21. SHIPPING CONTAINER ARCHI-
TECTURE – ONE OF THOSE ACCI-
DENTAL INNOVATIONS
There is one factor that is common to shipping container houses, Coca-Cola, Play-
Doh and corn flakes. Just like a falling apple whose hit made sir Isaac Newton discover
his laws of physics, all of these products were also discovered unintentionally. For in-
stance Coca-Cola was meant to be a medical remedy for headaches, but as we all know,
the pharmacist John Pemberton‘s chemical experiment in 1886 became another sort of
refreshment.

82
In today’s world’s constant pressure towards innovation, the most valuable discover-
ies can simply be found by accident, experiment or even emotion. For example potato
chips were invented in 1853 by an angry chef George Crum who became so sick of cus-
tomers complaining about his fried potatoes that he prepared them fried slices instead.
Surprisingly the customers did like the new dish and the rest is history.
Play-Doh was discovered in 1955 by Joseph and Noah McVicker who attempted to
make an ingredient for cleaning wallpapers. A year later a toy manufacturer Rainbow
Crafts started marketing the product and since then, the toy with a secret recipe has sold
over 700 million US dollars.

83
Corn Flakes were invented by accident when the Kellog brothers John and Will acci-
dentally left a pot of boiled wheat grain on the stove for several days. The mixture
turned moldy but the product that emerged was dry and thick. Next they tried it with
corn so corn flakes were created.
Shipping containers were invented and patented by Malcolm McLean, a trucker who
was tired of the slow process of loading cargo in wooden crates. His invention really
helped industries to save shipping costs. In 1956, loose cargo cost $5.86 per ton to load,
but the use of ISO shipping containers lowered the costs down to 0.16 cents.

84
In 1987 Philip C. Clark saw shipping containers from another perspective and filed
them a US patent for converting them into habitable building. He has once said that
“Shipping containers can be so much more; they could be houses, schools, entire cit-
ies!”. Later on, many companies have implemented this idea.

85
22. WHAT IF APPLE WAS STARTED IN
A SHIPPING CONTAINER?
On April 1, 1976, the two biggest Steves in the world’s history, Jobs and Wozniak,
started a company called Apple that has had a major impact in our lives. Like many
companies before and after them, the visionaire and the tech-guru started their business
from a garage.
Apple’s business started to gain momentum when an American investor with Finnish
family roots, Mike Markkula offered his financial capital and expertise on January the
first 1977. On April the same year, the company released its first masterpiece,
the Apple II personal computer that turned out be a ticket from the garage office.

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The next wave of success had to be waited until 1984 and the publishing of
the Macintosh. Apple had brought to the market the first computer with a graphical
user interface (GUI) already in 1983. But because the price of the computer
called Lisa was too high for consumers, Macintosh had to be the solution. Macintosh’s
ground breaking TV commercial, directed by Ridley Scott, was aired during the third
quarter of Super Bowl XVIII on January 22, 1984.
Due to conflicts with the board of directors, Jobs was fired in 1985. According to his
speech in the university of Stanford in 2005, getting fired from Apple was one of the
best things ever happened to him. In 1996 Apple bought NeXt, the company founded by
Jobs, and then began the era of iMacs, iPods, iPhones and iPads. In the beginning of
September 2014, we all witnessed the publish of the new iPhone 6and the Apple
Watch.

87
Many companies after and before Apple have started their business operations from a
garage. The list is long and it includes companies such as Disney, Hewlett-
Packard, Harley-Davidson, Google, Amazon and Mattel to name but a few. Today’s
start-ups, or, the multinational corporation of tomorrow have another choice besides a
garage, shipping containers.
Shipping containers are a modular building material that is also durable and feasibly
priced. Because of their physical properties, start-up business managers are able to de-
sign customized offices.

88
23. AN ANTARCTIC PREFAB SHOWS
THE TRUE POTENTIAL OF SHIPPING
CONTAINERS
India’s National Center for Antarctic and Ocean Research is situated in northeast Ant-
arctica. The Bharati Indian Polar Station is built on a 27,000 square feet area out of 134
shipping containers. The research center’s residential quarters shows almost everything
that can be built out of shipping containers including a hotel of 24 single and double
bedrooms, kitchen, dining room, library, fitness room, offices, a lounge and an opera-
tional theater.

89
There are at least two reasons why the research complex was built by using shipping
containers. First, according to the Antarctic Treaty System, all the construction in the
Antarctica should not leave any trace to the environment. Shipping containers make it
possible to disassemble and remove the building without causing any environmental
impact.
Second, due to shipping containers’ physical properties and their durability, they are
an excellent building material for extreme weather conditions. Shipping containers are
designed to be shipped even in a rough weather in the world’s seas. Therefore they can
even handle the wind gusts of 200 mph and the temperatures of -40 C of the Antarctica.
The shipping container complex was prefabricated in Germany and shipped to Ant-
werp and Cape Town. In Antarctica the research center was able to be assembled quick-
ly. The facade of the center was designed to forestall the buildups of snow drifts.

90
Thanks to the German company Bof Architekten, the center can accommodate 47 re-
searchers during summers and 24 during winters. The energy of the center is provid-
ed by a Combined Heat and Power Unit (CHP) which is powered by stockpiles of kero-
sene. There are actually a total of three CHP units on site, so as to ensure that an un-
timely mechanical failure does not leave the residents in dire straits.

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24. SHIPPING CONTAINER HOSPI-
TALS – THE FUTURE OF SAVING
LIVES
Shipping containers can be transformed into mobile hospitals just like they can be trans-
formed into offices, homes, hotels, theaters, nightclubs, shelters, stores or swimming
pools. Because of their modularity and availability, shipping container hospitals can
become true life savers in the future.

92
Container hospitals have been already set up all over the world. For instance, con-
tainer clinics were needed when a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti in 2010 and a
large part of the Grace Children’s hospital in the capital Port-au-Prince was demolished.
Help was offered by a Massachusetts based company Containers2Clinic that send their
8 X 20 feet container to the island to compensate the great infrastructural loss of the
local hospital.
The first shipping container clinics were invented by Michael Wawrzewski who de-
signed the concept of Clinics in a Can in 2005. Wawrzewski was also nominated as
the AAPA‘s 2005 Physician Assistant of the year for his work in developing quality,
cost-effective and accessible health-care. His first clinic was assembled in Kansas and
shipped to Haiti on July 2005.

93
An example of combining health care and great design is shown by an Indonesian
firm DPavilion Architects that has utilized the country’s rich resource base of shipping
containers and built The Contertainer, a shipping container health clinic and a library in
the island of Jawa. The shipping container complex is meant to provide better quality of
life for those who have little money.
Shipping containers are built according to international ISO standards and designed
to be stacked and piled up in a container ship. They have also made from durable steel
in order enhance their use time and to be able to handle rough weather. As the example
of The Contertainer shows, even the exterior design of the mobile clinics is not limited
the original appearance of containers.
Container hospitals are the future of health care. For people in areas of low income
and weak availability of health care services, setting up a pop-up clinic can be a life
saver. Even in urban areas or peripheries patients do not necessarily have to be trans-
ported long distances in an ambulance because these pop-up hospitals can be placed
almost anywhere. For nonprofits such as UNICEF or Red Cross this solution is a must.
Investing in setting up a container clinic to underdeveloped areas is a great way for
businesses to show their corporate social responsibility.

94
Shipping containers can be purchased from Shanghai Metal Corporation. SMC has a
large variety of shipping containers and we are also specialized shipping container pre-
fabricated construction projects.

95
25. PLACES TO FALL HIGH AND
STAY ALIVE
“Most important thing in life is learning how to fall.”
― Jeannette Walls, Half Broke Horses
The concepts of falling from high places and staying alive together form a fascinating
combination. Danger and the sensation of flying cause adrenaline spikes that are unim-
aginable and can be described by only those who have the experience. Here are some
stories and places where to get that experience.

96
The biggest jump of history was done by Felix Baumgartner who jumped from a bal-
loon 128,000 above ground. The highest ever free fall took him 10 minutes to descend.
Only the last few thousand feet were negotiated by parachute. Baumgartner also became
the first skydiver to go faster than the speed of sound.
Baumgartner has also base jumped into 673-foot Mamet Cave in Croatia’s Velebit
National Park. He successfully free fell and parachuted into the dark interior for a safe
landing on the rugged cave floor. The jump lasting only seconds, required perfect tim-
ing to survive.

97
The world’s highest bungee jump can be done in China’s Macau. A jump from the
764 feet tall A.J. Hacket Tower takes you four to five seconds to land. During that time
jumpers need to tolerate the speed of 124 mph. The great thing is that one can do it at
night admire beautiful scenery and lights coming from the city’s casinos.
For beginners one good place for trying small-scale freefalls could be the world’s
tallest shipping container building in Zurich. The Swiss bag company Freitag has store
made out of 17 shipping containers that elevate the building to 85 feet.

98
Shipping containers are modular and theoretically can be piled as high as possi-
ble. Piling is enabled by their strong foundations in all of the corners. Theoretically
speaking there is not any limit of how tall container buildings can be. The only thing
stopping seems to be the limitation related to forklifts and cranes.
Shanghai Metal Corporation offers high-quality forklifts and a large variety of ship-
ping containers. The containers can be used in shipping goods or in construction pro-
jects.

99
26. SHIPPING CONTAINERS – THE
WORLD’S MOST SUSTAINABLE
RESTAURANTS
Shipping containers are a perfect solution for setting up a pop-up restaurant. As we al-
ready covered in our blog about container stores, container restaurants can be installed
almost everywhere and they are very likely to gather a lot of crowd. Some very well
know companies have already set up a mobile restaurant.

100
In 2010, the sandwich company Subway had a shipping container restaurant on top
of the five story Freedom Tower in New York. Subway established the restaurant for
the construction workers who would otherwise have needed 45 minutes to get down
from the construction. The containers had the Subway logo on a yellow background and
the flag of the USA that represented the recovering from 9/11 and the resurrection of
the American Dream.
Shipping containers are also a form of sustainable building and offer an eco-friendly
and a low-cost solution for starting restaurants. One of the world’s best coffee
shops, Starbucks, has also used shipping containers and built such an eco-friendly
drive-thru cafe in Seattle. Alongside with shipping containers, the architecture also ena-
bles the collecting of rainwater and thereby lowering water consumption.
In 2011, the people of London, Moscow, New York, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Delhi,
Dubai and Sydney had a chance to enjoy traditional Singaporean food that was offered
form a shipping container restaurant. Thanks for shipping containers’ mobility
the Singapore Takeout were able to serve people in these cities within 12 months.

101
As a new business idea, shipping container restaurants are an ideal low-cost choice.
During these hard times in the economy, people who have always wanted start an own
restaurant, but feel the lack of enough capital seem to have found a solution.
Shanghai Metal Corporation has a wide variety of containers including 20 ft, 40 ft,
reefer containers and open top containers to name but a few.

102
27. WALKING ON THE STREETS OF
THE CITY OF CONTAINERS
A small community of businesses has established a city of shipping container restau-
rants, bars, stores and living spaces in the barrios of Cholula, only two hours from Mex-
ico City. The city of containers that is built out of used shipping containers is a great
center for shopping and entertainment.
The area of ‘Los Contenadores‘ comprises 50,000 square feet of shipping containers
and construction made out of other recyclable material such as bottle caps and plastic

103
tubing. The alleys and streets formed by containers are great places to stroll around and
enjoy the local style. There’s also plenty of outdoor space to sit around and hang out
and there are events and bands scheduled all the time.
Shipping containers are mostly used to import products from abroad and are very
seldom sent back. Thereby taking advantage abandoned and used shipping containers
are a great solution for affordable housing. Containers are also an excellent tool for set-
ting up pop-up retail stores, such as in the ‘ciudad de los contenadores‘.

104
The Container city is designed by Gabriel Esper Caram to combine both elegance
and sustainability. The harmony of the container’s bright colors and the city’s live mu-
sic ensure an unforgettable experience for visitors.
Shipping containers can be used in many circumstances. As the City of Containers goes
to show even luxurious stores, restaurants, night clubs, hotels or even homes can be
built by using this durable and highly available material.

105
28. CONTAINER SUMMER PAVIL-
IONS – LUXURY FOR THE MODEST
Have you ever dreamed about having a summer cottage of your own? Are you consider-
ing to buy one or perhaps to build it yourself? Building a vacation house according to
one’s own design sounds fantastic, but you might be worried about the costs or con-
fused about the choice of material. Luckily, there is a solution – shipping containers!
Besides shipping goods, shipping containers are also suitable for building beauti-
ful homes in low cost. Actually, the price of an individual 40 ft or 20ft shipping con-
tainer starts from US 2000. There are at least two reasons why the price is that low.

106
First, the manufacturing process is standardized according to ISO regulations ena-
bling businesses to put containers into mass production. Second, there is a lot of over-
supply of containers. According to some statistics, nearly 10,000 units sink annually in
the world’s seas and thousands will be abandoned after their first use.
Building out of recycled shipping containers is as good as using totally new ones,
and it is also cheaper. Shipping containers are meant to last for ages and tolerate ex-
treme weather conditions in the oceans. Therefore besides low-cost, shipping contain-
ers are also durable and can be considered as a form of sustainable building. Containers
are so durable that they can even be converted into shelters for natural disasters.

107
What’s more, shipping containers come with unlimited design opportunities. The door
solutions of shipping containers come in many forms and open-top containers can be
transformed into swimming pools. Thanks to the pillars in their four corners, containers
can be piled into a complexes of your desire. There are great examples
of homes, hotels and stores that show container’s great architectural design. The con-
tainer city in Mexico is known also for its visual design.
Inspiration for building an own container summer pavilion can be found in the container
summer house competition organized by AC-CA. The pictures of this article include
representatives of the best contestant of the competition.
References: [29, 166 – 168]

108
29. LAS VEGAS CONTAINER HOTELS
– VIRTUES IN THE CITY OF SINS
The Las Vegas design studio M-rad‘s design of the extreme sports park puts recycled
containers into reuse and takes a full advantage of them. The 42-acre container complex
built near the Las Vegas strip combines accommodation, commercialism and food pro-
duction.

109
The sports park has versatile options for recreation. The shallow lake in the middle of
the park and its beaches enable people to do surfing or engage in other physical activi-
ties. There are also motocross tracks and skate parks among many sports venues.
Visitors of the park can stay at luxurious container hotel towers that offer a 180 de-
gree view on the park site. The container construction site consists of three container
towers of which two belong to the hotel. The third one is a production facility for local
organic food. Harvesting is done with the help of wind and solar energy that along with
natural ventilation meet 80 percent of the parks energy production.

110
Shipping containers are a sustainable and durable building material whose use is
growing more and more mainstream. What’s more, due to their incredibly high availa-
bility, they would otherwise become industrial waste. Therefore, in order to prevent
environmental disorder, the use of recycled shipping containers in building
homes, hotels, offices, schools, hospitals or recreational facilities, is today’s eco-
friendly architectural solution.

111
30. CRUISE SHIPS RESTING IN CON-
TAINER HAVEN
A new application for shipping containers was invented as the design compa-
nies Hombre de Piedra and buró4 built a cruise terminal out of shipping containers in
the port of Seville in 2013. The container terminal is to let the passengers of the city’s
river cruises to get on and off the ships.
They only needed 45 days in total to finish the project. Installing 23 shipping con-
tainers in a 500 square meter area took only two weeks. Therefore the installation costs
were not high just like the terminal’s energy production costs. The terminal is naturally

112
ventilated and it can be easily moved if necessary. The buildings’ bioclimatic solutions
also ensure that it does not get hot in the terminal during Seville’s hot summers.
What’s more, the cruise terminal is designed to fit in the surrounding environment
giving this piece of cargotecture a natural touch. A dialogue with the urban environment
was an important objective for the project and thereby shipping containers were an ob-
vious choice for the building material.
The city of Seville wanted a terminal that was able to handle ships with varying
number of passengers sailing on the river Guadalquivir. Thanks to the use of shipping

113
containers, the cruise terminal is also extendable allowing the agile installation of new
docking pods.
In prefabricated architecture the present trends is to use shipping containers because
they offer various benefits with only limited costs. Container architecture, i.e., cargotec-
ture is a big part of today’s sustainable architecture industry. There will be more homes,
hotels etc. that will be built on this super building material. Like the cruise terminal in
Seville, other cargotectural innovations will emerge.
References [172 -174]

114
31. CONTAINER ARCHITECTURE – A
DIALOGUE WITH NATURE
Shipping containers are superior building material that enables people to build safe,
durable and environmentally friendly homes with a relatively small capital. Thanks to
strong pillars in their four corners, shipping containers can be piled into high complex-
es. One aspect that has not gained that much attention is that shipping containers can be
easily adjusted with their natural surroundings.
Shipping container architecture tries to use containers as wisely as possible in order
to minimize users’ costs also after the installation process. Usually shipping container

115
buildings are equipped with solar panels enabling the utilization of sustainable and
green energy. For instance the Coca-Cola Company has installed solar-powered kiosks
to many developing countries.
Shipping containers are not only modular but also adjustable. The material sets only
a limited amount of limitations for designers and architects. Shipping containers can
have various door solutions. Open-top containers can even be used to create swimming
pools.

116
Because of the simple steel structure of shipping containers, only welding is needed
to modify their structure. Because shipping containers are designed to carry heavy loads
only on their corner pillars, roofing needs to be done with special care. You can read
some tips about roofing for container shelters here.
The pictures shown in this represent some architectural solutions that enable the
maximum use of shipping container housing. They are all naturally illuminated and nat-
urally ventilated what brings the maintenance costs down to minimum. (More details
can be found through references.)They can also be implemented to be resistant of heat,
just like Seville shipping container cruise terminal that does not get hot even during hot
summers.

117
Shipping container architecture is going mainstream as more people engage in build-
ing homes, hotels, offices, entertainment centers or even private summer residences out
of shipping containers.

118
32. CONTAINER GARAGES – THE
NEW HOMES OF HARLEYS
For many companies, such as Apple, HP and Mattel, their first offices were garages.
Today the new low-cost solution for office facilities is using shipping containers. Actu-
ally shipping containers narrow the gap between offices and garages even closer
as people are really starting to use containers as garages.
Shipping container construction in general is a trend for sustainable and environmen-
tally friendly architecture. If you consider the many advantages that shipping containers
posses, it is not impossible to imagine why so many people wish to build
their homes, summer houses or swimming pools using shipping containers.

119
Shipping containers are in many ways an ideal building material. They are designed
to resist harsh environments and therefore they can offer shelter even for natural disas-
ters. They are also designed to be modular what makes it easy to use additional con-
struction material to complete the buildings.
Shipping container construction is said to have lower labor costs compared to tradi-
tional construction. This can be explained by their simple steel structure that only re-
quires welding and cutting procedures to be modified. Building a garage for your Har-
ley-Davidson, BMW or Mercedes could not be more pleasant!
References: [29, 178 - 180]

120
33. SÃO PAULO PRESENTS MAR-
VELLOUS CONTAINER ART
The Brazilian city of São Paulo organized a design weekend during August 2014. Dur-
ing the weekend some fabulous pieces of design art were presented. One of the provid-
ers was a Brazilian design company Contain[it] that transforms pieces of shipping con-
tainers into beautifully designed furniture.

121
Among the works on display were chairs, lamps, vases, modular shelving, and a table
that are made out of shipping container scraps. The scraps are collected from the com-
pany’s shipping container projects that turn discarded containers into new spaces.
Shipping containers are becoming a mainstream construction material for green and
environmentally friendly construction projects. In general, the world is suffering from
oversupply of shipping containers because they are seldom reused for shipping.
Shipping container architecture solves the problem of used shipping containers turn-
ing into waste, but only partially. Shipping container houses, villas, hotels etc. need to
be modified through welding which creates waste of container scraps.

122
Contain[it] solves this problem by giving the container scraps a new life and there-
fore creating art with zero waste. The company’s mission is to create art that gives an
impact in an intelligent way. The company really gives a great contribution for the well-
being of nature.
Today sustainable architecture and shipping containers are becoming synonyms. No
other building material can be same time as durable and low-cost as shipping contain-
ers. Shipping container architecture enables designers to create environmentally friendly
construction that can easily be retrofitted to any natural environment.

123
34. IN CONTAINER HOMES WINTER
IS ALWAYS OUTSIDE
Shipping containers are a superior building material and the mainstream for affordable
housing. As a form of prefabricated construction, shipping containers houses can to
huge extent be built elsewhere than in their final destination. In order for shipping con-
tainers to become livable homes, they need a makeover including a proper insulation.
Shipping containers are usually described as an optimum construction material for
areas with relatively high temperatures. The reason is that there are well know tech-

124
niques on how make shipping container houses naturally ventilated. For instance
the shipping container cruise terminal in Seville is designed to resist high temperatures
during hot summers.
Shipping containers are also suitable for places where winters are long and cold, and
where it snows a lot. Originally shipping containers were designed to resist rough
weather in the seas during shipping and therefore shipping containers later became an
excellent building material. It seems that shipping container architecture was invented
like Coca-Cola – by accident.
There are examples of shipping container winter homes that are suitable for Northern
countries such as Northern USA, Canada, Finland and other Nordic countries. For in-

125
stance an American real estate agent Jeffrey White is transforming shipping containers
into affordable and eco-friendly homes for low-income families in Salt Lake City. Each
home is made out of two shipping containers, and the whole projects costs 120,000 dol-
lars including the land they sit on.

126
35. CONTAINER LIBRARIES – THE
LITTLE HELPERS OF INSPIRATION-
AL EDUCATION
A library made out of shipping containers in gaining popularity among the youth in the
Netherlands. An architectural innovation designed by Jord den Hollander is a library on
wheels that parks in schools to offer their students a new way of getting inspired to read
books.
Den Hollander came up with idea by realizing that the narrow Dutch streets need a
library that was also both narrow and could be able to have many books and a reading

127
room. The BiebBus library is divided in to two sections, the lower section being the li-
brary and the upper section being the reading room. The library holds over 100 meters
of books that the students can read lying on their beanbags upstairs. The remarkable
interior design is emphasized by a transparent floor between sections.
Another container library is set in Indonesia, where a company named Dpavilion ar-
chitects has installed a container facility that operates as “the windows of the world”
offering education, inspiration and entertainment for people with small income. The
facility also has a container clinic that is to offer medical assistance for the locals.

128
Shipping Containers are made of durable steel that gives protection even in rough
weather conditions. The simple steel structure and the standardized manufacturing pro-
cess make this superior construction material also really low-cost. Therefore the present
and the future trends of affordable housing and sustainable architecture will be among
shipping containers.

129
36. AFGHANISTAN’S FUTURE IS
BUILT ON SKATEBOARDS AND
CONTAINERS
As we’ve already covered, shipping containers can be used to build high-end
homes, hotels, villas, restaurants you name it. Due to their low prices, shipping con-
tainers are especially good for low income areas. They have even built a shipping con-
tainer skate park in Afghanistan.
The mega shipping container skate park will be built by an international
NGO Skateistan that uses skateboarding as a tool for youth outreach in both Afghani-
stan and Cambodia. The most recent skate park in Mazar-e-Sharif is an educational safe

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Applications of shipping containers in the 21st century

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