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Photo by Jack Parsons Photography
Photo courtesy of Leger Wanaselja Architecture
Photo courtesy of Office of Mobile Design
Photo by Lara Swimmer
Photo by Lisa Lee Benjamin
Photo by Marvin Rand
Photo courtesy of Gensler
Photo by Jack Parsons Photography
Photo courtesy of building Lab
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The 'cargotecture' movement: 8 amazing examples
By Allison Arieff of Sunset
Architectural innovation
Architect Paul Rudolph once called the mobile home the 20th-century brick; the shipping container may well be taking its place in the 21st. Like heavy Legos, shipping containers made of steel or aluminum can be used as an inexpensive, and stronger than average, building block. Resistant to such forces as hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes, containers are naturally suited to such humanitarian projects as post-disaster housing and community centers, but their versatility has also captured the imagination of designers and architects worldwide who have used them for everything from high-rises to rustic cabins. In fact, there are enough cool container structures around to constitute a movement: Some call it "cargotecture."
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The 'cargotecture' movement: 8 amazing examples
Boucher Grygier Residence
Leger Wanaselja Architecture
Berkeley, Calif.
"There is so much high-quality waste in our society," says Cate Leger, principal of Leger Wanaselja Architects, a firm that has long been fascinated with reuse. "Shipping containers are an excellent example." Using them as a building material is a cost-effective way to build a house with a very low environmental footprint; this light-filled residence in Berkeley is one great example.
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The 'cargotecture' movement: 8 amazing examples
Seatrain House
Office of Mobile Design
Los Angeles
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, right? That's what designer Jennifer Siegal did when a client asked her to build on the site of a former junkyard in downtown Los Angeles. Where most would have carted everything away, Siegal salvaged containers and other materials from the site, then integrated them seamlessly into this bold, modern home.
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The 'cargotecture' movement: 8 amazing examples
c320 studio
HyBrid Architecture
Aberdeen, Wash.
HyBrid Architecture has a crush on the container, using it for everything from backyard studios to Cargotown, a design scheme it has proposed for Seattle's new waterfront. The c320 Studio was commissioned in 2005 by the owner of an organic farm in the Pacific Northwest. HyBrid designed this 320-square-foot retreat for the property's most scenic corner, providing a sort of escape without leaving town. The architects thought the installation would take about 10 hours, says HyBrid principal Robert Humble, but "it actually took about three hours, and then everyone had lunch and enjoyed the new home around us."
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The 'cargotecture' movement: 8 amazing examples
Green Roof Shelters
Lisa Lee Benjamin and John Little,
Urban Hedgerow
A collaboration between San Francisco's Lisa Lee Benjamin and "a team of inventive, kooky Brits," Green Roof Shelters explores what creations are possible from existing resources. This prototype is one of a planned series of designed habitats made expressly for insects and birds.
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The 'cargotecture' movement: 8 amazing examples
Siegal residence
Office of Mobile Design
Venice, Calif.
It's fitting that the author of "Mobile" and "More Mobile" would embrace trailers and shipping containers in her work. Designer Jennifer Siegal, well-known for her inventive prefab and portable structures, used a crane to place a drop-frame trailer into her Venice backyard to create this beautiful addition. "Their mass-production quality can easily be customized to endless situations," she says.
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The 'cargotecture' movement: 8 amazing examples
Boy Scout cabin
Gensler Architects
Catalina Island, Calif.
As reliable as a troop of Boy Scouts, shipping containers were the perfect building block for the eco-cabins that Gensler Architects designed for them. "What we liked about containers we kept; what we didn't like we changed," architect Richard Hammond says. Cheap, readily available and sustainable, Gensler's cabins lie lightly on the land and are a fun and comfy teaching tool for the Scouts they stylishly shelter.
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The 'cargotecture' movement: 8 amazing examples
Tim Palen Studio at Shadow Mountain
Eco Tech
Joshua Tree, Calif.
A proponent of "green" design since the early days of the solar movement, architect Walter Scott Perry has always incorporated the idea of reusing and repurposing materials in his design philosophy. The container, Perry says, "represents a great opportunity to create sustainable, low-cost and aesthetically attractive housing that can be shipped easily and quickly anywhere in the world." This dramatic residence in Joshua Tree, the first repurposed container home permitted and built in the Mojave Desert, is one great example.
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The 'cargotecture' movement: 8 amazing examples
Building Lab office
building Lab inc
Oakland, Calif.
Stephen Shoup's sleek backyard office is all about reuse. In addition to the metal shipping container that once sat at the Port of Oakland, the resourceful architect also used a discarded freezer and a door acquired from a salvage yard, and made a window from a former sliding door. The interior embraces sustainability as well; its interior walls are clad with reclaimed fir, and a rooftop solar hot-water system heats the space.
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