Repurposing shipping containers

This post is a diversion from the initial thread of Sustainable Dezine – the lessons I learned while remodeling my home. The diversion was motivated by seeing the accompanying image of a small condo project proposed for construction near downtown Salt Lake, in an article in the Salt Lake Tribune.

This project is post-worthy for a number of reasons:

1. Used shipping containers will be the primary building component, stacked creatively to a height of 7 stories secured in a steel and glass frame. The building, designed by innovative architect Adam Kalkin, will include 8 homes that are described as post-industrial. While this is not the first time building containers have been used for housing in the U.S., it is in Salt Lake City where it has to be a challenge for the City’s building department.

2. It draws attention to the reality that we have an excess inventory of these steel shipping containers; as a result, they are available for creative reuse at relatively modest prices. It is apparently cheaper to build new containers in countries like China, with which we have a huge trade imbalance, than it is to send them back (likely empty) for reuse. Reuse of materials reduces demand for raw materials and saves the energy needed to fabricate the steel - and they were designed to be shipped. The potential remains as long as the trade imbalance prevails or until the excess inventory is exhausted.

3. The project in Salt Lake will replace a building that was, in anticipation of its demolition, converted to a canvas for use by 150 artists to express their talents in a collective artistic celebration called the 337 Project. At each step of the property’s evolution, the owners have thought and acted creatively in a way that has benefited the community and will, undoubtedly, pay off in financial terms, as it should.

Resonance with The Nomadic Museum

This example of creative repurposing of shipping containers into building components takes me back to a memorable experience I had a couple of years ago. I was living temporarily in Santa Monica, where I was working on a software project. Fortuitously, it was then that The Nomadic Museum designed by visionary architect Shigeru Ban was installed on a beachfront parking lot next to the Santa Monica Pier.

The Museum’s walls were constructed of 156 stacked shipping containers. Its roof was supported by columns made of paper. The floor of the museum was a combination of smooth stones and a wooden walkway.

The walkway served to guide museum visitors through a show entitled Ashes and Snow, a collection of incredible sepia and umber-toned photographs of human beings interacting with animals. Screens showing video with the same subject matter and feel served to define segments of the exhibition. The large-format photographs by Gregory Colbert were printed on hand-made paper and suspended so as to float in the dimly-lit space. The effect was awe-inspiring, like being in a minimalist zen cathedral, if such were ever to take physical form.

The Nomadic Museum created an opportunity to reflect and to think differently about the images presented, wherever they took the individual viewer. As importantly, the Museum was also a beacon, startling all who witnessed it into thinking differently about the built environment and the materials we typically think about for construction. It is encouraging to see an innovative, more permanent interpretation take form in Salt Lake City.