When Shipping Container Architecture Goes Bad…Apocalypse Bad
26 Sep 2008
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[left image via LOT-EK, right via io9]
Shipping Container Architecture will not. go. away. MVRDV’s Container City and LOT-EK’s Mobile Dwelling Unit (above left) are two of the most famous examples, but the irrepressible Adam Kalkin and other makeshift shipping magnates continue to explore the possibilities of a cargo-friendly living — so much so that there was even talk of a shipping container shortage last summer! Enough is enough. And for the final nail in the coffin, see concept designer B. Börkur Eiríksson’s dark vision of a smoggy dystopic future where we’re all crammed into mile-high towers by colossal mobile crane systems.
[image via io9]
Look familiar? Both of the aforementioned projects, Container City and the Mobile Dwelling Unit, have similarities to Eiríksson’s concept drawing. The MDU system is premised on a series of enormous “vertical harbors” installed in every major city around the world. Want to do some traveling? Take your home with you and dock it with the convenient crane. And MVRDV’s Container City? Well even in the original renderings, residents stand casually while fires burn in the center of their (fireproof?) complex:
[image via MVRDV]
If that doesn’t scream distopia, I don’t know what does.
· Welcome to Your New City, Where You Will Live in Stacked Boxes [io9]
Written by Jimmy Stamp in Architecture &
3 comments
6 October, 2008 at 9:57 am
Enough is enough? What the heck is that supposed to mean? If people have visions for how they would use a particular material, why not let them expound on it until the cows come home. I don’t see anyone saying, hey, we’ve used wood, concrete and steel for centuries, enough is enough, let’s not use those materials any more. Quite frankly, I can’t even find the point of this rather cryptic article. If you can’t promote creative and alternative ideas, then get the heck out of the way so that others can thrive.
7 October, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Comments should not be allowed on sites like this. It is inevitable to wander down to the last pixel of information and encounter the absurd, shallow and recurrent critics of no-ones like me.
3 January, 2009 at 10:03 am
Cool take on the container architecture but there seems to be a disconnect. The apocolyptic above is the equivalent of showing burning wood buildings and then condemning wood structures as not worthy. Google search the work of Peter DeMaria in LA. his container projects make you wnat to move into a steel box. Has many real projects, not just “doomsday” visionary renderings! Built alll types of residential, commercial, artist studios, corporate data centers and hotel buildings with containers and the projects are damn good. The images above are great eye candy for the anti-Norman Rockwellians however I prefer to view reality as it exists. Go containers! good post – prompted me to contribute!