In their previous life, the 25-m2 overseas containers transported consumer goods across the ocean; today, the 63 containers have been transformed into a hostel where keen travelers can dream of the open seas. With its construction from recycled intermodal containers and its unique location by the harbor, the design hostel on Zum Zollamt in Warnemünde has a real connection to shipyards rich in tradition and to the open seas beyond. The building complex is divided into two parts: A four-story structure made from recycled, soundproofed overseas containers sit on a two-story base structure of steel, concrete, and glass.
Photography: Max Schroeder
The base structure comprises an open, inviting entrance hall with a restaurant, bar, guest kitchen, work stations on an integrated gallery and a boulder hall.
The glass front facing onto the street allows lots of natural light into space. The colored, painted container modules making up the four upper floors are offset and embedded in a steel and concrete structure. The visible container structure with the containers neatly lined up in a row and the bright colors reflecting the maritime environment of the sea, beaches, shipyard cranes and horizon consciously create an eye-catching, industrial-style piece of architecture in the harbor area. The steel bunks represent a particular attitude to life in our globalized, nomadic age.

The containers, which look back on a fulfilled life at sea, are dyed in four different colors. On the inside...