Making a fashionable debut at this year’s Milan Design Week, an eye-catching stack of shipping containers by Containerwerk aims to show off just what the average steel cargo container can do. Stackable, modular, and made to last, the shipping container is the ideal building block for low-cost recyclable architecture, and there?s certainly no shortage of them in the world. An estimated 500 million of them are currently in existence (enough to circle the globe more than twice), but only 17 million are in active service at any given time. Once they?re taken out of commission, they often head to the scrapyard. But thanks to their forward-thinking take on the micro-housing trend, Containerwerk has proven that every container has still got some life in it.
It?s easy to assume that buildings made of shipping containers would feel like dark, dank echo chambers. But Containerwerk outfits each one of their modules with high-performance insulation, moisture barriers, soundproofing, and modern interior finishes ? and this is all after they’ve given them a good scrubdown with industrial-grade cleaners. The company then paints their exteriors, installs doors and windows, and stacks them offset from each other to create shaded sheltered areas and upper-level terraces. Each container home is also equipped with solar panels and low-energy air conditioning and ventilation systems to meet the Passive House standard.
One container offers enough space for a single occupant, but t...