Shipping Containers Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Containart’

The showpiece at the Singapore Biennale 2008 this year is the Containart Pavillion.  It is made from 150 Shippng Containers and 35 ten metre recyclable paper tubes.

The 20ft containers were fashioned into this extraordinary pavillion by Japanese Architect Shigeru Ban and now house works of art by over 50 different artists.

The Singapore Biennale runs until the 16th November so anyone wanting to go and see just how amazing shipping containers can look has until then to go and see the Containart Pavillion.

Earlier this month Hurricane Gustav threatened to hit New Orleans.  The city was evacuated in preparation.  Everyone held their breath.

The American Red Cross prepared Shipping Containers in readiness.  They planned to use them as storage for all the equipment and provisions that would be needed to cope with the fall out from Gustav.

In the event, although the 20ft containers were still needed, Hurricane Gustav lost its momentum over the Gulf of Mexico, and ended up being classed as a Tropical Storm instead.  New Orleans survived.

Yet shipping containers are used in many other emergency situations throughout the world.

In Australia and New Zealand the steel containers are often used to provide temporary secure housing that is easily transportable and infinitely adaptable.

In China this year after the earthquakes they used shipping containers to provide storage, office and housing.

Whilst we get excited about the amazing things that Architects do with shipping container conversions, such as the Containart Pavillion we featured yesterday, it can be easy to forget how the adaptability and the easily transportable qualities of a shipping container can be used in their most basic form to help out in a crisis.