Tampa architect Brandon Hicks has designed a waterfront bar and kitchen for the Getaway in St. Petersburg, combining two modular containers, one 40 foot and one 20 feet. The smaller of the two is for food preparation, so it had to be a new one, never contaminated by handling cargo. They are strong and cheap, he says, but you are also limited by the eight-foot height, they trap heat and moisture, sometimes alterations can make them too weak, and some have been damaged in shipping.
But they can speak to an architectural aesthetic: “It immediately starts to talk to that industrial and practical feel that you’re kind of after from a design standpoint,” Hicks said. “There’s no element on a container that isn’t there for a very specific form and functional standpoint.“
According to tampabay, because of the space limitations for the Getaway, it was adaptable to the need, and builder Michael Purdy said conventional materials and methods would not have worked, and the modular containers cost less.
As MHProNews has reported previously, containers are frequently used one time, primarily to bring cargo from China and other points east, and because it is expensive to ship them back empty, millions are sitting idle. They have been used for housing all across the globe, stacked for multifamily, as well as singularly to house the homeless. One company in Montana, Montainer, takes orders online, customizes the modular units to the specifics of the consumer, and ships them on a truck to the buyer. ##
(Photo credit: springfieldnewssun/Bill Lackey-modular containers adapted to jail cells. Deputy Sheriff William Gibson, Clark County, Ohio)
