BUILD Blog

Shipping containers, also referred to as “isotainers”, were originally invented in the 1990’s to help architects achieve greater levels of design fetish. While their primary function is typically seen in overly-complicated forms of residential architecture, additional applications in the commercial and institutional sectors help reinforce the illusion of simplicity and the deception of cost ineffectiveness. Whether applied to altruistic housing for the worlds impoverished or a high-end gallery in Zurich, shipping container architecture upholds the most important principle of good design: a sexy finished photo.

Recently, however, we’ve noticed an innovative use of shipping containers here in Seattle. Forward thinking companies like A.P. Moller-Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd are experimenting with the steel boxes by loading them with manufactured goods and shipping them to foreign sea-ports. That’s right, actually loading the steel boxes onto boats, trains, and trucks and transporting them to different places in the world. This evolution of shipping containers is fascinating to us and today’s post covers some of the details of this pioneering effort to use common architectural objects in new and interesting ways.

There are an estimated 18 million containers in the world, as Wired magazine puts it “enough shipping containers exist on the planet to build an 8-foot-high wall around the equator – twice”. The containers are built in 5 standard lengths the most common being 40’ long by 8’ wide by 8’-6” tall. With a volume of 2,385 cubic feet, the maximum load for a 40’ container is about 58,800 lbs (this excludes the weight of the container itself which is about 8,300 lbs).

The containers allow for a number of customizations including temperature control, ventilation, tank containers for liquids, rolling floors for heavy cargo, units which open on the sides, and collapsible units.

It is speculated that container shipping is twenty times faster than pre-container shipping methods lending to reductions in waste and cost. A large facility, like the port of Singapore, moves over twenty-thousand 40’ container equivalencies on an average day.

With the demand to move an increasing volume of containers and to keep ships on their schedules (set by ocean tides) the horizontal transportation methods of truck and train are critical. A variety of trailer beds have been designed to accommodate the range of container sizes, double loaded train cars allow for a greater number of containers per train and faster loading/unloading.

Transferring the containers between modes of transportation and stacking the containers for storage has also developed its own species of machines. This equipment includes:

Gantry Crane or Ship-to-Shore Crane

Straddle Carriers

Rubber Tired Gantry Cranes (RTG’s)

Rail Mounted Gantry Cranes (RMG’s)

Forklift Trucks

Reach Stackers and specialized Stackers for Empty Containers.

There are also some interesting hybrid machines like truck mounted container lifts

The largest container ship in the world is the Emma Maersk at 1,300 feet long. With a crew of 13 it has the capacity to carry approximately 5,500 40’ long containers, on average about $300 million worth of cargo.

Although containers are staggered in height to keep the boxes from shifting during shipping, an estimated 10,000 containers are lost at sea each year. Wikipedia states that “Containers lost at sea do not necessarily sink, but seldom float very high out of the water, making them a shipping hazard that is difficult to detect.”

A used 40’ long shipping container can be purchased for $1500 to $2500, find them on ebay.

Several shipping companies allow guests to travel with them from port to port. For more information get your hands on a book called Travel by Cargo Ship.

Another good book about shipping containers and the shipping industry is
The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger

For more web-based information on shipping containers go to wikipedia

Wired magazine also has a good article

[Photo by Don Purdue]

On Wednesday night Gwendolyn Wright finished up the UW spring lecture series with an exceptional talk on the history of modern architecture. Gwendolyn is a professor at Columbia University, hosts a PBS television series and has authored a half-dozen books. She gave an eloquent hour-and-a-half discourse and displayed passion for the subject matter from beginning to end. In short, she’s a total rock-star. For those of you who missed it, we’ve included some highlights below – muddied by our incredulous memories and dubious writing skills:

Powerhouse and gantry crane, Kentucky Dam by Roland Wank, 1933-1945

The lecture emphasized the importance of pluralism in design and stressed that good architecture should develop different responses to diverse conditions. These conditions of culture, philosophy, politics, and art are always changing and fluctuating and so the architectural responses shift. Even the vernacular is always changing. The synergy in modern architecture comes from the muddy intersection of these factors.

State Capitol Bank, Oklahoma City by Roloff, Bailey, Bozalis, Dickinson, 1963

There is no “true” modernism; no “pure” form of modernism. There is no such thing as this purity that so many of us seek. Modernism was not born in 1932 as most of us were taught in school.

Home of the future by Irving Gill, 1916

Evolving architectures become hybrids – some awkward, some beautiful, but all necessary to the evolution of architecture. The varieties of modernism allow the more powerful forms to succeed. Places and times unexpectedly flourish. Some of the freak accidents become some of the greatest studies and forms of inspiration.

University of Miami by Marion Manley and Robert Law Weed, 1948-9

Most of Wright’s studies and examples were off the radar, periphery to the mainstream architectural world, authored by the unknowns; a bank in Oklahoma, an urban prison, a gantry crane in Kentucky.

Metropolitan Correction Center by Harry Weese, Chicago, 1975

Some of the greatest examples of modern architecture are the public work projects by architects in the 1800’s before such work was passed off to the engineers. This work includes dams and sewage treatment plants. Although such project types seem to lack architectural glamour they are incredible opportunities for a modern design language.

Chiller Cogeneration Plant, UCLA Los Angeles by Holt Hinshaw Jones & Ralph M. Parsons, Inc., 1992-94

There is also the diversity and unexpectedness of time. As architects we have very little control over what becomes of our buildings. What is done with your design can be different that what you intended.

The use of history in architecture is to provide this perspective of pluralism – to show what needed to be explored to get to where we are. To reinforce this idea of experimentation in the present – to mine our cultural conditions for new forms and patterns of architecture.

Hoover Dam, 1928- 1938

For more, pick up her new book about Modern Architectures in History which focuses on the USA.

If Georgetown is one thing- it’s cool, it’s so cool it doesn’t care what anybody thinks about it. Located approximately 3 miles south of downtown, Georgetown is Seattle’s Brooklyn. It’s got the proximity to keep urban but the distance to elude the touristimos. While compact, Georgetown has everything a Seattleite needs: cost-effective real estate, pizza, and good coffee.

The history of Georgetown is quite amazing, but this isn’t a history lesson – it’s a few tips to what’s hot and modern. Here’s what the BUILD field research team came up with:

Great Stuff is our new favorite furnishing shop in town. Owner Kirk Albert has created a brilliant and inspiring shop of restored and re-appropriated antique and mid-century modern objects. From sculpture to dynamic lighting to machines that hold flowers, Great Stuff has some of that fascinating urban grit that your pad needs.
Great Stuff, vintage furnishings, 5517 Airport Way S, 206.931.6208

All your caffeine needs can be taken care of at All City Coffee. The clean, open interiors are finished with mid-century modern fixtures and the place is filled with coolios – faces aglow at their laptops.
All City Coffee, 1205 South Vale

George can take care of your well appointed stationary needs and miscellaneous household/office items.
George, 5633 airport way south, 206.763.8100

A trip to Georgetown is not complete without paying homage to the Hat n’ Boots Gas Station. Built in 1955 at its original location of 6800 Corson Avenue S on the corner of E Marginal Way the station was closed in 1988 and later moved to Oxbow Park. Its current state shows off the incredible steel skeletal system of the 44 foot diameter cowboy hat, the 22 foot high cowboy boot bathrooms remain in good shape despite of bit of graffiti. More history on the Hat n’ Boots Gas Station can be found here.
Hat n’ Boots Gas Station, Oxbow Park, 6400 Corson Ave S


There are a couple of noteworthy residential projects in Georgetown worth taking a peek at:
6604 Corson Ave S Lofts by Pb Elemental

6708 Corson Ave S

A hot, modern line of scooters lines the curb outside of Big People Scooters.
Big People Scooters, 5951 Airport Way S, 206.763.0160

The Georgetown Brewing Company has been hard at work with their brews. Prized by Seattleites, they supply the city with Manny’s Pale Ale, Roger’s Pilsner, and the difficult to find Bob’s Brown Ale. Visiting the brewery allows some nice viewpoints of the surrounding brick industrial architecture as well.
Georgetown Brewing Company, 5840 Airport Way S, 206.766.8055

Although we didn’t make it here, the Georgetown Power Plant Museum seems like it would be well worth the time. As their website states: “The mission of the Georgetown Powerplant Museum is to preserve, maintain, and operate the Georgetown Steam Plant as a dynamic museum and teaching facility.” Which is great, cause we all like a bit of power once and a while.
Georgetown Power Plant Museum, 6605 13th Avenue S, 206.763.2542

Stellar Pizza sells by the slice
Stellar Pizza, 5513 AIRPORT WAY S, 206 763 1660

Quite possibly the hottest piece of modern design in the northwest is housed at Boeing field, just south of Georgetown. While technically the Museum of Flight resides in Tukwila, Georgetown makes for a convenient diving board – and let’s face it we’re not going to be covering the design scene of Tukwila anytime in the near future.

The Concorde Supersonic Transport is gorgeous, sleek and pure function. First flown commercially in 1976, it defined uber-chic travel for the next 27 years. Decommissioned in 2003 the Concord set the world speed record between New York and Seattle at 3 hours and 55 minutes.

Capable of 1,350 mph, or nearly twice the speed of sound, the Concorde now sits idle and can be toured in conjunction with admission to the Museum of Flight.

The Museum of Flight is well worth a tour for the design conscious – whether you’re an aviation geek or not you can’t help but respect a room full of objects designed to defy gravity.
The Museum of Flight, 9404 E Marginal Way S, 206.764.5720

Thanks to our buddy Josiah for the hot tips
[All photos and images by BUILD LLC]

Each generation of architects seems to establish their own language of visual presentation. The crisp graphite lines and dramatic perspective drawings characterize the 50’s and 60’s. Bold water colors and loose geometries are reminiscent of the 70’s, the occasional clip-art guy with mustache and sports jacket thrown in for good measure. While these examples seem humorous and dated today they were the Hotty McHottersons of the time. Today’s blog entry is in pursuit of the current zeitgeist of visual language. You know us well enough by now to know that we’re not going to exhibit high-end presentations from the starchitects and mega-shops out there. We don’t think that it will be these enterprises that set the curve with their armies of lowly paid interns and exclusive modeling software. If you ask us, it will be the small shops in the trenches of practice and academia that will be most infectious with the new language because they have the same common denominators as the majority of us in terms of resources, staff & software; it’s just that they’re using these resources more intelligently and doing more with them. We’ve selected several groups that we’ve come across over the years and, in our opinion, they are forming the new visual protocol. The new language seems to be moving away from fashion, is taking on more analysis and is communicating more technical data. More important than the sexy imagery, it is the thinking behind these presentations that is generating the new language. Let us know who’s setting the curve for you…

KBAS Studio
Portland Thru-House

Cutting sections within a perspective drawing is a very intelligent use of modeling programs. The section cut is clearly indicated with the orange highlight and the interiors elevations have definition. This single image is communicating information traditionally accomplished with a perspective, a section cut and interior elevations.

The image shows the efficiency of building a model once and getting multiple levels of information and imagery by turning on and off layers.  Subtle shadows give the simple models a level of sophistication.

Palisades Glacier Mountain Hut

The drawing includes a dynamic element and explains the circulation.

John Szot
Coney Island Pavilion

Using actual photos of graffiti as “decals” within the modeling program, the image achieves a gritty, urban feel. The series takes into account an aspect of urban weathering. Subtle lighting and ordinary weather conditions create a powerful presentation. The abstract people give a sense of scale and population without detracting from the rendering.

Saddle Creek

Living Smart Project

The imagery breaks the house apart like a piece of machinery.

Levin Residence

Tangible representations are created by embedding photographs into the model.
They have an excellent collection of graffiti and tags on their website.

SHoP
Portland Ariel Tram

The element of scale exists with the figures but the transparent shadow technique keeps the focus off the figures and on the architecture.

Lorcan O’Herlihy
Calarts Dormitory

The landscaping is suggested but does not overwhelm the image. Site circulation and dynamics are added as a layer to the presentation.

Paulith

Subtlety of light and shadow give a tangible impression of how the space may feel.

Asymptote
166 Perry Street

Using digital software to do what it does best - figuring out all of the intricacies and reflections of varying environmental conditions.

Penang Global City Center

The display and comprehension of extremely complex geometries.

Jones Partners
Yucca Valley House

The use of extreme detail (even the lights have been precisely modeled) allows the rendering to serve as a form of quality control and troubleshooting for the finished work.

Preston Scott Cohen
Lightfall

Communicating the process of design and allowing an observer (or more importantly a client) to understand the geometrical evolution of a design.

Public Arcade

Presenting, comparing and contrasting variations/mutations of form.

Wu House

Clarifying and simplifying the complexities of hybrid geometries.

Neil M. Denari
Massey House

Merging renderings with construction documents the renderings start to become technical data which could be used as reference in the field.

The post we did using Google Earth last week was a lot of fun so we thought we’d do another one with a different angle. This week’s theme focuses on buildings so enormous that the roof structures create landscapes in and of themselves. Once again, Google-Earth is so overwhelming that we needed some rules:

1. The buildings must be conditioned space (heated/cooled) thereby excluded many structures like bridges and open air stadiums.
2. Completed photos of the buildings must be available, which made it interesting because some amazing structures like the Dubai Tower are almost complete at 159 floors and must look amazing from space but Google’s images of the area are more than three years old and only show the first several floors of the tower.
3. Each image is taken at an elevation of 7,000 feet above the Earth’s surface.
4. Each image is cropped to show a 2 mile x 2 mile swatch; the images are all at the same scale for comparison.

Kicking it off is the largest usable space in the world; right here in our own backyard is the Boeing Plant in Everett, Washington, USA: 398,000 m² (4.3 million sq ft) 13.3 million m³ (470 million cu ft). Take the Boeing Plant Tour next time you’re in the neighborhood.

Aerium Brandenburg in Germany: 70,000 m² (753,000 sq ft) 5.2 million m³ (184 million cu ft). Originally constructed as the assembly area for a giant airship which was never built.

Aalsmeer Flower Auction in Aalsmeer, The Netherlands: 990,000 m² (10.6 million sq ft). Is it odd to anyone else that the 2nd largest building in the world is just a really big flower shop?

The Pentagon in Arlington County, USA: 610,000 m² (6.6 million sq ft)

Hong Kong International Airport in China: 564,000 m² (6.1 million sq ft)

Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest, Romania: 330,000 m² (3.6 million sq ft)

Bannister Federal Complex in Kansas City, USA: 290,000 m² (3.1 million sq ft)

The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Yamoussoukro, Côte d’Ivoire is the largest church in the world: 30,000 m² (323,000 sq ft)

The Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi, India is the largest presidential residence in the world: 19,000 m² (200,000 sq ft)

Kansai International Airport Terminal in Osaka, Japan is the longest building in the world: 1,700 m (5,580 ft)

The Karl-Marx-Hof in Vienna, Austria is the longest residential building in the world: 1,100 m (3,610 ft)

King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: 225,000 m² (738,188 sq ft)

For more check out Wikipedia’s list…