It has been done too much.
Why dont you find a niche on this idea. I like your thesis as mobility in arhcitecture. Don't lock yourself into containers from the very beginning. Design new containers, design structures that are collapsable, design the contemporary tipi. Explore materials, culture, religion (the islamic idea that whereever you put down your carpet to pray it is holy space, and others...), the japanese hotels, American RV's. Look at slums, and homeless people, look at disaster relief, look at the ananrchist kids that refuse to live in homes.
Look at biomimicry, animals that carry their homes with them.

The shipping container is the easy way out.

let's move past the shipping container. i mean - unless you have a really new take on it - you are just mimicing wes jones and lo-tek. who actually are mimicing thousands of construction copanies who have been using these things forever. thesis is supposed to make an argument. there are a lot of arguments to make about stability and permanence.

if you like the shipping container's "subversiveness:, read books on anarchy and use them as the basis for a [lack?] of architecture.

an anti-space, anti-archtiecture thesis, I've seen people triy and fail misserably on this subject.

+q: what books do you have in mind...
something similar to the manifesto from the
office for subversive architecture

Books outside of architecture:
MArxist theories,
Analyzing John the Baptist,
Books on weaving in the middle east.
www.crimethinc.com,
I dont know talk to a local homeless person.
http://www.benetton.com/colors/issues/57/home.html
Look at hermit crabs. Scientific journals.

In architecture: Archigram.

Do one better- figure out a better shipping container.

i did my thesis using shipping containers as well. they were used as a building block/module in a design system meant for providing housing for the homeless that could adapt to various climates and grow over time. it dealt with aesthetics and ethics.

my teachers suggested the container as my module because of its availability and inexpensive nature, and it worked great, but since then i have received a lot of flack for the "unoriginality" and "overused" perception of the container itself. some can't even look past this and see how it really fit in with my concepts, and end goals. it is somewhat disheartening when you are in an interview and you can tell they are thinking something to the terms of "unoriginal container freak". i still stand by it, but i catch a lot of flack.

the upside is, when i ride the train home everyday, i pass hundreds of them, and i can piece together different variations of my thesis while i look out the window (generally done while i am standing on crowded trains).

now, i will be looked down upon in the archinect community as another container freak! woohoo!!!

i used to work in an office next to a railroad. they had a derailment one morning (freight, no passengers). three boxcars were damaged. they sat on a siding for months. these things were gorgeous in their absolute simplicity. one sliding door, some hatches at the top, nothing else. we used to walk by on our way to coffee and wish we could move our desks inside. until march came and summer started.

i like +q's comments on this one, do not even venture into the container stackin/welding/rotating aspect of it until you have trully formed an idea/rant on what will be created and why it is to be created. i particular like the hermit crab angle, crustacean at its finest.....

well. its plain stupid to slag off someone for doing an "unoriginal" thesis on a potentially important issue. i think the concepts and ideas of the metabolists, archigram, team 10, and many more could have taken architecture in a far more interesting direction than where it is now if there was thousands that could pick up on their concepts without being told they are unoriginal. ill take 10 metabolist rip offs instead of one frank gehry any day.

here's a great list to start with from richard serra... i pinned it to my desk during thesis....maybe it helps , maybe not...
Richard Serra Text

to roll

to crease

to fold

to store

to bend

to shorten

to twist

to dapple

to crumple

to shave

to tear

to chip

to split

to cut

to scar

to drop

to remove

to simplify

to differ

to disarrange

to open

to mix

to splash

to knot

to spill

to droop

to flow



to curve

to lift

to inlay

to impress

to fire

to flood

to smear

to rotate

to swirl

to support

to hook

to suspend

to spread

to hang

to collect

of tension

of gravity

of entropy

of nature

of grouping

of layering

of felting

to grasp

to tighten

to bundle

to heap

to gather



to scatter

to arrange

to repair

to discard

to pair

to distribute

to surfect

to compliment

to enclose

to surround

to encircle

to hide

to cover

to wrap

to dig

to tie

to bend

to weave

to join

to match

to laminate

to bond

to hinge

to mark

to expand

to dilute

to light



to modulate

to distill

of waves

of electromagnetic

of inertia

of conization

of polarization

of refraction

of simultaneity

of tides

of reflection

of equilibrium

of symmetry

of friction

to stretch

to bounce

to erase

to spray

to systematize

to refer

to force

of mapping

of location

of context

of time

of carbonization

to continue

so keep looking into shipping containers. but please get well informed and try to do something interesting with your thesis. avoid the usual imagery adn get into the groundwork and the potential. good luck!

maybe not nec to distance yourself from shipping container, but definitely take a position on it.

for instance, prefab as a way of using methods of manufactured housing for modern design is now gaining some footing. it's a great way of doing things, but the 'thesis'-worthy research and the big advance has already been made - right?

i kind of thought so, but then i saw this week that an architect figured out that they could not only get manufactured housing components to be something fresh but that they could leverage the delivery method - using the packaging that the components come in - to attach to the structure as additional space.

my undergrad thesis ended up being a theater on a barge. duh, everybody said, rossi already did that. but i didn't set out to do a theater on a barge, i backed into it through the writing of the document and the setting of goals. (basically, the theater was meant to be a sort of mirror of the community at large. i developed a whole scenario of how it would reflect 'place' which required that the theater be siteless.)

so, the responses above may be less that you should abandon shipping containers and more that you need to know what you're after and if you end up at shipping containers then so be it.

Don't listen to these long-winded ones. If you're interested in what to do with shipping containers - go get a few of 'em. Get good w/ metal working tools, obtain land & enough moderately heavy equipt to manipulate these
mongos. Theory means little when you can't cut 'em, lift 'em or even pull 'em to where you need them to be.

Now go to the Port of New Orleans & get a few of 'em. I've got a friend w/ land in Alexandria,LA (dry land) who might just work w/ you on this project.

someone may have said this but look @ shigeru ban's nomadic museum... the containers used are never the same they are rented at the port/ location of the exhibit and never leave the city that the project is in for the duration of the exhibit... ironic huh?

This is just me projecting but I find that the idea of mobility/ temporality automatically brings in the question of place as its indirect antithesis.

A living, dynamic 'building', I Like It.

todd_ufl, how big is your f***ing desk?!

ZZZZZZ!!!!!!! This is makiing me sleepy.

If i see one more hyper-accesorized metal box posing as housing then i will poke my eyes out with an 8H lead holder.

not even paris Hilton would put her dog in a metal box.

what is the difference between a hyper-accesorized metal box and a hyper accesorized wooden gyp and concrete box? if the systems work, and views on tha containers aesthetics don't get in the way, not a damn thing... unless of course you count the fact that the metal box is a recycled componet.

Hi

There are a few things I think don't belong in architecture -- two of these are cardbox houses for homeless and shipping containers.
If you want to build a house try look at the floorplans for a tradisional one and check out how well used the spaces work , think about where the quality spaces work ---- then look at the measures for a shipping container and realise how little use you get from these measures, --- you can enter it and walk out again and that's it, most volume are difficult to make use of, the measures are impossible but the vorse fault is that projecting with ships containers, you lock your mind and emagination in a grid prison , you don't develob you just put lego together , you do not take advanteage of real innovation you don't even question the materials or measures , yuo fit in humans in the measures of a transport system.
Now you know that I point to much easier solutions -- Butil it much cheaper and take advanteage of the real digital options with a brand new perception ; make the savings at the start of the process and make full potential of the actural digital options.
The savings you think will be offered also come with a new load of troubles , cardbox houses for homeless or shipping containers realy don't carry a promising new architecture , only fully investigating the actural digital options do , as these start from bare sheet material.

the measurements and rectilinear nature of the shipping container are not the issue, the issue is imagination in how you use them. you stack them for height, you put them side by side for width/depth. you cut into them and add onto them (over time) to develop visual intensity or simplicity.

i looked at "traditional" floorplans/spaces, and to be perfectly honest, these volumes can be placed into containers when configured correctly (that is if you are wanting somthing "traditional").

as for the rectilinear "problem" you have with them, that is as well a simple mental obstacle on one side, but a larger financial obstacle on the other. it can become an expensive venture to add onto them and begin modifying them to a large extent, but it can be done. it is not a question of imagination and locking your psyche into a "grid prison", it becomes a question of what is affordable. if you have the money to make additions, major incisions, etc to them at the onset, you would cease to recognize them as containers depending on the extent of the work, and at that point their use as an initial starting point becomes silly because you might as well start fresh due to the amount of money you would be spending. however, if you have nothing to start with, you need something which can be quickly constructed to give you initial shelter. you can then add to them over time, in large chunks or small.

these may not carry a promising architecture in terms of progressing the field any further like your 3dh system, but there are people who sleep in the rain each night who give less of a shit about progressing the field, the want somewhere dry to sleep.

i'm gong to chime in on this one...shipping containers are sort of the defacto poster children for alternative sources for architecture of the moment. the reason people are slagging the idea out of rote is that they are not the perfect solution for modular housing, DIY off-the gridism or cheap building soutions. I have to agree that i love what people like Wes Jones, LOTek, Pugh and Scarpa, etc. have done with them...but in the end Shigeru Ban was the closest in their true potential and also the most pathetic. in the end they're oversized bricks. converting them to livable space is barely feasible, and then only at a price more relevant to high end residential housing more so than quick cheap housing solutions...i'm still amazed that everyone flocks to shipping containers when the most affordable method of housing in the US are mobile homes or modular housing...just a bit of research on the subject would really make your thesis a much more worthwhile endeavour. as for tackling the shipping container as a thesis follow Mystery Man's advice and begin doing some metal work...you'll quickly find the possibilities or lack there of very quickly...it could be a really amazing experiment...

This is an interesting article on the history of emergency housing.
http://www.slate.com/id/2125816/
The article was titled something like "Save the survivors for the architects" on Slates home page.

Have posted this one before, but anyway... recent student housing project in Amsterdam:

thanks for the advice +q, i really appreciate it... i have been toying with ideas on mobility in architecture for quite some time, from where i come from (manila) there have been a recent interest in low-cost materials..from corrugated metal sheets to recycled shipping containers (all copied from western precedents) used especially for socialized housing and such.. if you could only experience the architectural scene here..man its really terrible! design is stuck in the periods of reinforced concrete etc... in my country it could be understood as a huge breakthrough, even though iam fully aware that there have been many precedents already well documented and studied..you could call it a passe, even... my point in my thesis revolves around applying the idea of lightweight, mobile, flexible, etc. in the philippine tropical and social context (thrid world)....how will i do that?, well my concept merely derives it idea with ingenuity inspired by the sqatter houses..squatters here are quite ingenious! they are the unsung heroes of lightweight archtiecture... i believe the shipping container can still be reivented, i mean it still is theoretically a solution, however you could always reinvent it and utilize it in unexpected ways...how about juxtaposing it with other "new materials" you were talking about.., shipping containers merely are like a blank canvas you could work on... i m still using it, but i would not be confined into it, +q's zoomorphism seem interesting (i think im gonna rip it off thanks! haha just kiddin) there's still a social dimension in our country that i would like to resolve in my thesis which weigh greater than the shipping container

iam being subversive in my country's(philippines) esatblished building methods, designs... and even its social constructs... society and architecture are of great interest, defining society through architecture is really powerful...

I like that a lot. i did a similar project in Vicenza, for immigrants to Italy. Italians up in that area are a bit xenophobic, (in my experience), so I created a semi-permanent landscape strucutre that could house shipping container-like housing units. I aded a bit of consumerism, and crazyness for good measure.
Just dont start with shipping containers, end there if you must.
It sounds like fun, keep us posted, and show pics...
q

haha in the philippines you need a lot of consumerism..with less craziness...this really makes me want to infiltrate the current scene here...

any advice on doing something in the tropics? perforated metal panels are a huge thing here (manlia)

Have you been looking at Glenn Murcutt?

can you suggest possible materials for lightweight/mobile materials that are adaptable to the tropical climate?

oh and the jersey devil's houses in Miami, and Key West

ah yes, he's works are pretty bland at first, but really miesian... really deep...pretty good, i have a fettish for corrugated metal you know, im planning to utilize more corrugated metal...

many filipino designers look up to murcutt... sustainable/green or whatever architecture is the leading movement here (philippines)

momentum ; I still think just the dimensions and please think about what you write yourself ;

"looked at "traditional" floorplans/spaces, and to be perfectly honest, these volumes can be placed into containers when configured correctly (that is if you are wanting somthing "traditional")."

Now isn't you just trying to force just the containers into that exactly tradisional aproach, the floorplans the tradisional attitude ? -- now my argument is that just that tradisional grid system is just the limitation, and realy ,the dimentions of ships containers do a serious limit it is difficult to realy feel limitless spaces high celings , with as many ships containers you emagine interconnected as flexoble as you can emagine ------ the whole attitude are serious limited.

Then you point to the manufactoring now, why is it "anything" any form, shuld be more expensive, when it is made much smarter ; remember 3D-H is another world , the sole use of sheet material, the thruout use of CAD and 2D cutting make it unique --- acturly you shuld build a cirtain volume in both ships containers and 3D-H to be able to judge or rather do a simple cost calculation that is btw. easy with 3D-H as that is basicly cost of cut feet and cost of material .

Now please let me explain it in another way ; case you did a real splendid design by stacking and interconnecting ships containers -- why shuldn't I be able to use exactly the same shape as assembled in Solids, replace the containers the intire form, with a framework assembly , that cover the same containers, maby just done one feet thick as hollowed boxes ; can't you emagine how this shape will be able to be build just as cheap and even cheaper, slicing a 3D model of the stacked containers into 3D-H ------- Well I know it work stronger when done this way, build just as easy even with sheet materials cut on site, stronger cheaper and any form ,even as shaped with ships containers.

Now the side effect would be so plenty, please understand that ; when you realised that 3D-H acturly can do it as maneagable without fraigthing emty containers but compressed raw materials around, you proberly also see, that the measures are a limitation ; and no this is not about something being better than nothing ,it is about investing in the wrong manufactoring.

I'm thinking everyone jumps on board except that little shifty rabbit from Watership Down that could almost read the signs.

per, in the first paragraph you pasted in, the last thing i said was this: "(that is if you are wanting somthing "traditional")."

i had to check to make sure the traditional ideas of the home would fit, before i went any further. i didn't stop there.

i think we probably disagree on a number of issues, and we approach them in differing ways, however i don't disagree that there are other alleys to look into regarding the problem of housing the homeless/providing inexpensive housing alternatives (this is just the one i chose to look at.)

Hi

I agrea that there are exiting way's to use ships containers , there have been and proberly will be more exiting way's to use these , but sorry, I tend to take things apart to try find the basic foults now --- such foults are there to be solved, and I find it the only way to do just that ,by listing the good and the bad .
Now ofcaurse I know that sometimes ,just the right aproach with these containers acturly can produce something quite usefull --- but it is difficult just to forget, that the efford and the things work in a temp. context ; what I don't like is that the efford some how are vasted, that the efford used disapear without a trace, when the collection of containers are moved to another place --- I don't know if you see that point, but nomatter some of the projects I seen have been splendid, they still fail the pover to change everything it is still a temp. thing.

Now it can be a long talk about the issue --- I just want to be sure that you know that my aproach are not 100 pct. against or 100 pct. for ships containers, also I want to be sure you know that I just use these, to justify to find the hidden dead-ends, --- trying to use both the good and the bad to refine or as I tend to do, scrap it all for a new lead.
Also as soon as the word "Lego" turn up, I try explain that just that flexibility can be further develobed, but using the known limitations to build a new concept on.
Maby I didn't explain my example the right way -- but if you emagine the containers as hollow boxes done as Solids, if you in a 3D drawing make sure that your "container" carry the measures of a container, then you can in 3D, stack and place Solids shaped just that square.
The good thing about it is, that when you shapen the assembly, you can union the various Solids and that way find new way's to connect the volumes ----- all you need to do is to make sure, that your "containers" have a reasoable thick wall all way round, that each "building block" will carry it's own strength offer the floor and the walls , ------- if you done it like that, it would be obvious to slice the intire assembly and then you end up using the forms as building blocks, but inside the assembled structure, you have the option to subtract other Solids, making bigger rooms and floors at various levels ; all in all a much greater freedom in forming and if you use a system as 3D-H, you allready projected the individual building compoment.
Now with 3D-H you often see replies asking the surface the closed wall or the leakprove roof but, if you just check the method a bit more careful, you will see that this is no problem as often you get that closed wall by the cost of just a bit more sheet material. Now you will not see and understand these features unless you realy investigate and try out what can acturly be projected, but basicly the most important thing about that method is, that i go strait from screen to producing the building compoment and _that_ is a great gain it is something you shuld expect modern architect applications to do, but they do not.
Still when you realise that just the shape and form could be used modeling, why not use other geometric shapes --- it will not make it easier or more difficult, the efford will be the same but your options are much greater, when you can union a Dome shape ontop your Solid model, and think about it, doing the projecting with that attitude how much easier it is acturly build ; the intire structural framework are there, with floors and walls, things that othervise is realy expensive to add they are just there as any other feature you added the original 3D model.
Now I hope you understand my attitude better, when you see how things that is expensive come as a cheap side effect.

im looking for a shipping container texture, or does anyone have a gdl object that is a shipping container for archicad 9.0?.. my time is really limited, i cant to create the gdl of shipping cointainers, textures will do.

any idea on how much a 12' container is ??? or where one can buy such a thing ?

type in shipping container on e-bay

tads-- i just use a corr image mapped on a solid...looks ok and doesn't take any time!

as for the discussion...i agree that the width (8+ feet) is not appropriate for any room sizes (don't forget you have to add insulation and a finish material inside) short of support spaces...ie closets, baths, etc. so in order to get a room you must weld multiple boxes together. the problem with that is that removes the structural component...and you must add additional structure. SO really don't you end up wasting the purpose for the container.

i have seen successful projects where the boxes were used as they were as just the support spaces...

as for homeless...is our goal to give the homeless little prison cells?isn't this the reason CIAM didn't work in the ghettos in the Americas?!?