London architect James Whitaker loves to have fun as is evidenced through his office design for an ad agency in Germany. As his framework, Whitaker chose Cargotecture, a popular building system for modern structures that utilizes old shipping containers.
Cargotecture was originally devised by two Seattle architects, Robert Humble and Joel Egan, who came up with the ingenious plan of using two metal shipping boxes and turning them into sustainable modular dwellings. By recycling something that’s sturdy and already exists, no building materials are wasted. Plus its cheap compared to building a structure from scratch.
For the ad agency, Whitaker decided to develop, as he refers to it, the Hechingen Studio design. It’s a low-cost Cargotecture workspace near the rural German town of Hechingen.
The building resembles a crystal structure you might see growing in a chemistry lab. It also mimics the eleventh-century [Hohenzollern] castle in Hechingen. Whitaker cleverly fitted multiple glass end walls into his crystal-shaped shipping container office, funneling natural light into the interior.
The ad agency never took off, but Whitaker retained the designs and created digital renderings. Now we can all drool over Hechingen Studio. Check out the floor-to-ceiling glass, which gorgeously frames views of the surrounding landscape in the rendering. The best part about this design: Since old shipping containers are being used, it is flexible and can be assembled and disassembled anywhere. Talk about a movable office!
If we can figure out a way to make building structures more economical and sustainable by repurposing available elements like shipping containers, perhaps we’ll be able to tackle bigger global issues like homelessness and lack of living spaces, and reducing waste and garbage. Imagine the possibilities. (image via Shutterstock)