Container City is the name given to two pieces of

shipping container architecture Shipping container architecture is a form of architecture using steel intermodal containers ( shipping containers) as the main structural element. It is also referred to as cargotecture, a portmanteau of cargo with architecture, or "arkitai ...

on the

Leamouth Leamouth is a locality in the Blackwall area of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The area takes its name from the former ''Leamouth Wharf'' and lies on the west side of the confluence of the Bow Creek stretch of the Lea, at its confluenc ...

Peninsula. It is principally a means of utilising standard

forty-foot equivalent unit The twenty-foot equivalent unit (abbreviated TEU or teu) is an inexact unit of cargo capacity, often used for container ships and container ports.Rowlett, 2004. It is based on the volume of a intermodal container, a standard-sized metal box whic ...

shipping containers, at the end of their life, to produce flexible accommodation and offices at low cost. A number of buildings have been installed using this method, primarily in East London. The first (''Container City I'') was installed in 2001, in four days, and fitted out over five months, at

Trinity Buoy Wharf Trinity Buoy Wharf is the site of a lighthouse, by the confluence of the River Thames and Bow Creek on the Leamouth Peninsula, Poplar. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The lighthouse no longer functions, but is the home o ...

, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. This was expanded with a second phase (''Container City II'') in 2002 and offices were constructed on the same site in the ''Riverside Building'' in 2005. A similar technique was used in ''Container Learn'', a 2001 project for

Tower Hamlets College New City College (NCC) is a large college of further education with campuses in East London and Essex. The college was formed in 2016 with the amalgamation of separate colleges, beginning with the merger between Tower Hamlets College and Hackney ...

, providing twelve extra classrooms on a site with limited space and completed in the time between terms. The name is a trademark of "Urban Space Management". The company have now completed sixteen projects utilising the technique, which is suited to short and medium term land use – when the land becomes required for other uses, the containers can be reused elsewhere.

Gallery

Container City massing model.svg, Illustration of the structure of Container City I and Container City II showing how the shipping containers (each nominally 40'×8'×8') are stacked. cmglee_Container_City_1.jpg, Container City I cmglee_Container_City_Studio_12.jpg, Interior of a studio in Container City I Leamouth_container_cities_1.jpg, Container City I and Container City II with an upturned container containing a stairwell between them cmglee_Container_City_corridor.jpg, The second-floor walkway linking Container City I and Container City II cmglee_Container_City_2nd_floor_view.jpg, View of Container City II from that walkway cmglee_Container_City_3rd_floor_view.jpg, View of Container City II from the third-floor walkway linking Container City I and Container City II

External links

Container Architecture from concept to construction

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The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'' January 14, 2004
''Container City website''
Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets House styles Housing in London Shipping containers Residential buildings completed in 2001 {{London-struct-stub