The Container Building.
3305 7th St. NE Unit 4, Washington DC.
Containers are receptacles used for storage, holding or transporting goods. When you usually see them on ships or docks, you normally do not think in them as a place to live.
Well? Not anymore. At many constructions site, you can see them being used as mobile or portables offices. They get a few holes on the side as windows and an AC to help with the inside heat.
Nowadays, they have been dramatically repurposed as housing units. Now, You can even find them as modern luxury detached houses or stacked up one on top of the other and transformed into an apartment building.
In North East DC, we have a perfect example of just such a container building built in the middle of a lovely street with colonial bungalows and historical detached houses near the Catholic University.
It is a residential complex consisting of four small units, made mostly with recycled material but primarily with metallic containers.
Personally, I think that is a piece of modern architecture and the recycled theme is a huge plus. I am sure there are several opponents of this kind of construction. Maybe it was not the best location due to the architecture of its surroundings, but many people said the same about the Pompidou in Paris and it remains a masterpiece of world architecture.
The Pompidou building in Paris is an apt example! You could the say the same of the Eiffel Tower. The Montparnasse Tower, on the other hand, is perhaps another matter. I think Parisians still find it an out-of-place eyesore.
ReplyDeleteNice find! You say it was "serendipitous." It's always thrilling for architecture enthusiasts (or, in your case, actual architects!) to stumble on unusual buildings like this.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'd like to hear more about why some people are, as you say, opposed to this kind of building.
ReplyDeleteMost people are used to observing the same style of architecture in an neighborhood, in this particular case this building breaks with that scheme and that is why it generates rejection by some people.
DeleteGood catch. Besides houses, nice office Building can be made out of this. I will make one
ReplyDeletewow that's pretty cool!
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting how three stacked containers can end up looking dignified and elegant! This should remind us of the great potential of modern and future architecture.
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