HERITAGE RULES THE DAY AT 2016 WELLINGTON ARCHITECTURE AWARDS GALLERY

The capital’s most notorious and imaginative structures have been commended at the Wellington Architecture Awards.

Thirty-one recompenses were distributed on Wednesday night for both new and old plans.

Four honors were given to legacy work, which included reinforcing the Hope Gibbons Building, the Public Trust Building, and The Attic at the Wellington Museum.

The sole honor for the urban configuration classification went to Pukeahu National War Memorial Park, which was portrayed by the judges as “urban repair work which parities legacy values with a key bit of urban base”.

The recreation center, planned by Wraight Athfield Landscape + Architecture, likewise got a grant for open design.

Two Enduring Architecture Awards were additionally given.

In a demonstration of the late Sir Ian Athfield’s enduring impact on the city, both Enduring Architecture Awards went to Athfield Architects ventures.

The particularly green-tiled Telecom House was portrayed as “a building that has made a tremendous commitment to Wellington’s cityscape for over a fourth of a century”.

Senior House, a private home, was noted for its “twin, high-block smokestacks, which accentuate the outline with their celebrated motion to the city”.

The convener of the recompenses jury, draftsman Geoff Fletcher, said the triumphant sections set the standard for good design in Wellington and close-by locales. These successful projects illustrate the rewards of close collaboration between clients, architects, engineers and builders, Fletcher said.

“In many instances, smart decisions were made very early on, and this provided a platform for achieving excellent results despite the complexities and challenges of many of the award-winning projects.”

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/79652169/Heritage-rules-the-day-at-2016-Wellington-Architecture-Awards

Shanghai Metal Corporation is one of the leading expert in manufacturing and supplying building materials. We care for the world’s future and  we are committed to provide construction materials in a sustainable way that contributes in the well-being of our environment. Our steel products are 100% recyclable and have great strength, ductility and durability, which helps to save energy, raw materials and reduce waste. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you need further information. We accept and are able to help you with any challenging construction projects.

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The Benefits of Bamboo Plywood

In many countries, bamboo is utilized as a building material. It is strong as steel in tension and stronger than concrete in compression. It is also easy to work with because it is much more lightweight than wood, concrete or steel. It has therefore a great ration of strength to weight.

Other than its strong physical properties, bamboo has the advantage to be easily available. Bamboo is one of the fastest growing plant on Earth, with reported growth rates of 250 cm in 24 hours, depending on local soil, climatic conditions and species. Bamboo grows so fast that it can produce 20 times more timber than tress on the same area of land.

Bamboo also has environmental benefits, it can grow and spread quickly without fertilizers, pesticides or much water. A bamboo grove releases 35% more oxygen into the air than similar-sized trees.

Main uses of bamboo plywood :

Given the increasing awareness of global environment, bamboo, as a fast-growing, high-yielding and sustainable natural resource is gaining more and more advantage over timber and steel.

Architectural cement formwork

Photo from : www.peluangproperti.com

Used as a substitute for steel,  bamboo plywood formwork can improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of concrete. It is strong, lightweight, does not rust, has smooth surface, low heat conductivity and low water absorption.

Floorboards

 Photo from : made-in-china.com

Bamboo is as dense as the largest hardwoods, making it water resistant, longer lasting and therefore more sustainable. Bamboo flooring is more resistant, harder and more stable than oak!

Bamboo Packing Board

Photo from www.envirogadget.com

In places where wood resources are difficult, bamboo packing board is the solution.

Check out this website to see other inspirations of using bamboo plants.

In Shanghai Metal Corporation, you can find many types of bamboo plywood to create beautiful furniture, cabinets and the ideal building material. Our products can be customized according to your need. For more information, please do not hesitate to contact us. We have English-speaking staff that will be very glad to help you. To find out more about us, follow us on social media.

    

Sources :  life.gaiam.com, www.tristantiteux.com, www.fao.org, permaculturenews.org

Ayu P.//SMC Editor

Container Houses – Hobbits in the Mordor of Architecture

Why do people want to build their homes out of shipping containers? Because of the benefits one can gain from containers and the promises related to successful shipping container architecture. Container houses indeed have many benefits that are superior compared to more conventional construction material. Still, there are numerous examples of how container house projects fail. Failure and challenges make some people question containers’ position as a reliable building material. Here we want to discuss some of that criticism.

Modularity, eco-friendliness and excellent availability are indeed some of the many benefits of shipping containers. The ports of many import driven countries including the US have hundreds of thousands of containers that are never shipped back to their original destination. Therefore it is logical and environmentally friendly to find ways to reuse these building blocks. However like any building material, containers also need to be processed.

Shipping containers should not be used in the condition that they are when first found in the docks. They have taken hits and transported goods with unknown origin. They might have shipped contaminants and they floors might be in bad condition. Refurbishing  the containers thoroughly is as important as with any construction material.

 

Because of the numerous operations including flooring, plumbing, drywall etc., container house projects might become as expensive as ordinary building projects. Thereby it is an recommended option to buy prefabricated container homes from a reliable provider. For instance Shanghai Metal Corporation manufactures and ships numerous prefabricated homes each year to many countries.

Sometimes container homes get excessive critics. Some people say container homes are not suitable for areas that are either really cold or really hot. This is not true. There is even a huge inhabitable container house complex  in Antarctica!  In hot conditions the container houses can be built to direct the flow of air inside creating a natural ventilation and thus saving costs. Such examples include the container ship terminal in Seville and this container house created by Chinese university students.

Some people say container houses are not bullet proof. It’s true that the light steel walls won’t stop a .38 Magnum but it will stop dynamite. That’s something, say, a wood house can’t do. Moreover container houses are hurricane and earthquake resistant. Isn’t that more important?

The thing is that the shipping container architecture industry is really young and under development. In his book, Why A Students Work for C Students And Why C Students Work for the Government, a successful entrepreneur and author Robert Kiyosaki mentions that the construction industry is the slowest industry in adapting new concepts. He says that the time gap between when a new idea is proposed and its adoption is 60 years in the construction industry.

People have built wood houses for ages, and learned from their mistakes. That’s why wood houses don’t have that much criticism anymore. The container house patent was filed in 1987. Therefore the expected time for flawless container architecture should be around the year 2047. Container housing needs just more time to develop – from hobbits to heroes. Luckily, the signs refer to faster development than 60 years.

As in any construction industry it is important to do the right things. It is also important to do the things right. That’s what Shanghai Metal Corporation does by specializing in building container houses according to customers’ specification. A sketch of your dream house drawn with Google’s Sketch Up is what we need hear to realize your dreams. You may contact us first by this form. See our service description through this link. Check also our social media sites for future updates.

    

Tuomas P. // SMC Editor

Pictures and more reading: Wikipedia, Survivopedia, Homedit, Apartment Therapy, Container Alliance, Arch Daily, Jets on Green, Tin Can Cabin, Baidu Image

The Many Architectural Applications of Shipping Containers vol.6

Before, garages were the only option for affordable business facilities. Now they can be replaced with shipping containers. What’s interesting, shipping containers can also be converted into garages.

Many companies including Apple , Disney, Hewlett-Packard, Harley-Davidson, Google, Amazon and Mattel started their businesses in garages. Today’s start-ups, or, the multinational corporation of tomorrow can start their businesses in low-cost container facilities. Imagine what if Apple was started in a shipping container.

Shipping containers are a modular building material that is also durable and feasibly priced. Because of their physical properties, start-up business managers are able to design customized offices.

Shipping containers are in many ways an ideal building material. They are designed to resist harsh environments and therefore they can offer shelter even for natural disasters. They are also designed to be modular what makes it easy to use additional construction material to complete the buildings.

Shipping container construction is said to have lower labor costs compared to traditional construction. This can be explained by their simple steel structure that only requires welding and cutting procedures to be modified. Building a garage for your Harley-Davidson, BMW or Mercedes could not be more pleasant!

For start-ups, container offices are an excellent approach for creating expendable business facilities in relatively little time. They take offices out of garages and create new business opportunities. Shipping containers have another connection with garages. Containers can become them. If you plan your own DIY garage project or plan on starting a business, I recommend sending a price inquiry in Shanghai Metal Corporation‘s contact page. You may also check our prefab office solutions. Visit also our social media platforms.

    

Tuomas P. // SMC Editor

Pictures and original articles: Hola.com, Wikipedia, Popsugar, Forbes,Irish Mirror, Wikipedia,  World Home Design Ideas Magazine,Retire@21, Wikipedia, HD History & News, Home in a Box, Totaho.com, Youtube, Nealev in Blogspot

Continue to chapter 7.

Please use the the social media boxes below to SHARE this article to reach all the friends of shipping container architecture everywhere.

The Many Architectural Applications of Shipping Containers vol.2

In volume one, we discussed homes, hotels, and retail outlets and their benefits. They are only a fraction of what you can do with shipping containers. The volume two will be about container facilities for relaxation and discuss swimming pools, saunas, and bathhouses.

A traditional swimming pool’s installation costs might be between US$6000 and $50,000 not to mention excavation and decking costs. A shipping container, on the other hand, can be purchased with approximately $2000.  The additional costs consists of making the pool water proof by lining the interior with a water-proof lining or welding and painting the interior. Also, regular pool filters, pumps and fixtures should be fitted to the container as well.

Shipping container swimming pool is a nice DIY project. For example Stefan Beese, an experimental architect used a 30 cubic cargo container to turn his New Orlean’s backyard into a luxurious swimming zone. What’s more, he only needed about $5,000 to $7,000 to do that. You can read his whole story through this link.

Shipping containers can be now used as saunas. A Canadian design studio Castor has designed the first container sauna.

The 8 ft container is a fully-operational sauna box that uses wood for heating and solar energy for lighting. The mobile sauna also comes with an integrated iPod stereo and an electric guitar hook-up. Also additional creature comforts such as a magnetic truck light, castor stool, and bronze antlers are included.

A company named SOAK has an eco-friendly container bathhouse project. This container complex will be able gain 100% of its power from solar energy. The bathhouse also gets a substantial of its water from nature by harvesting and filtering rainwater. They will also reuse the greywater by directing it to their patio’s garden meadow.

The company wanted to shipping containers because they are inexpensive to occupy, easy to move and quick to retrofit. Shipping containers also offer a durable and good-looking aesthetics that will support their vision.  SOAK’s goal is to build a bathhouse for “healthy hedonists” that want make an effort to be healthy but do not want to be dogmatic or ideological about it. What’s more they want make their business sociable and sustainable.

Shipping containers combined supporting construction material is all one needs to build their pools, saunas or even bathhouses. We in Shanghai Metal Corporation sell them both. Please visit our websites on containers and construction material for detailed descriptions. Check also our social media platforms.

    

Tuomas P. // SMC Editor

Sources: See our articles on container swimming pools, saunas, and bathhouses.

Continue to chapter 3

Please use the the social media boxes below to SHARE this article to reach all the friends of shipping container architecture everywhere.

Container Architecture – A Dialogue with Nature

Shipping containers are superior building material that enables people to build safe, durable and environmentally friendly homes with with a relatively small capital. Thanks to strong pillars in their four corners, shipping containers can be piled into high complexes. One aspect that has not gained that much attention is that shipping containers can be easily adjusted with their natural surroundings.

Shipping container architecture tries to use containers as wisely as possible in order to minimize users’ costs also after the installation process. Usually shipping container buildings are equipped with solar panels enabling the utilization of sustainable and green energy. For instance the Coca-Cola Company has installed solar-powered kiosks to many developing countries.

Shipping containers are not only modular but also adjustable. The material sets only a limited amount of limitations for designers and architects. Shipping containers can have various door solutions. Open-top containers can even be used to create swimming pools.

Because of the simple steel structure of shipping containers, only welding is needed to modify their structure. Because shipping containers are designed to carry heavy loads only on their corner pillars, roofing needs to be done with special care. You can read some tips about roofing for container shelters here.

Container houses can be built to be naturally illuminated and naturally ventilated what brings the maintenance costs down to minimum. (More details can be found through references.)They can also be implemented to be resistant of heat, just like Seville shipping container cruise terminal that does not get hot even during hot summers.

Shipping container architecture is going mainstream as more people engage in building homes, hotels, offices, entertainment centers or even private summer residences out of shipping containers. We in Shanghai Metal Corporation offer many kinds of shipping containers for industries to use. If you are interested in buying shipping containers, please send us an inquiry and our English speaking staff will give you guidance. For technical specifications please visit our website. Please also follow us on our social media platforms.

    

#BuildingValueAcrossTheGlobe

Tuomas P. // SMC Editor

Details about the container houses in the pictures : Home Edit, Inhabitat, Inthralld

Architectural Triumphs With Galvanized Steel

Corrugated and sheet metals such as galvanized steel have come a long way in the architectural and construction communities from when they were simply a strong and effective material used as roofing. It has come to the point now where they can be the feature of a home or building and used both inside and out.

This idea of galvanized steel as a universal building material is shown below where the house features has used it for both a roofing material and as exterior wall cladding. This industrial appearing material, when combined with the natural aesthetic of wood creates a juxtaposition between man and nature, especially given the lush backdrop of rural Australia.

From an interior perspective there is an increasing trend to use both corrugated, flat and shaped galvanized steel for both ceilings and walls. The remarkable example below featured in the master bedroom of  a modern home show how the metallic surface of galvanized steel can add a touch of modernity to a design, with the corrugated sheeting offering a texture rarely seen in the interior of a home.

The versatility of this material is undeniable, with designers stretching their imagination to previously-thought impossible lengths. As is witnessed in the examples below; the ability to bend, shape, curve and erect this material at extreme pitches can lead to some outstanding design possibilities. The home on the left features a nearly 100% external composition of pre-painted corrugated galvanized steel proving the residents with high bush-fire protection, energy efficiency as well as a remarkable aesthetic!

In contrast to these curves seen above the design featured below presents an opposing dynamic of this material. With its sheer pitched sides, long straight lengths and intense angles it is hard not to appreciate the capabilities this material offers to architects and the remarkable results that are left for the eye to enjoy.

Shanghai Metal Corporation is a world leader in innovative metal manufacture and will strive to meet all of your building and design specifications. To find out more, please visit our Website or send your inquiry here. Our English speaking personnel will be more than pleased to help you. Follow us on  LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel. Or you could try our new mobile app by scanning our QR code.

Sources: Ral Homes, Colorbond, ArchiExpo & Freshome

Dominick F.//SMC Editor

Read more articles by this author here.

#BuildingValueAcrossTheGlobe

Container Summer Pavilions – Luxury for the Modest

Have you ever dreamed about having a summer cottage of your own? Are you considering to buy one or perhaps to build it yourself? Building a vacation house according to one’s own design sounds fantastic, but you might be worried about the costs or confused about the choice of material. Luckily, there is a solution – shipping containers!

Besides shipping goods, shipping containers are also suitable for building beautiful homes in low cost. Actually, the price of an individual 40 ft or 20ft shipping container starts from US 2000. There are at least two reasons why the price is that low.

 

First, the manufacturing process is standardized according to ISO regulations enabling businesses to put containers into mass production. Second, there is a lot of oversupply of containers. According to some statistics, nearly 10,000 units sink annually in the world’s seas and thousands will be abandoned after their first use (read more about a case).

Building out of recycled shipping containers is as good as using totally new ones, and it is also cheaper. Shipping containers are meant to last for ages and tolerate extreme weather conditions in the oceans.  Therefore besides low-cost, shipping containers are also durable and can be considered as a form of sustainable building. Containers are so durable that they can even be converted into shelters for natural disasters.

What’s more, shipping containers come with unlimited design opportunities. The door solutions of shipping containers come in many forms and open-top containers can be transformed into swimming pools. Thanks to the pillars in their four corners, containers can be piled into a complexes of your desire. There are great examples of homes, hotels and stores that show container’s great architectural design. The container city in Mexico is know also for its visual design.

Inspiration for building an own container summer pavilion can be found in the container summer house competition organized by AC-CA. The pictures of these articles include representatives of the best contestant of the competition.

Besides vision and desire, you also will need the material. We in Shanghai Metal Corporation have a long history of providing standardized shipping containers for our international clients. We also have prefabricated container villa solutions that we ship  worldwide. For more details about our products, please visit our website or send us an inquiry.

    

Tuomas P. // SMC Editor

Pictures and original articles: Bustler, Bustler, Competitiononline, AC-CA, Wikipedia on Shipping Container Architecture

#BuildingValueAcrossTheGlobe

Better Education Obtained in Container Schools

Today shipping containers are used to build apartments, hotels, stores and saunas to name but a few. But why does it make sense to build schools out of containers?

The first reason is that especially old wooden school buildings are likely to have mold issues that may cause severe health risks. For example an article of a Finnish science magazine Tiede states that every second school in Finland has mold issues (source). Students are therefore either forced to stay in their mold school or move to another school. Container schools could be installed in relatively short time and with relatively low costs.

The second reason can be studied from Samsung. In 2012, the South Korean electronics chaebol established a shipping container school in the South African village of Phomolong as a part of its corporate-social responsibility program. The school offers its 21 students premium education facilities with solar powered electricity system and notebooks, an Internet connection and Samsung Galaxy tablets. (source)

In Orange County California, creative architects had an over three months projects of expanding the Waldorf School in Costa Mesa by using shipping containers. It took 99 days to build four buildings out of 32 shipping containers. The eco-friendly construction project cost two million US dollars which was estimated of being 10-20 percent cheaper than an “old-school” building project. Also it would have most likely taken more time than 99 days to finish by using other material than shipping containers.

There are many types of internationally standardized shipping containers. Some have an open top and some can be opened from the sides. Thereby it gives designers limitless opportunities to develop mobile education facilities. In order to solve mold related problems or take education to less developed areas, governments, nonprofit organizations and companies’ CSR managers should look for containerized education solutions.

Shanghai Metal Corporation is a proud provider of shipping containers. Our wide variety of container products can be seen in our website http://www.smccontainer.com. We hope that you also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. You can also try our new mobile application by scanning the QR code below.

Tuomas P. // SMC Editor

Pictures and original articles: Tiede magazine, Cnet, The Volt Report, Arch Daily, Wintech Modular Buildings, Lion Containers, Design Boom