netherlands – Shanghai Metal Corporation

The Artistic Masterpieces of Shipping Containers

Shipping containers can be turned into almost any kind of facilities, one of them being arts. In Japan there is actually a container art competition called Kobe Biennale that motivates contestants to realize their wild ideas on how the interior space of shipping containers can be used to express art.

The biannually held competition has produced various creative pieces of art. In our former article we already discussed how Japanese artist turned a recycled shipping container into a playable guitar that lets visitors to know how it feels to be inside an instrument. In 2013 the designers Masakazu Shirane and Saya Miyazaki introduced a new container art concept.

Garden is a huge origami-inspired kaleidoscope built of 1,100 triangular mirrors that are connected by zippers. It’s big enough to walk inside for an immersive experience and small enough to fit in a shipping container. (via Gizmondo)

Even though these container artworks’ interior is rather extraordinary, their outer appearance can be described as being usual. Still, because shipping containers are made of corrugated steel walls, they can rather easily be modified by cutting and welding. Our article on South Korea’s container sunset observatory shows an example on how containers can be welded together in different angles. They can also be flipped upwards like the container train station in the Netherlands. They can also be turned into Japanese origami shaped structures like this instance in Rotterdam (via Superuse).

If you are a container artist looking for materials, we have them in Shanghai Metal Corporation. See our wide variety of shipping containers in our website. You can also contact us directly through this form. Check also our social media sites for future updates.

Tuomas P. // SMC Editor

Pictures and original articles: Core 77 , Kobe Biennale, Gizmondo, Superuse

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Creative applications of coins

Many people get annoyed when their wallets are full of coins. All those clinking sounds in a pocket while you are walking… But have you ever thought of using these coins for something else than paying for chewing gums or helping homeless people?

Several artists have seen the possibility in spare change we carry around and showed that coins don’t have just financial worth.

New York City’s design firm Sagmeister & Walsh created this masterpiece over the eight-day period, covering are of 3,200 square feet and over 100 volunteers helped them to sort the coins by color tone and place them in space in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It was made up of 250,000 Euro one-cent pieces.

The piece above is created from steel, brass and one-cent coins. Stars and stripes were cut to make an accurate although not a colorful rendition of the U.S. flag. It was created by Stacey Lee Webber.

This portrait of Nelson Mandela, the former South African president, that measures 44 by 31 inches was created out of 5,340 pennies. The British artist Ed Chapman also created mosaic works of pop-cultural icons including Albert Einstein, John Lennon and Marilyn Monroe.

Johnny Swing’s amazing settee made out of 7,000 nickels and 35, 000 welds.

Coin playing cards created by Ted Stanke.

Amazing penny dress created by Raymond Waters in 2010.

And at the end of our article this cute coin panda. Just a bamboo stick is missing!

Shanghai Metal Corporation offers customer steel, copper, other metals and products. For more information visit our main website or send us inquiry. English speaking staff will guide you further. Download our application by scanning QR code below or follow us on Social Media.

Silvia M.//SMC Editor

Read more articles written by this author here.

Credits: sackmagazine.com, accountingschoolguide.com, inspirationgreen.com, googleimages.com

Pleasant Waiting in Container Train Stations

A dutch architects company NL Architects has designed a new railway station that makes passengers’ waiting experience more comfortable. They have built the station out of shipping containers.

According to the company’s research, waiting times in railway stations is generally experienced three times longer than they actually are. This creates a big challenge for small stations that are usually unmanned, desolate and create a sense of lack of safety. The Dutch architect company found a way how solve this problem with minimum effort.

They wanted a cheap and light material that would be easy to put together and take apart. Therefore they used shipping containers to build this structure that consists four containers. Three of them work as a roof above glazed waiting room. One container is an open-bottom container creating more space while two other horizontally installed closed containers build storage. The fourth container has been flipped upwards to create a clock tower. The tower has a bathroom with natural light coming from the glazed ceiling window.

The interior design is supposed to bring human presence for passengers. The 20 planned stations will include Wifi, floor heating, railway TV and different kinds of artworks. The stations will also be equipped with multi-functional shops that sell e.g. flowers or coffee. Thereby the structure is said to have maximum output with minimum effort.

Shipping containers can be modified easily with cutting or welding. Thereby they are also easy to be retrofitted into their surroundings. Most of the containers are also equipped with generators. These properties allow shipping containers to become beautiful affordable homes, leisure houses, offices and many more facilities.

Shanghai Metal Corporation proudly provides this superior building material internationally. In order to know more about our container buildings, please visit our website. You can also send us an inquiry and ask for more details. Check also our social media platforms.

Tuomas P. // SMC Editor

Pictures and original articles: Dezeen, NL Architects

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Container Libraries – The Little Helpers of Inspirational Education

A library made out of shipping containers in gaining popularity among the youth in the Netherlands. An architectural innovation designed by Jord den Hollander is a library on wheels that parks in schools to offer their students a new way of getting inspired to read books.

Den Hollander came up with idea by realizing that the narrow Dutch streets need a library that was also both narrow and could be able to have many books and a reading room. The BiebBus library is divided in to two sections, the lower section being the library and the upper section being the reading room. The library holds over 100 meters of books that the students can read lying on their beanbags upstairs. The remarkable interior design is emphasized by a transparent floor between sections.

Another container library is set in Indonesia, where a company named Dpavilion architects has installed a container facility that operates as “the windows of the world” offering education, inspiration and entertainment for people with small income. The facility also has a container clinic that is to offer medical assistance for the locals.

Shipping containers are made of durable steel that gives protection even in rough weather conditions. The simple steel structure and the standardized manufacturing process makes this superior construction material also really low-cost. Therefore the present and the future trends of affordable housing and sustainable architecture will be among shipping containers.

Shanghai Metal Corporation offers a wide variety of shipping containers. Please visit our websites of containers and container houses to see detailed descriptions. If you are planning your own construction project, please send us an inquiry and our English speaking staff will give you assistance. Meanwhile please visit our social media sites Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

Tuomas P. // SMC Editor

Pictures and original articles: Inhabitat, Dpavilion Architects, Inhabitat, Domus

Copper doesn’t just make cents

The surge in copper prices has recently lead to thefts of this red metal all over the world. Gutter, cables, coils or pipes have been ripped off buildings and they are sold on the black markets. These thieves are only interested in financial gain but architects are using copper more and more, not for just practical purposes but also for its aesthetic allure. Let’s have a look!

Happo Museum – Tshwane, South Africa

Hapo Museum (hapo = hope or dream in the Khoi language) was designed by GAPP, Mashabane Rose Architects and MMA to showcase over 3 billions years of history in South Africa. The building complex is clad with copper panels which are meant to age naturally. “With walls and roof all clad in copper sheeting, the outcrop will rust to green and merge with the natural landscape.” state the architects.

Fujitsubo Beauty Parlor – Tokyo, Japan

Tokyo’s trendy Omotesando district has an incredible parlor Fujitsubo (“barnacle” in Japenese) Beauty Parlor. Japenese Archivision Hirotani Studio built it with a great example of copper cladding continuously from rooftop to the ground. It is bright and reflective and supposed to age incrementally to degrees dependent on amounts of sunlight and rain received at different areas of the structure.

fujitsubo01 — Fujitsubo Beauty Parlor, Japan

The Rock at Wellington International Airport – Wellington, New Zealand

This “Rock” was designed by Studio Pacific Architecture. They wanted to combine functionality and capacity that should become a memorable visitor experience at the airpoirt. The rock’s folded copper-clad walls are intended to invoke the character of Wellington’s South Coast area.

The-Rock-CD-Pictures-001-584x271 — Wellington’s Rock, New Zealand

There are even more copper buildings like Villa ArenA Woonmall Restaurant – Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Schloss Grafenegg Concert Hall – Grafenegg Castle, Austria, Svalbard Science Centre – Longyearbyen, Norway and others.

villa arena amsterdam — Villa Arena, Netherlands

austria — Schloss Grafenegg Concert Hall, Austria

norway — Svalbard Science Centre, Norway

You can find more about copper products on Shanghai Metal Corporation’s website or send us inquiry. Our English speaking personnel will gladly help you with any problems. We will be happy if you follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LindkedIn. You could also download our new application by scanning QR code below.

Silvia M.//SMC Editor

You can find more articles written by this author here.

Credits : weburbanist.com, inhabitat.com, copperinvestingnews.com, archdaily.com, googleimages

Fabbing 3D Printed Houses Using Soybean: The Revolution in Housing Industry

Imagine a time when we all could afford a house. Imagine a time when all houses no differently are “green” with zero environment impact. Each “green” house could be customized according to users’ needs and desires, but yet has the same features of traditional cement-and-brick houses to accommodate plumbing system, electrical wiring and insulation. These “green” housing structures are made of biodegradable soybean based material, which can be torn down and 100% recycled.

This future may be here sooner than we all could have imagined. Sofoklis Giannakoupoulous, a researcher at Barcelona’s IaaC (the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia) has been developing a building structure that is stronger than reinforced concrete. He uses a soybean-based brownish-looking powder that could be extruded – or 3D printed – that are more solid than concrete.

Although it may sound absurd others companies have been experimented their own biodegradable mix materials to print chunks of buildings. Most notably companies such as Dus Architects and Ultimaker in the Netherlands have only printed so far a 3m-high, 180-kg sample corner of the future canal house using hotmelt, a bio-plastic mix that’s about 75% plant oil.

Watch here http://vimeo.com/87843940 the 3D Print Canal House – the world’s first movable 3D-printer pavillion. They plan to construct skycrapers by stacking and connecting the chunks together like LEGO bricks, forming multi-story complexes.

The technologies offered by the new 3D-housing-printing could revolutionize the way we make our cities. With 3D-printing we challenge the conventional building industry, one of the most polluting and environment harmful; there is no waste, construction costs are reduced, industrial waste from demolished buildings can be recycled and turned into new building materials and the new biodegradable materials are less expensive than concrete.

The future scenario of the 3D printing is yet to be seen but its game-changing potential is already provoking much interest in the public; over 2,000 people have come to visit the site, including the US president, Barack Obama.

Shanghai Metal Corporation takes pride in the manufacturing and trading of metal products used in manufacturing 3D printer parts. Tin coil, tin plate, and other metal clays such as copper, bronze, steel, have excellent features and properties in corrosion resistance and varying applications for printing plates, paint containers and parts used in 3D printers. We guarantee the best prices, quality support, and fast delivery. To find out more, please visit our Website, WordPress, LinkedIn , Twitter , Facebook and Instagram. Or you could try our new mobile app by scanning our QR code. Moreover, we sell directly from Alibaba , EC21 and Tradekey.

#BuildingValueAcrossTheGlobe

Source and Pictures: 3dprintingindustry.com, 3dprinting-stocks.com, archdaily.com, huffingtonpost.com, gigaom.com

Camilla G.//SMC Editor

The Solution for Overcrowded Prisons – Container Jails

Shipping containers are made to be durable. Because of their strength they are also an ideal building material that can be used to build safe homes. Actually, the safety level of shipping containers is so high that they can be used also to build prisons.

In Australia’s Victoria, the local government is establishing a prison system made out of containers. The plan is to set up 50 containers for a hundred prisoners until Christmas. Victoria is an area of overcrowded prisons, and therefore containers bring an excellent solution for the problem. Australia is also planning to apply the same solution in other areas as well.

Victoria’s prisons are meant for medium-security prisoners. The next question could be, taken the fact that shipping containers are as they are, how can one increase their security level? Modifying the prisons environment would be the only option. Setting up an Alcatraz style prison in the middle of an area of water area would work. That is actually something that can be implemented with containers.

The idea of floating container recreation centers is being implemented in Europe. The city of London is planning to construct a village of shipping containers on the River Thames. The 15-acre site would have 50 homes, cafes, bars and restaurants. They have also implemented some smaller scale projects in the Netherlands.

Whether it is container apartments or just tools for shipping goods, Shanghai Metal Corporation can offer the solution. We sell premium shipping containers that can be used according to clients’ preferences. To know more about our containers, please visit our website. Also follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. Try also downloading our mobile application by scanning the QR code below.

Tuomas P. // SMC Editor

Pictures and original articles: Rawlinsons.co.nz, Sourceable.net, Theage.com.au, Abc.net.au, Asiapacific.anu.edu.au, Greenbiz.com, Daily Mail, Odt.co.nz

Top 10 Countries For Internet Speed

If you thought it was South Korea , you were mistaken. South Korea’s speed is down 13% last year and has been surpassed by Hong Kong. Hong Kong benefits from its top rate infrastructure and money from the world over. Internet speeds averaged 9.3 Mbps last year, up 5.4% from a year ago. This compares to average mainland China internet speeds of just 1.7 Mbps.

Next on the list as you can see are the usual suspects, Singapore and Northern European countries though Macau has made the cut this year with 40 mbps according to netindex.

These innovations in internet speeds can largely be accredited to the commercialization of fibre optics. About 20 years ago, companies which provide telecommunications services, particularly Internet providers, realized the immense potential of fiber optic cables. These foresighted companies began installing fiber optic cables everywhere, and for a long time the cost of these services was too high for the average consumer. However, as these companies recoup their massive installation costs as more customers sign up for service, the costs are now affordable even for small businesses and home users. Here’s how fiber optics are changing the Web, and indeed, the world.

The differences in fiber optic Internet services, as opposed to the older copper wire technology used by dial-up Internet services, are significant. First, users never have to worry about a poor quality connection causing loss of service. Second, fiber optics eliminate the lengthy wait times for Web pages to load, messages to be transmitted, or images to upload. Fiber optics are ideal for an interconnected world such as ours, because it allows for real-time experiences on social media sites, such as Facebook, YouTube, Limewire, Skype, and other sites heavy on audio and video.

It also has practical and useful business applications. Shanghai Metal manufactures the stainless steel strip used for optical fiber cable protection tubes. To find out more, please visit our website, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Or you could try our new mobile app by scanning our QR code.

You can also read more articles by our team at SMC:

Drunk Man Found In Container Bound For The USA

Containers – The New Political Soapbox

Move Along Airplanes – Submarines Overtake Travel

Thor’s Hammer: The Science

Shipping Container City – Shanghai Immigrant’s Homes

Can You Do A 360 Degree Loop On A Swing Set?

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Counterfeit Money Cases

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Air Quality – What Can Be Done?

Team Building Exercises – A New Spin

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The Antarctican Training Programme – Could You Make It?

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A Smart Car Jumps Over a Bridge Every Day!

They have filmed some really astonishing car jump stunts in Hollywood. In real life, the jumps such as James Bond: The Man With the Golden Gun, Thelma and Louise and Terminator 2, would result in absolutely catastrophic damage. Still, there is a car that jumps over a bridge every single day.

In Rotterdam, you can see a Smart Car jumping over an elevated bridge from miles away. The thing that you will see is actually a billboard advertisement made by an advertising agency BBDO Düsseldorf to promote the sales of the Smart BRABUS car. The billboard is attached to the cutting point of the bridge, and when the bridge opens, it seems like the Smart car is jumping over the bridge.

The BRABUS campaign lead to a phenomenal success of more than 2000 cars sold before its launch. Smart car is famous also for its other creative marketing campaigns. The small size of the car has inspired its marketers to design, say, unique small size parking spaces for only smart cars a way to promote the car’s fuel efficiency (see the picture below). The Rotterdam Bridge campaign is really groundbreaking in automobile industry.

Shanghai Metal Corporation has successfully implemented some major bridge building projects. Our projects include the pedestrian bridge in Shanghai’s Wuzhou Avenue, an airport highway in Hefei city and an arch bridge in Zhejiang province’s city of Caidong.

To know more about our bridge building projects, please visit our website. Also follow us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. You can also download our new mobile application by scanning the QR code below.

SMC #BuildingValueAcrossTheGlobe

Tuomas P. // SMC Editor

Pictures and original stories: Toxel.com, Adsoftheworld.com, Jalopnik.com