Container Urbanism

The architects of Daiken-Met couldn’t find themselves a good office space in the city of Gifu, Japan. They decided to design and build the ideal studio themselves, which resulted in Sugoroku Office, a temporary moveable office that’s built from seven shipping containers. I’d say this three-level building is more than a piece of container architecture — it represents container urbanism.

The seven containers are set within a steel frame system to reduce loads on the containers and create space for balconies. Stairs on various sides of the building provide access up to the third floor. Besides its office function, the structure accommodates housing space and a storage system. Sugoroku Office’s interior is finished with used plywood and other materials found on a construction site.

As Daiken-Met Architects told Inhabitat, “in the local city, we are facing various problems such as decreasing population, increasing vacant land, on the other hand it is difficult to make a rental contract for small buildings”. Sugoroku Office is built on a small piece of land they the office could rent for a short period. The office can be easily dismantled, removed and rebuilt at another spot, proving this building to be an urban strategy itself that greatly builds upon Archigram’s futuristic thoughts on plug-in cities.