concept & vision

we reclaim 50 shipping containers from the adjacent Port of Newark and retrofit them to house the operation offices of the east-coast plant of a metal recycling company. The containers are stacked three levels high and lifted on a steel frame to allow parking underneath. Highlighting the building's proximity to Newark Airport, we orient the building's flat and expansive west façade to face airport's incoming traffic and inscribe it with the super-graphic logo of the company

design & architecture

we stack 40-foot containers lengthwise to provide horizontal circulation at each level and to act as a billboard. And then, on the opposite side, we plug 40 and 20-foot containers perpendicularly for an articulated east elevation with different volumes jutting out at different levels. This complex articulation responds to the organizational layout of the different departments

program & use

office space containers are combined to create larger areas such as the conference rooms and bull pens, or used individually as small offices and service areas. At the second level, one of the 40-foot containers juts out of the east elevation extending into a bridge that spans over the entrance and exit scales to provide an elevated check point for incoming and exiting delivery trucks

impact & significance

an attempt to propose a different form of stacking along the New Jersey industrial waterfront right at the beginning of growing awareness for the shipping container as an obstructing object. As an early project engaging containers at this scale, we engaged the building department proactively and managed to get the building through construction drawings and to be fully permitted - right then, the company was bought by a larger conglomerate and our project cancelled as a result