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Shipping container skyscrapers proposed for

Mumbai
SolarCity® O听�cial
Lloyd Alter (@lloydalter)
Design / Green Architecture
September 1, 2015
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© Ganti + Associates

Here is the winner of an international ideas competition for housing in the slums of
MOST POPULAR RIGHT NOW
Mumbai, designed by Ganti + Asociates (GA) Design. The competition actually was for
1 Gorgeous new prefab is
container skyscraper, which is a debatable concept from the start, and I think
modular. Or is it Flat-pack?
demonstrates many of the problems with container architecture. Or post-and-beam? Never
mind.

2 Man who lives alone in the

woods has recorded 40
years of important data on
snow

3 Trees form friendships and

remember their
experiences

There's lots to learn from these

small house plans from the '60s

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4

5 How sprawl was caused by

the nuclear arms race, and
why this matters more than
ever today

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Organizing

© Ganti + Associates
The 'No Shampoo'
movement is catching
The design takes advantage of the fact that one can stack containers nine high when on
Shampoo sales have plummeted
full, 16 high when empty.
over the past year, partly due to
the fact ...

Containers can be stacked 10 storeys high without additional supports. The steel by Katherine Martinko in Organic Beauty

skin itself takes the load like a “Monocoque” structure thus cutting cost for
Brilliant camper van
additional columns or beams. The design of a 100 M tall high rise structure (approx. conversion uses space-
saving boat design
32 storeys) calls for erecting portal frames connected with steel girders placed every
ideas

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This impressive DIY camper van conversion for a
8 storeys. Each 8 storey self-supporting stack rests on these girders and the module
family of four feels quite ...
repeats vertically. by Kimberley Mok in Tiny Houses

The problem is that you can only stack them on their corner castings; the monocoque is
not strong enough to support another container on top. So you would not be able to jog

them in and out as shown.

© Ganti + Associates

Then there is the issue of the plans; beds are 75 inches long. Containers are 90 inches

wide inside without insulation. In Mumbai you are de⸓�nitely going to need insulation
that probably takes the width down to 87 inches if it is only insulated on the outside.

Which means you only have 12 inches to get around the end of the bed. Which is not

very realistic.

In fact, none of the entries in this silly competition are very realistic, because shipping
containers do not make very good housing. As noted in my post, Does Shipping

Container Architecture Make Sense?, I have been surrounded by shipping containers

since I was ten; my dad started building them in 1962. I learned early that their

dimensions were based on the dimensions of 留atbed trucks and rail cars, not furniture,

and were designed to be ⸓�lled with freight, not people. Perhaps it was a bad career

move, not building on this experience, but there you go. And hey, ideas competitions

are fun.

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© AKKA Architects

In almost every architectural competition I look at, it seems I prefer the honorable

mentions better than the winners. That certainly happened here, where I ⸓�nd that the
most interesting entry is from Stephanie Hughes of AKKA Architects in Amsterdam. She

has designed a simple framework that acts as a platform that you insert the container

houses in.

© AKKA Architects

This allows the occupants a lot more 留exibility in how they use the space around their

units; in fact, it is a city in the sky with all kinds of things going on. The architect notes:

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© AKKA

The housing 留ats in this complex have private but also semi-public and public

sections allowing small home-based businesses and production units to be run

from the ‘residential’ units. In addition, Living frame|work contains open plazas,

public spaces, ramps, stairs, water collection systems, solar farms, recycling
facilities, leather tanneries, metal and wood workshops, pottery studios, garments,

luggage and jewellery workshops…etc. In its diဩ�erent towers and diဩ�erent areas

(ground 留oors and roofs), this project houses diဩ�erent neighbourhoods with their

diဩ�erent activities and industries.

© AKKA Architects

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The plan of the units more accurately represent the real width inside the boxes, and is

probably luxury accommodation in the slums of Mumbai.

As with the Evolo competitions, I am always amazed by the energy and skill that goes

into these entries that almost nobody ever sees and that have no possibility of being

built. Unlike most of the Evolo entries, both of these schemes have been proposed by

established architectural ⸓�rms that have built real buildings. A lot of architects avoid

competitions for real buildings because so much energy goes into them for so little

possibility of gain; It surprises me still that they go into ideas competitions like this.

It also still surprises me that shipping containers are still treated as magic boxes that

can do anything while costing nothing. So much work going on here, so much time, such

substandard results. Why bother?

See more of the entries here.

Related on TreeHugger.com:
Does Shipping Container Architecture Make Sense?

Does shipping container architecture make sense? Sometimes

Art gallery in Tokyo is built out of shipping containers (sort of)

Tags: Design Competitions | India | Shipping Containers

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11 Comments TreeHugger.com 
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Join the discussion…

Jack Rodgers • a year ago
Containers may be cheap if they are in a junk yard rusting but if builders start buying them
then the price of used containers will rise and as they become scarce they will cost even
more.

The real secret here is that the plan is to get the poor to move into these units then at night
seal them and transfer them to ships and send them elsewhere.... :)
△   ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Drackar • a year ago
I think a shipping container tower in Mumbai makes a lot more sense than in most cities.
First, it's a community where a lot of people are from families who are, historically, poor, and
are used to cramped spaces. You can get someone used to living in a shack to consider this
a "step up" a lot better than someone raised in a two bedroom condo or other standard form
of American housing.

Also, it's a port city. Massive quantities of affordable containers are actually around, so this
building COULD be made (with some structural modifications, either by streamlining it or by
welding in some supports here and there) relatively cheaply...at least in theory, making it
more affordable to a larger group of people.

Is it a fantastic idea? Nah. Is it an elegant design? Not really. Is it viable? eh. maybe.
1 △   ▽ • Reply • Share ›

bkydcmpr • a year ago
these maybe cost efficient but they are super energy­inefficient.
1 △   ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Milessio > bkydcmpr • a year ago
For replacing slums in India, cost IS rather important.

Having a master bedroom & deck seems to show one has completely missed where
& who will live in them, but I'm not a trained architect.

I always think competitions give interns and others something to do when work is
light, and can be added to their website to increase the breadth of their skills.
1 △   ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Jack Rodgers > Milessio • a year ago
The best solution to slums is to reduce the population.
△   ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Jack Rodgers > Jack Rodgers • a year ago
...but the solution has its own problem, doesn't it.

Some people might not want to be reduced...

Non­reproduction for the next 40 years might help as the deaths
during that period might reduce the population by half or more...

Could we develop a birth control vapor? Where's Kurt Vonegut when
we need him?
△   ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Nelson > Jack Rodgers • a year ago
You start talking about overpopulation as a problem, the
overpopulation deniers will label you a race hater.
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overpopulation deniers will label you a race hater.
△   ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Jack Rodgers > Nelson • a year ago
Then they don't know me. I enjoy diversity of people and what I can
learn from their culture. I have also in the last 60 years read headlines
that seem to repeat regularly about some part of the world suffering
from famine and how the population there has doubled and redoubled.

Maybe its a calendar thing with the press (I saw this in Florida with the
migrant workers). OK, its Feb 15, lets pull out the headline for "Famine
in xxxx".
△   ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Jack Rodgers > Nelson • a year ago
It isn't a problem of race, there are just too darn many people and
people are no longer sustainable. I'd be glad to enter a conversation
about this.
△   ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Tarrant  Mod   > Nelson •  a year ago

Well, there is always this as a way to reduce the population of people
in slums­­I know both you and Jack have seen it­­but it may interest
the rest of the people following this conversation:
http://www.mnn.com/earth­matte...

You might also both want to discuss the idea more thoroughly over
there.
△   ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Nelson > Tarrant • a year ago
I read that one, and what nonsense.
△   ▽ • Reply • Share ›

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