Container City, Trinity Buoy Wharf
Architecture Week, 16 June
Urban Space Management
Eric Reynolds and Peter Ahrends
The modular design of Container City (dormant shipping containers stacked on-top of each other), located in a regenerated area of the London Docklands, Trinity Buoy Wharf, has been widely appraised for its design, environmental awareness, affordability and versatility.
The founding director of Urban Space Management, Eric Reynolds championed his vision at the 1996 LLDC competition, aimed at creating a centre for the arts and creative enterprise. Having won with his visionary proposal, Reynolds and partner Peter Ahrends pioneered the conversion of low-cost shipping containers into durable and attractive buildings. Reynolds, now a regeneration advisor throughout the UK, has confirmed his reputation and success in projects such as Gabriel’s Wharf, Old Spitalfields Market and Chelsea Farmers’ Market.
Container City has a minimal carbon footprint using 80% recycled material, costing less than half of a conventional building. Environmentally, the structure by default is more efficient, providing ventilation and improved insulation. In particular, onsite construction has been vastly reduced, the units are constructed offsite, leaving only the digging of minimal foundations and securing the modules into place upon delivery.
Drawing a parallel to Corbusier’s idea of stackable housing, buildings such as Unité d’habitation, Marseille (whereby each apartment is an echo of the next), employs identical blocks to create multiple units of housing. Reynolds, having started with mundane dimensions has resisted the urge to create a building whereby each unit echoes the next. The modules have been arranged (rather than the façade existing on one plane) so that units protrude; creating a dynamic environment and as was the aim, cultivating creative discourse and enterprise.
Other useful link: Creative Space Agency