STATE OF FREIGHT

In the past 15 years designers and architects have been innovating shipping containers into livable homes, office spaces, and other  habitable structures. Dubbed "cargotecture", the relatively new movement repurposes shipping containers that come through the U.S. and are too expensive to ship back. There are entire building companies that now exist devoted to giving people their dream home or cabin in the woods made up completely of shipping containers. Durable, stackable, cheap and eco-friendly, they offer an alternative industrial style to the traditional brick and mortar.

A container can be modified into just about anything. They can be stacked to create an urban duplex, or dropped in the Texas hill country as a weekend outpost. Deus Ex Machina repurposed a container at their Sydney shop into a fully functioning workshop to shape their surfboards. Just outside of Austin, six containers propped up off the ground with sliding doors and a wooden patio are the suites of Round Top's FlopHouze Hotel. Local brewing company, 8th Wonder Brewery, has gotten in on it as well. They use open containers as pavilions and seating areas to shade the buzzed behind the taproom.

Structures made from containers are being built with the intent of permanence unlike before. Temporary buildings have been used at schools and businesses in the past but this concept takes it a step further when it starts to rely on design and modernization to provide  spaces that are both architecturally and aesthetically sound. When those two aspects are working in tandem you get a more unique place to hang your hat for a weekend getaway or even a place to call home.