Shipping Container Museums
Posted in Design, Internationalism, Museum Expansionism on 13. Apr, 2009
shipping container building by dav. Used under Creative Commons.
WebEcoist.com has some interesting pictures about other uses for shipping containers. Clearly the ones that attract me are the shipping containers-as-museums.
The first one is the Shigeru Ban’s Nomadic Museum (good pictures here), which is made out of shipping containers and cardboard and is… shipped all over the world to host an exhibition.
The other one is the ContainerArt project, where containers become temporary exhibition space. It appears that the containers were used more like mobile installation pieces. Still, it’s very clever.
I think about something between the two. A museum of stackable exhibition spaces. Not just side-by-side art pieces or just a large building to put stuff in, but a set of containers… containing a museum as a whole, travelling around the world. Set the displays right and you’ll only need to close the doors and be on your way. Design the exhibition right and the containers could stack in multiple different ways to fit a variety of spaces.
I’m starting to believe you don’t need museum buildings anymore. Just a whole bunch of mobile or temporary exhibitions in mobile or temporary buildings with maybe a single centre for conservation and storage.
Like a circus?
I’ve been looking at these containers for a long time for such possibilities as temporary (or even permanent) exhibit space. I’m glad someone’s found it feasible to actually take action with the idea.
The “halls” of the Red Sea jazz festival at the port of Eilat, Israel are built by stacking and arranging shipping containers.
Here’s an example
http://www.tinamay.com/news.htm