Freitag Takes Container Architecture to New Heights
Freitag is a Swiss company that uses recycled truck tarps to create a popular line of messenger bags; the company's brand blends a green sensibility with an ample dose of raw urban grit. True to form, then, Freitag's new flagship store in Zurich was built entirely of recycled shipping containers, stacked 26 meters (86 feet) high. Designed by Annette Spillmann and Harald Echsle in Zurich,the building is officially called the "Freitag Individual Recycled Freeway Shop," which is probably even more of a mouthful in German than it is in English. So, for convenience sake, the company just calls it the F-Shop. As Freitag explains in its press release:
The FREITAG SHOP ZURICH is completely built from rusty, recycled freight-containers. Lovingly they were gutted, reinforced, piled up and secured. Zurich’s first bonsai-skyscraper: Low enough not to violate the city’s restriction on high-rise buildings. High enough to send shivers down anyone’s spine.
No word on what they mean by "bonsai-skyscraper," but when we asked Google's online translation tool to render the expression in German, we got "Bonsaiwolkenkratzer" -- which really needs no further explanation.
It seems Freitag also maintains a Flickr account, and the company recently posted photos of the now-completed store, captured just as the first shipment of merchandise was being loaded inside.
It's no secret that Telstar Logistics harbors a deep appreciation for the history and design of shipping containers, so hats off to Freitag for the bold and clever design of their new Zurich store.
Stock-in Flickr Photoset by FREITAG®: LINK
Construction process photos from FREITAG®:
Container tower perspectives: LINK
Stacking the containers: LINK
Freitag goes container shopping: LINK
Flickr's "Big Metal Box" group, for photos of the "modular metal boxes that have changed the way we move cargo, the way we shop, and the cities we live in:" LINK
Surely that gets a bit hot in the Summer months?
Posted by: Gavin | 05 October 2006 at 10:44 PM
"Surely that gets a bit hot in the Summer months?"
Not anymore than a normally constructed building does. Shipping containers are built pre-insulated. Put a standard central AC unit in there and its just like a normal house.
Posted by: Brian | 06 October 2006 at 07:01 AM
In the second photo, there appears to be a small tree on the roof of the upper-most container. I wonder if perhaps that's where the "bonzai" reference comes from...
I haven't dropped in on Telstar Logistics in a while, great to see you're still posting excellent stuff.
Posted by: garth breaks | 06 October 2006 at 07:35 AM
Surely it is a bonsai skyscraperu because it has the proportions of a skyscraper, height to width-wise, and the overall dimensions of a smaller structure. A bonsai tree, you see, looks like a larger tree but is, in fact, quite small. A banzai skyscraper, on the other hand, sits in wait of passersby and then leaps out at them. Bandai skyscrapers wear masks so you can't tell that they are speaking in Japanese and just dubbed into English. Hentai skyscrapers look like wangs.
Posted by: Don Pardo Calrissian | 06 October 2006 at 08:05 AM
" "Surely that gets a bit hot in the Summer months?"
Not anymore than a normally constructed building does. Shipping containers are built pre-insulated. Put a standard central AC unit in there and its just like a normal house.""
Actually, having worked on cutting holes through several shipping containers, I can assure you that standard containers have no insulation. The floor is wood, but the sides are the same piece of corrugated metal, inside and out. You might have dealt with refrigerated containers, which would need to be insulated.
"In the second photo, there appears to be a small tree on the roof of the upper-most container."
My best guess is that this was from "topping out" the structure--a ceremony marking the placement of the last beam of a structure. Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topping_out; a more extensive article: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3732/is_200110/ai_n8986046
Posted by: Bats22 | 06 October 2006 at 06:22 PM
Looks like someone has used the same idea to make some snazzy looking apartments as well.
http://flickr.com/photos/toddsheridan/120470208/
and if you just want to build your own house...well
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/01/shipping_contai.php
Posted by: bsmif | 12 October 2006 at 12:20 PM
freitag tower building is disaster. statics was not strong!
see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvPcsfdTWI0
building suddenly falls! verry crazy!!
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