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Keetwonen, 1000 shipping containers from China modified into student housing in Amsterdam, is the largest shipping container housing development in the world.  It has been praised for its innovation, cost effectiveness and design.

For students, living in modified shipping containers is actually better than it sounds on paper.  Each unit addresses many of the common concerns for students living in student housing such as privacy and cleanliness, while retaining the social aspects of living in dorms.  Each unit includes amenities such as private bathroom, kitchen, separate sleeping and study room areas, ventilation, heat, hot water heater, large windows and even private balcony.

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National Theater - Hungary

Japanese Maritime Museum

Concrete Tall Ship Korea

Gerechtsgebouw, Antwerp

The Ship Residence

The Ship Residence - High upon a promontory on South Bass Island in Lake Erie at Put-in-Bay, Ohio, sits the Owners and Captains Quarters of the former Great Lakes Shipping Boat, The Benson Ford. The boat was built by Henry Ford and named after his grandson many years ago. After fifty years of service on the Great Lakes, the Benson Ford was scheduled in 1986 to be scrapped at the Port of Cleveland, Ohio. On the top front section of the boat were the walnut paneled state rooms, dining room, galley, and passenger lounge designed by Henry Ford for his own pleasure while traversing the Great Lakes on business. (Source: Sea-Fever)

Collingwood’s Vessel: a Retirement Home for Elderly Fisherman

Ship Drydock Design - The scheme is a retirement home for elderly fisherman that also houses a working men’s club for members of Newcastle’s fishing community,” Pearson writes. “As a reflection of the separation and torpor of this unique society, the scheme takes the notion of the ship in an architectural context, to create an ersatz environment which interacts with the city around it as if it were a dry docked vessel. The environmental technologies and the ways in which the notional ship has been translated into an architectural system are the focus of this study.” (Source: BLDBLOG)

BIG Maritime Museum Denmark

BIG’s Maritime Museum - BIG [the Bjarke Ingels Group], has recently won a competition [by unanimous decision, even though they apparently didn’t adhere to the design brief - ninjas in true form] to design the Danish Maritime Museum in Helsingør, DK. While searching for an appropriate site for the proposed project, the firm discovered an abandoned 150m long, 25m wide, and 9m deep concrete dry dock within eyesight of Kronborg Castle . (Source: MNY)

The Floating Islands

Floating Islands - A design by Vincent Callebaut Architectures, Floating Islands is a flexible masterplaned multi-energy town. By using current power generators and other green technology this is a futuristic design for green living. Callebaut’s vision is “creation which consists in mixing a scientifical and cultural survey with a computer programmatic approach in order to transcribe in architecture landscape distortions or ecosystem abstractions. Each architectural project at any scale, wants to anticipate through this digital hybridization, the future lifestyles by inventing new imaginary worlds. More poetic worlds. More equitable worlds. More natural worlds. Actually, more humanistic worlds! ”

Performing Arts Center, Seoul

Performing Arts Center, Seoul - ” Whereas the orchestra is in rehearsal, we continue our walk towards the places switched by the sound of the soprano and the violins. The both performing rooms of 1500 seats each are megaliths submerging from the floor. They are located at the extremities of the island and each of them is isolated from the road by two blocks gathering together annex functions like workshops and rehearsal rooms, public sanitary, offices and technical spaces. Their double layer of concrete protects the shows from feared sounds of low frequencies coming from the freeway traffic. They are very white and diffuse a extraordinary light ! The roundness of these hulls makes us think of the most beautiful ships and plays with the shadows of the linen seams which projects itself at the surface. ” (Source)

Nantes Slavery Memorial

Nantes Slavery Memorial, France - Bonder + Wodiczko are received an ACSA award for their work on the design of a memorial to the abolition of slavery [Memorial à l’abolition de l’esclavage] in Nantes, France. Visitors to the memorial will walk along an altered landscape, littered with plaques commemorating each ship that carried slaves into Nantes [the plaques will display the name of the ship, the date, the number of slaves on board, and the number of slaves who lost their lives on the voyage]. Having walked along the length of the glass [which you can see actually slips through the ground plane], visitors descend a monumental staircase into a subterranean passage where these three aforementioned witnesses - the river, the quay, and the sky - meet [through the reflection from the glass] in one confined space. (Source: Architecture.MNP)UPDATE: Reader Submissions

Milwaukee Art Museum

Milwaukee Art Museum - The Calatrava-designed Quadracci Pavilion, the first Calatrava-designed building to be completed in the United States, first opened to the public May 4, 2001. On that date the museum opened the new exhibition galleries, larger museum store and auditorium in the Quadracci Pavilion along with the completely renovated and reinstalled permanent collection galleries. (Via Joe Smith)

Canada Place, Vancouver Cruise Ship Terminal

Canada Place -  Constructed for Expo 86 as the pavilion for Canada and was the only venue for the fair that was not at the main site on the north shore of False Creek. It can be reached via the SkyTrain line and the nearby Waterfront Station subway terminus. The striking white sails of the building has made it a prominent landmark for the city, as well as drawing comparisons to the Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia. (Google Earth View)

Is it just me, or does something seem out of place here?

Located in the middle of Hong Kong’s largest private housing estate, Whompoa Garden, this cruise ship is  actually a huge shopping center.  Within it is more than 200 shops and restaurants, making it one of Whompoa Garden’s premier shopping locations.

On a side note, Whompoa Garden, including the shopping mall, was built by Huchtinson Whompoa Property on the former site of Kowloon Dock, or Whompoa Dock for short, previously the Hong Kong and Whompoa Dock Company Limited.  According to their website:

The company was established in 1863 to acquire docks and repair yards at Whampoa, on the Canton River in China, and the then newly constructed dry docks at Aberdeen on Hong Kong Island. In 1866, the company became the holder of the first Hong Kong business registration certificate issued under the new Companies Ordinance.

The company ran one of the largest dry-docking, ship repair and shipbuilding operations in the Far East for over a century, survived two World Wars and, at its peak, handled an average of 25 vessels per week. In 1960, it was servicing the ships of no fewer than 23 nationalities and 9 navies.

Check out the rest of its interesting history HERE.

Via Gizmodo

NPR brings us the latest developments from Dubai…

Constructing floating houses or restaurants or even villages is an idea that first came to him in his native Holland, where land to build on is scarce and water is plentiful.

The notion gained momentum for Van de Camp when he realized that rising sea levels from climate change made new ideas crucial. And it’s an idea that’s about to become a reality in Dubai.

Dubai has plenty of desert, but it also has miles of coastline along the Persian Gulf. They’ve built loads of artificial islands offshore, but they’ve run out of sand.

Van de Camp has given them a new option: floating islands.

You can read (and listen too!) the full story from NPR HERE, take a look at the company’s website HERE and watch the movie HERE.

Inhabitat brings us the RECYCLED FERRY HOME. They write:

How many of you have wished you could trade your apartment & crappy office space for a floating live/work houseboat in the San Francisco Bay? I know I have. I came across an article in last week’s New York Times (LINK) which refueled my hope that one day those houseboat dreams could actually come true. The inspiring article I read profiled Olle Lundberg, a modernist architect who works with salvaged industrial materials. Lundberg has a couple of amazing houses in the San Francisco bay area and basically lives the life that I would like to be leading someday as a successful eco-architect, commuting between two stunning residences built from entirely by hand, from salvaged material.

For more maritime inspired architecture click HERE.

(Thanks nubricks)

History is littered with bridges designed to do the impossible. One example, Euroroute (pictured above), would literally take drivers through the White Cliffs of Dover to an island five miles into the English Channel where a tunnel would bring drivers the twenty remaining miles to France. This bridge was never built of course but the dream existed.

Today bridges are being designed that would cast shadows over Euroroute’s proposed span. Here’s what is being planned.

Fehmarn Belt Bridge

Fehmarn Belt Bridge: Germany and Denmark have agreed upon building a 19km long bridge in between the two countries in the Fehmarn Belt region, and in that way shorten the trip between Scandinavia and central Europe. The construction of the bridge will be financed mostly by Denmark, with 4.8 billion euros, and Germany with 800 million Euros. The bridge will have two levels, one for road traffic, and one for rail. The start of construction is expected in 2011, and its opening in 2018. (Source: Javno)

Bering Strait Bridge

Bering Strait Bridge: The 55 mile long bridge across the Bering Strait would connect Asia and North America for the first time since the continents touched each other. At an estimated cost of 15 to 25 billion dollars this proposal is not only expensive but fraught with challenge. Ice breakup after each winter is violent and would destroy normal bridge piers. Specially shaped massive piers along the ocean floor would be needed to keep the bridge stable. (video - Map)

Hong Kong – Zhuhai – Macao Bridge

Hong Kong – Zhuhai – Macao Bridge: Being situated at the waters of Lingdingyang of Pearl River Estuary, is a large sea crossing linking the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), Zhuhai City of Guangdong Province and Macao Special Administrative Region. The functions of the bridge is to meet the demand of passenger and freight land transport among Hong Kong, the Mainland and Macao, to establish a new land transport link between the east and west coasts of the Pearl River, and to enhance the economic and sustainable development in the three places. (Source: Hong Kong Highways Dept.)

Strait of Gibraltar Bridge

Strait of Gibraltar Bridge: One of the great challenges to the bridge and structural engineering profession is the design and construction of a fixed bridge spanning the Strait of Gibraltar. Several engineers have advanced designs for the Gibraltar Bridge on various alignments and with differing structural configurations but it was Professor T.Y. Lin’s proposal that captured the attention of the world. This design is different. With its 14km length, deep piers, and unprecedented 5000 meter spans Lin’s proposed crossing is innovative but, considering an estimated cost of over 15 Billion dollars and the lack of approval for this nearly 10 year old design, we doubt it will ever be built.

Straight Of Gibraltar Island Bridge

Straight Of Gibraltar Island Bridge: Eugene Tsui, a US architect has an alternative idea for the Straight Of Gibraltar, in fact it could become the longest bridge in the world spanning the Strait of Gibraltar and connecting the continents of Europe and Africa. This revolutionary design does not resemble any existing bridge and features an original floating and submerging concept while creating a three mile wide floating island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. From this newly created island a person could view both the European and African continents for the first time in human history. If construction ever begins it will be the biggest architectural project in the world. (Source: tdrinc

The following bridge proposals are in so new that we could not locate any design drawings but you don’t need the drawings to grasp their awesome size:

Sunda Strait Bridge

The Sunda Strait Bridge is a planned road and railway connection between the two Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Java. After years of discussion and planning, eventually in October 2007 the Indonesian government gave the initial go-ahead for what will become the world’s longest suspension bridge, across the 26km (16mi) Sunda Strait. The $10bn project is for a series of bridges carrying a six lane highway and double track railway traversing three islands. The project’s greatest challenge is the fact that the strait lies in one of the world’s most dangerous earthquake zones. Sumatra is frequently rocked by significant tremors and more than 230,000 people were killed when a 9.0-magnitude quake in December 2004 triggered a tsunami. Many active volcanoes lies in the area, including Krakatoa only 40km away. (Source: Wikipedia - Map)

Qatar Bahrain Friendship Bridge

Look at a map of the world, and Qatar and Bahrain are so close that you would assume there was a ferry crossing between the two gulf countries. In fact, there is no way to enter the country except for a round trip through Saudi. The Bahrain-Qatar bridge, at 40 kilometres long, will be the longest bridge in the world, and it is estimated that it will take over four years to complete. Due to its length, the causeway will not consist of a single bridge but of a number of roads on dams connected by individual bridges, with a central island in the middle of the causeway. The has been planned for many years, but talks and plans have been moving ahead in recent months and work is now planned to start in May 2008. (Source: Qatar Visitor | Feasibility Study)

Millau Bridge

While these bridges are challenging, expensive and some are unlikely to be constructed the most impressive of the bunch is already built! Meet France’s Millau Bridge:

Millau Bridge: Towering 1,125ft above the Tarn Valley in southern France, driving along the Millau Bridge, the largest cable-stayed vehicular bridge in the world, is said to feel like flying. This Foster + Partners marvel is slightly taller than the Eiffel Tower, took three years to build and opened to the public in 2004. While it may provide picturesque views of the valley below, once the mist descends it is not a route for the faint hearted! The Millau Bridge has a total length of 8,071ft with the longest single span at 1,122ft and a maximum clearance below of 886ft; in short the bridge is massively impressive both on paper and in real life. The deck is lofted on 7 pylons and weighs 36,000 tonnes. A series of 7 masts, each 292ft tall and weighing 700 tonnes, are attached to the corresponding pylons. (Source: Frikoo | Construction Photos)