More pics from London

[trixtah]

This is a photoset of the pics I took at Container City, located at Trinity Buoy Wharf in the London Docklands (which is a fascinating historical part of London). It's basically a bunch of apartments constructed out of revamped old shipping containers, and it's right on the wharf. 10 minutes' walk to East India DLR (and 15 minutes from there to Bank station in the middle of the City). It is the kind of place I'd love to live in (except for tourists like me taking pics - I surprised one guy emerging from a building, oops).

Those buildings are aspirational, and what I really aspire to is a portable house like one of these. Is it not sexy? Alas, it's only a prototype, but there're more pics on Fab Prefab. With some modifications, of course - I'd want more privacy for the ablutions area (don't designers have visitors?) and way more bookshelves. And I don't need a toilet TV (how long do people spend in there?)

Here's another container house constructed in Wellington - definitely check out the flickr set linked from the post. Oh, and the Quik House, which is one of the original container concepts, although a bit pricey for me.

Comments

[baglieg.livejournal.com]

Ooh, it's the house of the future!

My primary school had these old books (from the seventies? sixties? one of them had beehive hairdos) about what the future was going to be like. We were totally going to be living in either giant pyramids or trailer parks prefab boxes by now. Also, flying cars, robot maids, home computers, moon bases, etc.

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

Well, at least we got the home computers, although we're not all hooked up to the central mainframe. Although I suppose the internets is that, except a bit more distributed.

We're not living in geodesic domes either, although we do have fucking machines (not quite the same as robot maids, but they do have a function...)

[ilikerivers.livejournal.com]

I think the shipping container houses you linked are amazing, but I don't think I would want to live in one. They seem too square and caravan like. But who knows! We are going to have to live in something when we eventually build in 10 or so years time. I want a mudbrick place one day.

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

I don't mind square buildings - I quite like modernist architecture (although not the Brutalist kind, at all).

Hah, I like the mudbrick, or rammed earth idea. I would also like a strawbale house, but none of those options are terribly feasible for someone who'll have to finance the whole thing herself. :-(

[ilikerivers.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm not really into modern square architecture. But when we build it's going to be what we can organise/scrape together that is cheap and green, so who knows what we will end up with. I think we might do some mudbrick/rammed earth here.

Are there any community projects/ green living communities in your area? I know there's some projects/groups here.