This was by me when I lived in London. They were used for office space.

Asbury park has the best idea for the use of these containers.
They put them along the boardwalk,cut open the side,install a roll up door and use them for kiosks.
They are all painted in funky colors.Hurricanes have no effect on them and they charge next to nothing for rent.

See a slideshow of the completed home and its interior at Inhabit NYC.




http://inhabitat.com/nyc/photos-coupl ... burg-shipping-contalead3/

Brooklyn Couple Makes Their Home in Shipping Containers

By Lauren Romano | Yahoo! Contributor Network ? Tue, Apr 9, 2013

Shipping container home under construction ?

Living in New York City is downright expensive. New York (along with New Jersey) has the highest property tax bills in the United States, and the average home price in the five boroughs is a whopping $786,000. Many New Yorkers live paycheck to paycheck and just barely scrape by. A couple in Brooklyn decided to take matters into their own hands and build a stacked six-container home on a 20-by-40-foot plot of land on Keap Street.

The shipping container home is NYC's first. It cost about $400,000 to build -- about $100,000 of that was due to interest that built up due to delays, while only $9,000 went toward the cost of the six containers. The married couple, Michele Bertomen and David Boyle, got the containers from the Port of Newark in New Jersey, and the structure was put up in just three hours. Considering Boyle is a contractor and Bertomen is an architect, their professions certainly helped them with the planning and construction. They now have a 1,600-square-foot home that consists of a rooftop deck, a bedroom suite, a balcony, a kitchen space, three bathrooms, a spiral staircase, and a pulley system, among other rooms and features.

The space was supposed to be larger, but among other issues, the Department of Buildings (DOB) stated that the couple's backyard wasn't large enough to count as an open space, and therefore, the structure had to be trimmed down to size. Considering it was the first home of its kind in NYC, the couple and the DOB had to work together to figure out plans and requirements, which meant that both sides had to meet every couple of weeks. After quite a few struggles, the couple finally got their move-in date.

The concept of creating buildings out of shipping containers has become increasingly popular over the past few years. In a project started at the end of 2012, Canada's first social housing project made of shipping containers is set to be completed by the end of spring 2013. In the summer of 2013, in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, there will reportedly be a multistory "post disaster housing complex" comprised of shipping containers in downtown Brooklyn, where residents can live for at least six months. It will conveniently be located across the street from the Office of Emergency Management. Even Dekalb Market in Brooklyn is comprised of a bunch of shipping containers that make up of a variety of shops, from Pratt Pop-up! to Hot Trash Vintage to Mayhem & Stout.

Let's hear it! Would you live in a home comprised of shipping containers?

Lauren Romano fell in love with NYC at a young age and has since navigated her way through the stores, museums, clubs, restaurants, parks, markets, and everything else the city has to offer.