Design reduced to the absolute essential – the shipping container. Invented in the 1950s by Malcom McLean, these plain steel boxes with corrugated profiles revolutionized the worldwide trade sector. These huge receptacles for storing and transporting cargo have found their way into architecture to become an essential part of global building culture.

Ever more astonishing architectural applications and design experiments are based on these standardized, strictly geometrically conceived units. Their imaginatively designed shells are just as versatile as their use: sometimes with original, rough surfaces with traces of use that tell a story, sometimes with a curtain facade made of wood and largescale glazing, or even as a purist composition with a sophisticated light installation. In an everchanging world with its hybrid forms of living and working, this book presents a collection of remarkable container buildings.