Guest Post from Sophie Andersen: Sustainable Retail Shop Ideas as the Last Word of Modern Architecture
With the times passing environmental awareness is becoming a very important part of our society and it’s not a big surprise that eco-friendly structures are gaining more and more popularity as a perfect retail spaces. They are affordable and easier to build than more conventional buildings made of brick-and-mortar and they do a great thing for the community. Putting the economy aside, with a little bit of creativity and imagination you can build a business space that will outshine competition and gain positive feedback from customers.
The Box full of wonders
Now, where is the position of shipping containers in your agenda to build a perfect place for displaying and selling your products? Well, you would be surprised to know that this crude and uninviting metallic boxes, can be easily turned into appealing and eye-grabbing, and yet budget-friendly retail spaces with a healthy dose of attitude. Why are they so beneficial?
You don’t need a very deep pocket
First of all, they are cheap and easy to obtain from the major transport companies and you can purchase the used ones for around US $2000 or less. More so, investing in shipping containers has proven to be more lucrative long term financial solution for merchants then renting the business space. After obtaining building permissions, containers can be easily stacked on a real estate with very small square footage, which makes rents much lower, providing you with neat and economic space for your shop.
Strength and portability
Second, shipping containers are made of very durable materials, designed to withstand harsh weather conditions and provide security to cargo on long journeys, which makes them very sturdy and powerful basic structure for your proposed building. On the other side, containers can be easily moved from one place to another, stacked on high columns, maximizing your rented space, and arranged any way you like it. Shipping container shops can be as easily disassembled and rearranged. Think of this as a possibility to be more proactive in moving your business directly to your target markets, and branching out to new territories with ease.
Retail complex at Lake Burley Griffin
Refurbish and refresh
Last, but not the least, shipping containers are very customizable, and there are many great examples across the globe how renovating can make this glorified boxes into a very appealing environments made for different purposes. One of these examples is retail complex at Lake Burley Griffin, Australia. This pop-up village utilizes otherwise unused lot for many purposes, such as hosting sporting and community events, and objects like gym, bar and artist studious.
Stable Café San Francisco
Alongside, Stable Café, San Francisco, lies Lila B. Design, floral designer Baylor Chapman’s studio and retail shop, and within this lush garden which serves as café’s sitting area, we find another repurposed shipping container. This one is covered in wood, and made to look like old medieval traveling shop, has organic look and it is in perfect harmony with this urban oasis.
Hellmann’s mayonnaise company street restaurant
In the end we can also mention Hellmann’s mayonnaise company which repurposed one shipping container into a lovely 45 square meters restaurant to host one day promotion of serving free sandwiches to citizens of Copenhagen, Denmark.
With all things said, it’s no wonder that shipping containers are becoming even more present as modern and efficient architectural solutions in business and even in private life. And deserved so. If a touch of creativity and a bit of hard work can make a several tons of potential industrial waste into a pretty and functional retail shop, restaurant, or even a mall, we should give this huge boxes a second thought.
