Six incredible buildings made from shipping containers

By Cat DiStasio

Cargotecture is a growing trend in modern architecture that has more to do with repurposing than it does with starting from scratch -- and yet the results are no less spectacular than traditional construction projects. Recycled shipping containers can be used alone for a tiny, efficient homes, or linked together for more spacious structures. Around the world, architects and designers are reinventing the cost-efficient "bones" of steel shipping containers into amazing reflective art installations, self-contained produce farms and even pop-up hotel rooms that can be moved for a change of scenery. With their low cost and resilient nature, these container buildings are a creative response to a variety of architecture challenges, and each one is cooler than the next.

1 / 6

A different kind of fun house

The fun house at your local county fair has nothing on this house of mirrors. Inside a nondescript shipping container, artists Masakazu Shirane and Saya Miyazaki built a light-bending array of 1,100 triangular mirrors for a kaleidoscopic experience unlike any other.

Although the design was inspired by origami, the designers relied on modern technology to get the job done. Digital 3D modeling tools helped the designers create a mirrored contraption that can be zippered together in under four hours.