USM › Container City™ / Published Press

At Trinity Buoy Wharf, by London's only lighthouse, is Container City - a group of artists' and designers' studios converted from old shipping containers. It was the inspired idea of a developer called Eric Reynolds, who had the vision to realise that this isolated site on the Thames, opposite the Millennium Dome, had enormous potential. He also wanted to help artists and designers to find affordable studios, which is increasingly difficult in the capital.

Creating a uniquely colourful arts, residential and community centre using old sea containers, this imaginative exercise in recycling is situated across the river from the Millennium Dome at Leamouth. As such it continues a maritime tradition which for more than 200 years has seen this area of east London active in the manufacture of buoys, docking equipment and in particular lightships.

Arguably the perfect example of sustainable construction and offsite methodology, the use of storage containers for building design has been one of the most intriguing developments in recent years. Gary Ramsay reports.

LIVING IN A BOX has never seemed so sexy. Or indeed having an office, artist's studio, youth centre or fashionable retail space seemed quite so hip. Much of this is due to the trailblazing use of one of the most commonly seen parts of industrial life - the ubiquitous storage container.

One half of the Hairy Bikers loves living in his converted (and mainly recycled ) London container: Interview by Rosanna Greenstreet.

Hairy biker Dave Myers, 48, was born in Barrow-in-Fumess. He met Si King 17 years ago and together they created the TV show The Hairy Bikers' Cookbook. Myers owns a house in Morecambe Bay and rents a flat in London's Docklands, which he shares with King.