We've been hearing about container architecture for some time now. Conceptually, it's not that new. But it seems we've gotten to a point where architects and designers have cracked the code on how to do it functionally, cost-effectively and beautifully (in that tough kind of way).

If you're not so familiar with it, here are some basics: it's a form of architecture that uses steel shipping containers as the basic foundational structural elements. They're super-strong, easy to get your hands on, and they're cheap, at around $2000 a pop.

What also tips the scales in their favor is that they're inherently modular. They're made with the same standard measurements and designed to be combined into larger structures. Since containers are already built for stacking, creating modern, modular housing is a logical fit.

A famous example is London’s Container City completed about 7 years ago. The developer, Urban Space Management, created a 3-story structure with 12 live/work spaces, and then later added a fourth floor due to high demand. Over 80% of the building was created from recycled material.

Just recently word spread about Detroit's plans for a new 17-unit container condo project by architect Steve Flum and developers Patrick and Leslie Horn. If all goes well, this $1.8 million project will break ground this fall and open sometime next year.

But it's Salt Lake City's 8-unit City Center Lofts that have us most excited. For starters, we like seeing modern design in unexpected places. Two, the first floor will be an art gallery and the building's exterior will feature art installations. And three, Owner (and lawyer by day) Adam Price hired acclaimed architect Adam Kalkin to spearhead the project.

Adam and his wife bought the non-descript, 2-story office building with the intent of converting it to loft style housing. But before knocking it down, they took a page from 11 Spring Street and invited a couple hundred Utah artists to transform the building inside and out over a period of three months with graffiti, murals and pretty much anything else they wanted. Then they opened the space to the public for two weekends to astonishing results. To put it into perspective: The Salt Lake Art Center receives about 15,000 visitors annually, and they had 10,000 visitors in just two weekends.

"When it was all over, my wife and I started to think about modifying our building plans to keep more of a connection to what happened because it had been such a great experience for both of us and for the community. So we moved from more conventional construction to what you see now – the international shipping containers – with a first-floor art gallery and designated spaces on the building's skin for public art installations," explains Adam.

So this place not only supports burgeoning artists, it'll be constructed from 50% recycled material by weight and boast a slew of other eco creds like a green roof, low-e windows and no-VOC paint.

Kalkin, the project's architect, usually gets his containers from the Port of New Jersey, though the final ones for City Center Lofts haven't been procured yet. "These containers have been in the international stream of commerce and get washed upon our shores (metaphorically speaking)," Adam continues. "Based on the current state, the U.S. has nothing to sell back to these countries that we're importing goods from, so it's actually cheaper to build a new one in the port of origin than to ship an empty one back. So there are 1-2 million empty containers (depending upon whose numbers you look at) that are just piling up in our ports that nobody wants."

Makes a pretty compelling financial and environmental case. "You're recycling the steel that has been discarded but also essentially recycling all the efforts that have gone into making these highly-engineered containers perform as well as they do," Adam also points out.

While the project won't be ready until early to mid-2009, what owners will find when they walk in is a partially completed unit with finished walls and floors, and all of the electrical and plumbing in place. Then, they'll have creative control over the kitchen, bathroom and configuration of how the space will (or won't) be sub-divided.

When I asked Adam point blank if working on this project is a total blast, he replied: "It's a chance to have a fantasy about what a great living space would look like. And then create it."

Images courtesy of Container City and City Center Lofts