In the 2010s, shipping containers were all the rage. Posited as a cheap, stackable and efficient solution to housing crises the world over, the ubiquitous steel boxes became the subject of intrepid architectural ambitions, with designers around the world experimenting in the typology. The reality checks came quickly, ranging from the challenge of insulation and lack of space for utilities to the low structural strength and cramped living quarters, not to mention a dearth of of engagement with local contexts and vernaculars. But while the shipping container is far from housing panacea, it nonetheless has distinct advantages. Enter MVRDV.
Working in partnership with Dutch social enterprise KLABU, the Rotterdam-based designers are leveraging the humble shipping container to create a modular, multi-functional “clubhouse” that provides access to sporting equipment — as well as WiFi and television broadcasts — to shelters, camps and settlements serving refugees and displaced peoples around the world. Using a lightly modified version of a standard ISO dry shipping container as a base, the designers have created a mobile community hub and gathering space that brings social life and recreation to transient and deeply under-resourced settings.
Launched in 2022, the KLABU clubhouse concept was first deployed in the Waraotuma a Tuaranoko shelter in Boa Vista, Brazil, where an early version of the mobile facility supported a community of Indigenous Venezuelans forced to flee their country. In Mauritania, an updated iteration of the design was introduced to the M’bera refugee camp (pictured here), which serves a community of 100,000 Malian people. Now, the third iteration of the mobile facility is set to touch down at the Azraq refugee camp in Jordan, which hosts some 40,000 people displaced during the Syrian Civil War.
While the design continues to be refined based on community feedback and local needs, the replicable, mass-produced nature of shipping containers offers a simple and rigorous baseline. Serving double duty as both a transportation vessel and a piece of architecture, the simple 14-square-metre steel boxes are outfitted with shelving, solar panels, electrical battery systems and power outlets. Alongside a variety of sports equipment — ranging from soccer balls to ping pong tables and volleyball nets — the the facility also serves as a local WiFi hub, and is equipped with speakers a television for news and live events. (A mini fridge is also housed in the container, allowing for safe storage of temperature-sensitive medicines.)
While sports and recreation was the genesis of the project, the social and community-oriented functions are equally vital. To create an intuitive focal point, the outer walls are painted a vivid orange, and paired with a contrasting sky blue interior. Inside, the simple yet flexible furnishings and fixtures pair storage space with ad hoc desks and workstations, while an an entire wall of the container can be lifted to create a sheltered, shaded veranda that serves both community gatherings and quick, private moments to check e-mails and get online.
For MVRDV, who undertook the project as a pro bono initiative, the mobile, reusable shipping container prototypes are an evolving proof of concept for a larger project — one intended to serve as many of the world’s 120 million displaced people as possible. From a design standpoint, the simplicity of the form makes a nimble virtue of the shipping container as part of a global trade network — rather than an architectural object. As Lloyd Alter wrote in 2019, “the great genius of shipping containers is not the box but the handling systems; there are ships, cranes, trucks and trains all designed around them. So if you do want to deliver stuff fast after a disaster, there is no better form than the shipping container.” That’s exactly what MVRDV and KLABU have done.
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