PUMA City: Shipping Container Architecture for Marketing

PUMA City Unveiled for Volvo Ocean Race 2008-2009

From promo materials:

"PUMA City, a mobile retail and event space created from 24 steel shipping containers, makes its global debut at the start of Volvo Ocean Race 2008-2009 in Alicante, Spain."

From the press release:

"PUMA City consists of three levels of steel shipping containers stacked on top of one another and then slightly shifted to create natural outdoor spaces with large overhangs and wide open terraces, which will be utilized for entertaining and in-port race viewing. A unique PUMA retail space on the ground floor offers a selection of the PUMA Sailing, Motorsport, Urban Mobility and PUMA Archives apparel, footwear and accessories collections."

"As the official supplier of Volvo Ocean Race 2008-2009, the retail space on the second floor features the entire Volvo Ocean Race collection, which will be the only location where those products can be purchased in the race village. The upper container is a long, open area containing a bar, lounge and event space spilling out onto an oversized wooden deck. This area will be used for concerts, parties and other events where all race goers are welcome..."

"This design conception of PUMA City began in July 2007. Construction began in China in January 2008 and was completed in just eight months. The internationally acclaimed architecture office of LOT-EK designed the building as a modular system that ships as a conventional cargo container. A unique system of covering panels were designed to fully seal all of the actual structures during travel, protecting each unit from the elements while crossing the open ocean. Once the structure reached land these panels were removed and connected together forming the open interior spaces."

"Puma City is the first building of its kind to fully take advantage of the global shipping network already in place and at 11,000 square feet, it is the first container building of its size to be truly mobile. It is also designed to respond to all of the architectural challenges; meeting international building code, withstanding dramatic climate changes, rapid on-site assembly, and handling day-to-day operations."

Technically I'm posting this for the sneaker marketing angle but, really, I'm posting this cause I dig shipping container architecture, in this case, the work of LOT-EK.  Plus, real writing in a press release is hard to do but the above descriptive text is quite well done.

[Photo: PRNewsFoto/PUMA, Sally Collison/PUMA OCEAN RACING]