Container Architecture

[Anchor Lead]

What comes to mind when you think of a shipping container? These days, those big metal containers are undergoing an amazing transformation in popular imagination, as they are being fashioned into workplaces for young startups, artists' studios, and libraries.

[Pkg]

Shin Ji-won makes shoes by hand. She measures a customer's feet and helps choose the design.

[Soundbite] "What about repairs? (I'll repair them if they don't fit properly.)"

She opened her handmade shoes store three months ago in what used to be a cargo container.

[Soundbite] Shin Ji-won(Startup Entrepreneur) : "Using a container doesn't require much startup cost. So it is a big help for young entrepreneurs like me."

This is a container shop complex that opened in the spring of 2016. 116 freight containers were connected together to provide enough space for some 40 stores. The compound is a place of hope for young entrepreneurs, who couldn't start their businesses for a lack of startup money, and for foreign-born wives and youths to get job training.

[Soundbite] Udner(Mongolian-born Wife) : "Building a store out of a container was unusual. But it's nice, because I get to learn Korean while getting job training and working."

This library set up in a park also used to be a cargo container. The steel sides were replaced with glass and a red roof was added to transform the container into a peaceful spot in the middle of the city.

[Soundbite] Kim Jong-man(Local Resident) : "In the spring and fall, I borrow books and read them under the nearby trees."

Some containers serve as temporary housing for shanty town residents...and some are turned into creative outlets for young artists. Containers that used to tranport cargo are now delivering hopes and dreams.