Floating student accommodation, a removable stadium, homes, a car park, a coffee shop, basketball bleachers, a hotel, offices… A look back at 12 projects that capitalise on the modularity and flexibility of containers.

Onomichi lies at the centre of the Seto inland sea, and is ringed by a canal. The new municipal building takes full advantage of this location. The iconic building remains open to the public outside usual office hours, with landscaped terraces up to the roof. The building uses shipbuilding technology and appears to float on the water.

Agricultural waste or compostable food leftovers could be used to produce bio-LNG in the future. A trial in the Netherlands by the companies Attero, Titan LNG and Nordsol aims to produce 5,000 tonnes/year, with €4.3 million in EU financial support. Port cities are a nexus for the collection of organic waste, and represent high potential for this particular green industry. In Haminakotka (Finland), waste water is filtered to extract organic matter. Each year, Gasum hopes to recover waste waste from some 2,500 of the vessels that visit the port, and turn it into biofuel – for ships!

The availability of information for the public and port stakeholders is a key aspect to guarantee a transparent governance. Academics from Port Economics initiative, including AIVP expert Geraldine Knatz, have examined in a new study how the concept of transparency as practised (or not) in ports from North America, Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean. They authors found out that there are different levels of port transparency depending on the region and the governance model. The study highlights the need of increasing the standards of transparency and proposes a new research agenda for the future.

Cover image: Transparency by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Pix4free.org