Neonomads at Sea: designing and building a mobile studio to understand the impact of shipping on the environment

This paper presents a multi-phase project to convert a used shipping container into a mobile design studio to investigate a broken global shipping industry and to breathe life into a waning design build program. Although it can be argued that modern shipping has improved the quality of everyday life for the average person, the cumulative number of ways that the ships alone adversely affect the environment is staggering and has devastating long term consequences. From grey, bilge, and ballast water and other kinds of liquid pollutants like industrial cleaning solutions and sewage, to solid waste, refrigerants, antifouling paints often containing chemical compounds like chromium, to the global mesh of destructive noise and the ocean-wide conveyer belt for stowaway invasive species, a single ship can do a tremendous amount of damage to marine ecosystems, wildlife, and the fishing industry in an average thirty-year lifecycle. Shipping industry infrastructure including ports, canals, and building and scrap yards are even more destructive and, in many cases, for much longer periods of time. Although estimates range, there are currently upwards of eleven million shipping containers unused and sitting stagnant worldwide. In the spring of 2023, students acquired a used shipping container and began implementing the first stages of their designs to convert the container into an off-the-grid mobile design studio classroom. The first two phases focused on drying in the envelope with window and door systems and fabricating a demountable framework to house exterior expanded cork insulation and a solar array. The final phase, slated for the spring of 2025, will focus on electrical systems and the interior. During the courses, students will establish research agendas focusing on links between the shipping industry and climate change, cultural globalization, and the economy while concentrating on the transformative effects it has on coastal communities and the environment. The project is the latest in a decade-long series for a once highly successful design-build program that has seen recent decline in interest and activity. Phased over several semesters to slow down, to achieve more depth in each aspect of the design and fabrication process, and to take advantage of multiple funding cycles, the project was designed to engage more students who pass the work down from one cohort to the next, increasing buy-in from students and the administration over time. Although overlapping somewhat, construction phases are distinct enough so that each batch can both design and build. The interconnected process encourages altruism as students, who may not see the project entirely from beginning to end, are dedicated to ensuring its ultimate success. The paper includes a historical and contemporary analysis of the core issues, an assessment of the first two stages conducted in spring and fall of 2023 and makes a case for the value of design-build and architectural design research to examine the most critical issues currently facing society and the environment.