Korean designers AnL Studio have completed an observatory made of shipping containers in Songdo New City, Incheon, South Korea.
Called OceanScope, the structure has three containers supported at angles of ten, 30 and 50 degrees so that visitors can ascend inside them and watch the sunset over the harbour.
Photographs are by Park So-Young and Chang Gil-Hwang.
The text below is from the architects:
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Title : OceanScope observatory by AnL Studio
Korean designers Keehyun Ahn & Minsoo Lee have designed a public observatory called OceanScope in In-cheon made of recycled materials, including old shipping containers.
The old containers are re-purposed and used for a temporary shelter in many rural areas in Korea simply because it is inexpensive.
However, indiscreet uses of these commercial metal-box products that don’t have harmonious relationships with their surroundings are causing an unsuccessful outcome in rural environments.
With these issues in mind, The OceanScope is an initiative from the Mayor of Incheon City, which has one of the biggest harbor in Korea aiming to find unused containers’ potential of practical re-use for public space and to provide the bleak containers with new functional aesthetics that can be assimilated within rural landscapes.
To this end, the OceanScope, located in the historic sunset place of Incheon city, expresses the dream of establishing an observatory deck purposed on sustainable design by recycling the least expensive unused containers.
In order to overcome the limitation of a building site where ground level is too low to view a beautiful sunset, the containers’ structure can be leaned at various angles (10′ 30′ 50′).
This will allow citizens to go up the stairs and meet higher positions with diverse viewpoints throughout the inside of each container.
Project name : OceanScope
Client: Incheon Metropolitan City,Korea / Cho Dong-Am, Ahn Young-Sik
Program: Public Observatory
Location: Songdo New City, Incheon, South Korea
Architect & Designer: Keehyun Ahn, Minsoo Lee
Planning & Producing : Chang Gil-Hwang, Kim Yong-Bae
Construction team: Ju Kwon-Jung, Choi Hui-hyun, Kim Chung-bong, Lee Seung-Ho, Park Kwon-ui, Kang Jung-Tae, Ham Yun-Ki
Start commission: 2010
Photographs : Park So-Young, Chang Gil-Hwang
February 15th, 2010 at 9:57 am
awesome….
February 15th, 2010 at 10:02 am
I think it’s another container recycling project that is so different from others.. that is actually awsome~
February 15th, 2010 at 10:07 am
anl studio? wow name change needed i think.
February 15th, 2010 at 11:15 am
This is a great project, looks amazing.
February 15th, 2010 at 11:39 am
Quite incredible, and beautiful drawings (wish I could see them in a larger format)
February 15th, 2010 at 11:53 am
is it an oceanscope.,,or recycling sculpture.,?
wonderful,beautiful.awesome.
February 15th, 2010 at 1:16 pm
anl rectoscope! =)
February 15th, 2010 at 1:26 pm
great!!
February 15th, 2010 at 2:23 pm
One of the smartest reuse project for containers I have ever seen!
Beautiful! Bravo!
February 15th, 2010 at 5:01 pm
a new star rising! very elegant and very inspiring use of containers. some of those stacking peeps could learn from this! well done!
February 15th, 2010 at 6:11 pm
awesome name!
awesome project!
but in my opinion, the best thing about it is that there is no built observation platform to stand on.
Thumbs up!
February 15th, 2010 at 6:33 pm
cheap materials. but, elegant.. smart work.
February 15th, 2010 at 8:58 pm
Congratulation really nice work!!!
February 15th, 2010 at 9:34 pm
good work, but please dezeen, post high resolution drawings, otherwise the post is USELESS… thanks.
February 15th, 2010 at 9:37 pm
Awesome Project, Minsoo!!! :)
February 16th, 2010 at 2:07 am
Artwork in themselves.
February 16th, 2010 at 5:18 am
I love the fact it almost doesn’t even look like shipping containers, very nice abstraction.
great concept.
February 16th, 2010 at 5:50 am
Smart!
February 16th, 2010 at 8:49 am
right on!
February 16th, 2010 at 9:43 am
To The Fake Sartorialist and spass: we can only publish larger drawings when we are given them by the architect – and in this case we weren’t, unfortunately. Sorry!
February 16th, 2010 at 10:56 am
It’sa very confident design- Love this style.
February 16th, 2010 at 12:22 pm
Thanks for the comment Marcus. Totally understand. A note to architects in general out there; give Dezeen bigger drawings, just because this is online doesn’t make it second rate. In fact it is the printed magazine that is doomed.
February 16th, 2010 at 3:34 pm
coool, it’s one of few awesome projects in korea.
affordable version of early libeskind. but smart enough to be considered as original. i buy this one.
February 16th, 2010 at 5:05 pm
Awesome! it is definitely a great project! Congrats Minsoo oppa~!
February 17th, 2010 at 2:50 am
So nice .
I respect professor making dream realization.
February 18th, 2010 at 7:32 am
What a bold, fabulous attempt a design could be.
Facing directly Incheon Bay Bridge, the Ocean Scope (or ocean’s cope) reminds me of a medieval fortress: illusionary across times and spaces…
February 18th, 2010 at 8:35 am
brilian…..
February 18th, 2010 at 8:36 am
brilliant…..
February 18th, 2010 at 5:06 pm
respect
February 18th, 2010 at 5:57 pm
Fantastic project :)
February 19th, 2010 at 12:33 am
excellent!
On this occasion I pay homage to Mr.Chang ~
February 19th, 2010 at 12:02 pm
Hey Marcus: You have a point there……Why not host a competition challenging Architects to post 3 or more A1 dwgs for the voting public to choose as winners?
Could be fun!
Piers
February 19th, 2010 at 2:10 pm
Hey Marcus: You have a point there……Why not host a competition challenging Architects to post 3 or more A1 dwgs for the voting public to choose as winners?
Might be fun!
ciao
Piers
February 21st, 2010 at 11:30 am
Interesting ~ never seen before the way using concrete base with shipping container
February 21st, 2010 at 6:31 pm
LOVE IT MINSOO!!!
February 22nd, 2010 at 2:27 am
This is the best observatory in Korea.
I hope to see this observatory.
If I see the this observatory, I say “wow!”
March 15th, 2010 at 8:23 am
wow. really amazing projet..
March 16th, 2010 at 3:54 pm
Great !!! It couldn’t be better. I can’t wait to see it~ ^^
July 6th, 2010 at 2:52 am
proper mix of recycling and good design