PRINCETON: Architects design urban housing from packing crates

By Kristine Snodgrass, Staff Writer
   Envisioning “Newark at a microcosm,” two local architects won an international design competition for their plan to create an urban multifamily housing complex out of unwanted shipping containers.
   Felix Heidgen, of Trenton, and Thomas Nagy, of Plainsboro, who work for architectural firm RMJM Hillier in Princeton, won first place in the Live the Box competition for their innovative plan. Designers were challenged to create a plan for affordable housing units made out of unwanted shipping containers for a site in Newark.
   The 3.2-acre site by the Broad Street Station sits at the tip of the city’s Central Ward, and was once home to Westinghouse but is now an empty lot known as Science Park.
   The competition was held by the Newark and Suburban section of the American Institute of Architects and the Suburban and the Young Architects Forum. It was launched last summer, and with the awards ceremony held in December.
   The idea to use the shipping containers, plentiful in Newark, was the brainchild of AIA section President Christopher Stone. He said reaction to the idea of living in the crates was mixed among other architects, with half of the committee he assembled suggesting he was out of his mind.
   ”So we altered the competition to try to make something exciting that anybody would want to live in,” he said.
   The modern, edgy design by the winning architects has the shipping containers stacked together and interlocking to create housing units of different sizes that could be used for individuals or families.
   Mr. Heidgen, who developed a familiarity with the city while working at the firm’s former Newark office, said the design aims to bring together different parts of the city into one complex.
   ”It’s Newark on a smaller scale,” he said.
   Mr. Nagy said the building blocks of different heights and densities were organized to create the feel and appearance of a skyline.
   ”Bringing these different types to one site was the concept of this project,” he said.
   The different elements of the project — a city, green space, parking and living space — were stacked on top of each other, he said.
   The basement level is a parking lot for the residents of the complex. One level up, on the ground floor, is a flexible space that is mostly open, intended for community use.
   The space could host a farmers market, playground, communal kitchen, tennis or basketball courts, stores and restaurants, and all would be within easy reach for residents.
   ”It’s hearkening back to the Old World,” Mr. Heidgen said.
   The open first level and the spaces between the buildings allow for a breezy flow of air to the design, he added.
   The next level up is the 225 housing units, which are made up of between one and five shipping containers each. It creates a total of 216,000 square feet of living space out of the 675 containers.
   Even the top level, the roofs of the buildings, are utilized in the design for recreation, such as a running track or pool, a community garden for residents, and for clusters of trees.
   Mr. Stone said competition was fierce in the contest, with 200 entries from 22 different countries.
   The winners were selected because their design used the shipping crates “in somewhat of a pure form, capitalizing on the features of them, and using them in a creative way,” Mr. Stone said.
   The jurors also heavily considered the feasibility of the plan within the context of the city, he said, and how it could create its own neighborhood.
   Though the design will likely never be built — a 50-story building is currently proposed for the site, Mr. Stone said — the architects have hopes for similar designs in the future.
   ”It started out as an idea competition, but the question is real — What can you do with the containers?” Mr. Heidgen said.
   Mr. Nagy said the new presidential administration is changing the nation’s course on green design.
   ”There seems to be a push for revitalization and sustainability,” he said. “It could also shed a spotlight on Newark as something new and edgy, and also at the forefront of this.”
   All entries to the competition can be viewed online at www.livethebox.org.