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Reconceiving William Shakespeare’s renowned Globe Theatre, Perkins Eastman designed The Container Globe in 2017, and presented it at the New York Design Awards. A green and cost-efficient theatre composed of modified cargo shipping containers. The theatre is comprised of more than 50 containers tied together with scaffolding, greenhouse roofing panels, industrial mesh, and corrugated metal walls fixtures.
The extraordinary architectural vision of The Container Globe is designed to be an ideal venue for historically accurate productions of Shakespeare plays and a home for other cultural events.
The project has a very real anchor in the past in the form of the renowned Globe Theatre in London, which was built in 1599 by William Shakespeare’s playing company.
The Container Globe project was a Silver Winner at the 2017 New York Design Awards.
The original Globe was a place where audiences got up close and personal with the players and oftentimes became part of the action on stage.
The Globe was where the Bard’s genius came alive.
Perkins Eastman’s Container Globe project from 2017 reimagines Shakespeare’s Globe as a green and cost-efficient structure composed of modified cargo shipping containers.
Designed as the ideal venue for historically accurate Shakespearian productions, as well as music, dance, and live cultural events.
However, a lot of clean-up and maintenance work needs to be put into the average cargo container, before it can be used to house anything.
Before it is stripped of harmful materials, retrofitted, and repurposed, the average shipping container contains nearly 1’000 pounds of hazardous waste.
And since returning empty containers to their point of origin is costlier than purchasing new ones, used containers often languish in shipyards.
Furthermore, housing and office spaces that utilize containers, while innovative, are often limited in design scope due to the fixed dimensions.
From a design perspective, The Container Globe is self-subsuming. Its components provide the ideal template for creating a modern-day, steampunk-esque rendition of Shakespeare’s towering yet intimate original theatre experience.
This new Globe is also deceptively complex. Forty-six 20-foot-long containers comprise the theatre while six 40-foot-long containers make up the stage houses.
Scaffolding, wood flooring, greenhouse roofing panels, and a translucent industrial mesh tie it all together, while corrugated metal wall fixtures will enable superior acoustics.
The finished structure will be 20,166 GSF and have a capacity of 1’200 audience members. 650 of which will be standing room in the orchestra section. Both modular and mobile, The Container Globe features a demountable base which allows for it to become a temporary or potentially permanent installation, depending on zoning permits and a host city’s wishes.
From Wellington to Mumbai, New York to Detroit, wherever surplus shipping containers are available, Container Globes can be built.
Thus far, Google research hasn’t turned up any existing Container Globes. However, looking at this fabulous re-imagination of Shakespeare’s Globe, we can only hope that one day this vision will become flesh and bone – or rather metal and wood – so we can enjoy this intimate and unique theatre experience.
The Container Globe on Vimeo
The Container Globe: How it’s Built on YouTube
Pictures are copyright of Perkins Eastman
Official Website The Container Globe
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Liam Klenk was born in Central Europe and has since lived on four continents. Liam has always been engaged in creative pursuits, ranging from photography and graphic design, to writing short stories and poetry, to working in theatre and shows. In 2016, Liam published his first book and memoir, 'Paralian'.
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