ISO Spaces - Popups made from Recycled Shipping Containers

by Startacus Admin

ISO Spaces - Popups made from Recycled Shipping Containers...

There are few things which are more well suited, or have been more eagerly embraced by the popup phenomenon, than the humble shipping container. 

We could ramble on all day about how much we love to see these unsightly, rusted heaps of metal transformed into sleek and stunning urban spaces - it just makes us smile.  

Aside from the obvious green benefits of recycling something that would probably have ended up in landfill, shipping containers are structurally sound, easy to transport (well duh), light weight, compact … in fact all the things you could ask for in a popup space.  The movement has now become so popular and widespread that it has even coined a new word to describe what it’s all about...cargotecture

A few weeks ago as part of our ongoing series about setting up a popup shop, we talked you through the specifics of selecting and securing a pop up location, and had we stumbled upon ISO Spaces earlier they would have certainly be included in our discussion, but as they say better late than never!

From the very bottom of England (lovely Cornwall to be precise) comes a company which is resolved to turn these urban eyesores into all manner of pretty popups.  From modular offices to stylish restaurants, ISO Spaces is taking a no-holds-barred approach to their creative constructions and aiming to ply their trade on the international stage.  

As yet they are still a fledgeling company but their innovation and potential is already being recognised, not only through an incredible response across social media platforms but also within the local business community.  In fact ISO Spaces has had the honour of being shortlisted as one of 8 finalists bidding for the Ignite 2013 competition, which is one of Europe’s largest such schemes with a huge £120K prize fund up for grabs.

It’s no surprise that they have been shortlisted as their ultra stylish popup spaces provide a brilliant custom designed solution to self contained spaces at festivals, exhibitions, fairs and pretty much anywhere else you can think of! They can be created in as little as two weeks and shipped internationally (a convenient throwback to their original purpose) and so are primed and ready to grow on the UK export market.    

We talked to ISO Spaces co-founder Gregg Curtis about the exciting developments that are happening within the company and their plans for the future.

“Being shortlisted for Ignite is a massive compliment for us. We have been working closely with Oxford Innovation in preparing our entry and they have been fantastic. We have put a huge amount of work into the new business so fingers crossed the judges see as much potential In our concept as we do!

If everything goes well in the future we hope to be building more and more interesting spaces on a bigger and bigger scale. So far we have built bars, retail units, home offices, catering and restaurant spaces and we have been asked to design containers ranging from observatories to portable golf simulators. I feel that's the tip of the iceberg of what's possible. The Cargotecture movement has really inspired us to think about the possibilities of modular space and I think a lot of businesses and individuals could benefit from thinking ‘inside the box’"

We think that ISO Spaces is a great startup and we wish them every success as they continue to grow and bring ever more innovative shipping container popups to an expanding range of locations. Do check out this rather fab promo video below that highlights, well pretty much all of the above...

 

 

Lovingly penned on recycled paper by Eoin O’Hara

 

• #popup
• #pop-up
• #shipping containers
• #inspiration

Published on: 5th November 2013