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String Bean Alley Gets Revamped With Shipping Containers!
Perhaps showing just how fashionable repurposed shipping containers are today, String Bean Alley in Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Market has just had 26 of them installed as market stalls.
Not only does this show just how endlessly containers can be remodelled, but in its location at the heart of the Southern Hemisphere’s biggest open market, it shows just how we have taken them to heart here in Australia.
String Bean Alley
String Bean Alley was named as such because in the days of colonial rule farmers sold their beans here to the British Empire’s traders.
Officially reopened in July, String Bean Alley has 26 shipping containers that have been made into market stalls. They are in permanent use by 14 existing traders and 12 new ones.
The revamp of the alley is part of an AU $250 million refurbishment of Queen Victoria Market. Queen Victoria Market spans seven hectares of inner city Melbourne and other than String Bean Alley, a pedestrian plaza and dedicated car park are planned for the site.
Speaking of the opening of the revamped alley, Melbourne Lord Mayor Sally Capp said, “This is a focus on local products and people that make their own products and it enhances the entire offer of the market.”
Mary Jones is one of those quirky traders who sells old family photographs and slide shows – a bit of a random thing to sell but the couple make such a good living from it they’ve given up their day jobs!
She told the Melbourne Broadsheet, “I love the market and the atmosphere. You meet people from everywhere, all walks of life.”
Repurposed shipping container niche
Given the quirky choice of traders using them, this highlights the niche that shipping containers have cut into our world. The niche is both familiar yet somewhat different – not so different that people would hate them, but where a psychological signpost is required saying ‘different’ then shipping containers have become the mode of choice. In two words: ‘fashionably different’.
A great advantage of the 20-40ft boxes is that they are able to be stacked and put together thanks to their uniformity yet this concept is almost endlessly adaptable.
Want a crazy house? Cantilever them in every direction. Want a glitzy yet informal evening venue? Leave them unpainted and stack them two high with platforms to wander between them. Want a quirky market? Chop the front walls off and let traders move in!
Has this triggered something in your mind?
Given even a major part of Melbourne has taken container architecture to heart, perhaps you too would want to create a shipping container development? Give Gateway Container Sales a buzz today and tell us what you have in mind!
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