This satellite office was commissioned to provide one of this production company’s most sought-after music video and commercial directors with his own creative space—a grittier, messier environment at a necessary remove from the slicker, more corporate setting of the main offices located just a few blocks away.

This office structure is comprised of two used twenty-foot ISO shipping containers, set side-by-side with the majority of their adjoining long sides removed to create a single twenty-foot by twenty-foot space. While the exterior surfaces of these containers remain totally unfinished, displaying every scar and dent incurred during a lengthy service upon the high seas, the interior is fitted with a minimal liner of painted drywall and tongue-in-groove maple hardwood flooring, with the latter wrapping up from the floor to cover one of the long vertical walls and an integral cantilevered shelf. The minimalism of these interior surfaces is preserved by eliminating the typical array of fixtures and controls that would otherwise mar them.

Instead, all light fixtures, outlets, and switches are relegated to discrete linear recessed zones, along the base of the cantilevered shelf and vertically between the finished surfaces of the short remaining walls that flank the opening between the two containers. Conditioned air is supplied to this office from above through two large duct hoses, and diffused into the space through perforated screens located at the short ends of the containers. At the opposite end, two new pairs of custom steel and glass swinging doors complement the existing container doors, and provide a means to enclose the office, blocking out noise while still providing visual access to the surrounding warehouse space.

The office is mounted on a dunnage frame of painted steel by means of proprietary connectors that lock into the corner fittings of the shipping containers. This supporting frame provides a large, cantilevered front deck, and is fitted with custom leveling feet that allow the entire structure to adjust to any uneven surface conditions that it might encounter, either upon being repositioned within its current space or after being moved to another location.