Exotic Asian living buoyed by shipping containers
If there’s a house you need built quickly, or office premises to get your start-up rolling, or perhaps space for a café to sell your yummy delights, or even a small room to set up an ATM machine, who ya gonna call? Well Ray Parker Jr. called the Ghostbusters. But in this case, you better get Pership Pvt Ltd.
Container cafe. Pic by Indika Handuwala
Using shipping containers, a readymade and instant fix is delivered by Exotic Asian Living, an initiative which began in earnest about five years ago by an arm of Pership Group – whose core business is shipping and freight forwarding – and is now gathering steam.
“We have more than 60 completed projects and many more in the pipeline. More people are realising the benefits of converting shipping containers into creating living spaces in an affordable way,” says Tehani Wijesena, Marketing Manager at Pership.
Tehani is taking me to see one of the new projects – it opened on Friday – and we are driving carefully down the tarred road which borders Galle Face and the sea.
Seven hundred metres from our entry point, near Galle Face Hotel, we come to a halt in front of a bright yellow container and right opposite the Shangri-La Hotel. Welcome to Café Ayubowan.
An entrepreneur had wanted a space for a café urgently, and right on the lucrative strip which is a sea of heads on any weekend night. He had got approval from the authorities and had approached Exotic Asian Living. Hey presto, a café appeared almost overnight courtesy of a 20-foot container, redesigned and turned into a cozy little kitchenette with a view to kill for – customers can buy their sandwiches, french fries, hot dogs, etc, and then walk up to the deck (on top of the container) to absorb the sunset. A good way to beat stress.
Container cafe
“This is just one of many cafes we have created in and around Colombo,” says Tehani as she shows me the inside of the container complete with refrigeratior, a four-burner cooker and enough space to cook up a storm. Nana’s better watch out.
For less than a million bucks – the estimated price as Tehani was a bit reluctant to divulge the exact cost – you can get an instant space and get ready to whip up a tasty omelette or brew a coffee.
Anura is the chef at Café 80, another 20-foot container converted into a space selling everything from sandwiches to macaroni cheese and spaghetti bolognaise smack bang on Independence Square. He says business has been brisk ever since they opened for business last February. Now the owners are even thinking of expanding the menu. It seems all those joggers want to carbo-load.
But it isn’t just about food. One leading bank has relied on Exotic Asian Living to build them a number of ATM machines around Colombo. “Not only is it cheap to use containers, but security-wise, it is safer. You need special tools to cut through a container. You can break into any building,” grins Tehani.
Launched in 2013, Exotic Asian Living has emerged as Sri Lanka’s number one quality container conversion company. The wonderful recipe of designing customized units including interiors within a period of four to 12 weeks (the most attractive aspect) has proven to be a winner.
Ms. Nirmalee Pereira, Pership Managing Director said that container conversions by Pership is synonymous with its reliability and consistency in striving to accommodate the ever changing demands of our valuable clients. “Pership takes pride in our customer centric approach where we constantly strive to innovate our production lines and we encourage engaging our clients in every detail of the production,” she added.
“Not only are the costs lower than putting up a permanent structure, where you need to spend on the foundation as well as the roof, but the fact that we can provide a space fast is very cost effective. Entrepreneurs get their return on investments faster while people building homes find it more convenient than the traditional method,” Tehani explains.
Durability
Turning containers into a dream space is nothing new, especially overseas where the public is more receptive to this idea. In Sri Lanka, people still prefer to build using the old-fashioned way as they are worried about the durability of containers, something which Tehani says is unwarranted.
“The shelf life of a container is around 25 years but this increases to about 50 years because we treat it with five layers of paint, use bitumen to coat under the container and maintain ISO standards. Remember these are containers that are used to rough weather conditions and they are very durable,” she points out.
So durable that the city of Christchurch relied on shipping containers to build a shopping mall soon after hundreds of people had been killed by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake and its aftershocks had hit in 2010-2011. Authorities chose this option because of the ease of transporting the containers, the relatively low cost, simplified design and planning, and mainly because of the strength and durability of the containers.
“Worldwide it is recognised that shipping containers are able to withstand natural disasters. It will be ideal, for instance, to have a home made from containers and propped on stilts to fight flooding. Even in a tsunami, the worst that could happen would be the container floating somewhere,” Tehani smiles.
Organisers of the 2022 World Cup (football) in Qatar are currently building an entire stadium using shipping containers at Ras Abu Aboud. It will seat 40,000 spectators. The beauty of this world-first construction is that it can be recycled after the World Cup by being moved to a new location. This was part of the winning bid-campaign the Qataris used as they apparently used the stadium as a lure to attract the votes of African countries.
In Dubai, the sheikhs have created Box Park – shipping containers converted into an eclectic mix of boutiques and cafes – reflecting a young, hip and vibrant environment pulsating with street-level energy.
Hotel rooms
Mohamed Adamaly, one of the first clients of Exotic Asian Living – he built hotel rooms – has nothing but praise. He is quoted as saying on the company’s Facebook page: “Great work ethic and commitment to customer service. I would use them again.”
One of the bigger projects recently completed was at Peliyagoda where a company involved in selling heavy machinery for construction wanted a showroom for its excavators. As the land was leased, it was decided to go with containers than put up a permanent structure.
“When they want to they can relocate the showroom elsewhere. But right now, it looks like a permanent structure. There is 6,000 square-foot space and no one can tell it is made from containers,” Tehani revealed.
And with a solid frame, you can go up, even as high as nine floors. In Kandy, a three-storey building made up of six 40-foot containers and four 20-foot containers was constructed – all in the space of three months. Speed matters, especially if you are an entrepreneur impatient to get your dreams underway.
Even the engineering community seems to think this is the way ahead. The Central Engineering Consultancy Bureau on Bauddhaloka Mawatha wanted a welfare complex. Who did they call? You guessed it.