Photos by Alexis Macklin
The next big thing is small.
With the urban landscape filling up more densely every day, city dwellers and business owners are beginning to find cost efficient and unique ways to stake their claim in downtown Phoenix. Compact modules, like the V100 Modbox, or repurposed shipping containers, like the ones Bicycle Cellar owner John Romero is planning on using for his next location, can be used as residences or places of business.
Romero said that “up-cycling,” or repurposing seemingly unusable objects for a different purpose, will allow him to use shipping containers for a future downtown location.
Phoenix local Vincenz Saccento, designer of the V100 ModBox, is trying to corner this niche market by creating easy-to-build luxury modules that can be used as businesses or residences.
In buying a smaller unit, there is room in the budget for more expensive pieces of furniture and appliances, Saccento said.
“It’s more of a ‘Gucci’ lifestyle for the same [amount of] money because it’s smaller,” said Saccento.
He compared it to flying first class to somewhere like Europe or Hong Kong: you are paying for the experience and amenities, not the amount of space.
Saccento’s design utilizes modules that are 160 square feet and can be built in a matter of hours without hammers or a construction crew.
The Modbox currently sells for $150 per square foot and is currently only sold in Phoenix, but Saccento said he expects to expand to Tucson. He said three units have been built downtown so far, and they are in the middle of other projects, including pop-up malls and hotels. There has been an increased interest in these types of buildings in the past year, he added.
“We’ve seen a lot more people looking at this thing,” Saccento said. “People are starting to build modular; it’s just cheaper and faster.”
Thomas Kelly, a Modbox resident and chair of the Discovery Triangle, said he found the idea of living in this modern module appealing because of his deep love for the city and new urban ideas.
“I really like the idea that you get your own space … I have a strong preference for smaller buildings. I think the big ones get kind of impersonal,” he said. “The era of mansions is probably mostly over and we’re going to see a lot of creative development of new urban lifestyles.”
Romero said he sees an opportunity to reuse old shipping containers as a place for his next Bike Cellar location in the heart of downtown Phoenix. He has been working with architects on blueprints for the use of these containers and is still working out kinks. Speed bumps include how to efficiently cool the containers during the Phoenix summers.
“It will happen eventually,” he said.
Bulky items like shipping containers are clear up-cycling candidates. The price of sending them overseas is more expensive than they’re worth as scrap metal, Romero said. The result is a surplus of the containers in the United States.
“We shouldn’t be building out, like a fungus; we should be building in and up,” Romero said.
