[Luca]

Looking at the very first 'project' shown in this thread and the picture just abvoe this post I am struck by the huge contrast between:
a) the 'honest' use of containers as a cheap, mobile, practical way to erect a small village and the attempt, through shading and the grass/astro turf to improve quality of life (however humbly), vs.
b) the probably viciously expensive, puzzling concept of trying to make a 'high-end' building look prefabricated and/or industrial and/or devoid of any grace other than that provided by the engineering virtuosity of the massing.

I am not a victim of the modern superstition about authenticity, but I think it is fairly evident that aggressive artifice and exhibitionism have no place in a tasteful building.

P.S.
V. interesting thread, thanks.

Large 'containerscrapers' are common now in London building projects of some size. In Brand's "How Buildings Learn", he (provocatively) posited the question of why bother "wet" building when one could just stack containers.