DUBAI // A building made entirely out of shipping containers might not sound like the most glamorous place to work, but staff at a unique new office will tell you it is certainly one of the coolest.
In fact, the interior of the new regional headquarters of cargo-inspection company Geochem, which is built from 42 shipping containers welded together, is chilled to almost subzero temperatures.
That’s because of to a careful process of insulation and fittings undertaken by Dubai company Smartbox, to convert scores of unlovable corrugated steel boxes into habitable offices and meeting rooms.
“From the outside, you would never know it was made out of shipping containers,” said Arjun Menon, managing director of Smartbox.
“From the inside, you can do anything you would like. If I had the budget, I could make one of our rooms look like the Burj Al Arab.”
The container architecture movement emerged in North America and Europe in the early 1990s, and took off in 2000 with the launch of Container City in London’s Docklands.
Although Smartbox has been operating in some form since 1997, the Geochem office in TechnoPark is the region’s first permanent building made of shipping containers.
It is unlikely to be its last.
Part of the challenge has been finding a partner willing to go through a long and complicated process to obtain approval from Dubai Municipality.
It took more than six months, and dozens of queries and presentations, for planning officials to understand the feasibility of the project.
“Now that we have approval for this, and the municipality understands how these buildings work, we can go ahead with more projects and it will be easier next time around,” said Mr Menon.
The company already has plans to start work this year on an even larger, two-storey office building for Dubai Design District, a new development by Tecom taking shape near Dubai Mall.
The building will have inverted shipping containers as wind towers, which will mimic traditional Arab design.
Also in the pipeline is a residential apartment block by Mr Menon’s own company, High Cube, which will also probably break ground midway next year.
That apartment building, modelled after Container City, would be eight floors high. Mr Menon said it was structurally possible despite sections of the container being cut away for doors and windows, because the load-bearing points are on the corners of each box.
The company is considering dozens of other ideas, from public toilets at bus stops to affordable accommodation for the Expo 2020 site.
“These containers have the potential to completely revolutionise the city,” said Mr Menon.
One of the benefits is that a building can be fabricated in a couple of months and welded together on site in four to five days.
The business grew out of a container repair yard in Al Quoz by parent firm IAL Logistics.
These days the containers are bought second hand, for about Dh6,500 and after being insulated, decorated and then fitted with electrics and pipes, are sold for between Dh20,000 and Dh75,000 for a 20-foot container.
While they are generally more expensive than portable cabins, they are much stronger. They are typically about 30 per cent cheaper than brick and mortar alternatives.
The company has plans to drive down costs further by setting up a factory assembly line in TechnoPark.
The fact that buildings are made of cuboid blocks means there is an element of play involved when designing new buildings, said Mr Menon. “It’s just like Lego, except the pieces are 20 foot and 40 foot long,” he said.
mcroucher@thenational.ae
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
UAE%20medallists%20at%20Asian%20Games%202023
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Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
