Known worldwide for its hip restaurant scene and coffee culture, Melbourne was one of the first cities to arrive at the container design party.
The city boasts a growing number of shipping container bars, cafes and pop-up stores.
Not only are Melbourne�s coolest new commercial ventures being housed in converted shipping containers; interior designers are also putting the abandoned cargo vessels to good use.
In the hip, industrial, inner-city suburb of Collingwood, the owners of new pizza restaurant, Rupert on Rupert, have used a recycled shipping container to encase the bar area inside their Melbourne warehouse locale.
The brightly painted bar extends along the full length of one of the interior walls of the premises. The deep marine blue finish on the bar�s container fa�ade recalls the shipping container�s former life at sea.
But instead of the stacked pallets of export cargo that once filled the container, its contents now include a fine selection of imported wines and liquors.
Though you�d never guess it from the unassuming storefront, Rupert on Rupert can hold more than 500 patrons.
The loft-style pizza joint was conceived by Ric Corinaldi, who once co-directed local firm Ficus Constructions.
Known about town for their transformational retail and restaurant fit-outs, Ficus Constructions is behind some of the city�s most show-stopping commercial spaces.
Corinaldi now turns his industrial interior flair to the pizza game. Nestled in a quiet laneway in the backstreets of Collingwood, Rupert on Rupert cuts a slice of Manhattan cool into the streets of Melbourne.
