Bal Harbour Shops — Miami, Florida, USA
A first-of-its-kind use of shipping containers for retail expansion in an upmarket Miami shopping district, completed in 2023, for which Twistlock Africa designed and supplied bespoke, largely hidden connections between the container modules.
Architect
The Bal Harbour Shops project used shipping containers in an upmarket Miami shopping district as a form of expansion — a first of its kind. Designed by LOT-EK and fabricated and constructed by BMarko Structures, Twistlock Africa was asked to design and supply the connections between the shipping-container modules.
In several locations, bespoke units were designed to solve access-constrained challenges. As far as possible the connectors were hidden within the structure — designed in SolidWorks and 3D-printed in South Africa as proof of concept before being fabricated and installed. Twistlock Africa also proposed the assembly sequence around the site's access challenges.
Architecture: LOT-EK. Container fabrication: BMarko Structures. Landscape: Studio Zewde. Structure: Silman.
- Bespoke hidden module connectors
- 3D-printed proof-of-concept connectors
- Assembly-sequence engineering