The Globe and Mail

Not so long ago, only the weirdest, most avant-garde or most destitute Torontonians would have considered living in a former warehouse or factory. These days, million-dollar lofts in converted industrial buildings are not only thinkable, but moving fast on the real estate market. So if chunky old depots on the wrong side of town can become hot residential properties, why not 40-foot standard shipping containers? That was the question playfully posed by architects Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano, principals in the Manhattan company LOT-EK (pronounced "low tech"), at Ryerson University's recent International Conference on Portable Architecture and Design.