Australia needs more "Makerspace" for its budding maker culture and recently I was asked to look over an old classroom to see if it would be suitable. One problem is that any renovations on a campus have to be done to the institution's standards, which are high. It might be more cost effective to buy a new modular building than refurbish an old one. University of Washington have some useful "Makerspace: Guidelines for Accessibility and Universal Design".A makerspace would suit an industrial aesthetic and perhaps a shipping container would do (ANU had Australia's first shipping container apartment building in 2009 ).
A web search found I was far from the first to have this idea and "Makerspace Shipping Container" is a thing, particularly in China. More notable examples are "MakerCamp Shenzhen" and "Xinchejian builds a Makerspace in a shipping container", the "Marymount University Accessible Makerspace Concept for People with Disabilities".
Also there are academic papers which touch on the topic, such as Osayimwese Rifkind (2014) and Artiles and Wallace (2010).
References
Artiles, J. A., & Wallace, D. R. (2010). Methods for Innovation: Observations from the Education DesignShop. Retrieved from http://fablearn.stanford.edu/2014/wp-content/uploads/fl2014_submission_69.pdf
Osayimwese, I., & Rifkind, D. (2014). Building Modern Africa: Theme Editors' Introduction. Journal of Architectural Education, 68(2), 156-158. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10464883.2014.943631
Shipping containers have been utilized more often these days by various industry players for other purposes apart from storage alone. I have seen articles on restaurants and hotels engaging the shipping container concept as the new market trend which have received a welcoming response so far.
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