{"id":407092,"date":"2026-04-19T19:03:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T19:03:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/407092\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T19:03:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T19:03:28","slug":"mud-coated-shipping-containers-form-petti-by-wallmakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/407092\/","title":{"rendered":"Mud-coated shipping containers form Petti by Wallmakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

A cluster of stacked shipping containers<\/a> has been coated in a layer of poured earth to create this restaurant<\/a> in Tamil Nadu<\/a>, India, designed by local studio Wallmakers<\/a>.
Named Petti, meaning box in Tamil, the 439-square-metre restaurant is located on a narrow site in Tuticori, an industrial port city in which discarded shipping containers are a familiar sight.<\/p>\n

\"PettiWallmakers has created the Petti restaurant in India<\/p>\n

Wallmakers<\/a> used this surplus of abandoned containers as the starting point for its design, cutting twelve of them in half lengthways and welding them to a steel frame.<\/p>\n

This created a series of zigzagging walls, which were then coated in a perforated grid of poured earth.<\/p>\n

\"RestaurantIt is formed of stacked shipping containers<\/p>\n

“The sheer number of shipping containers discarded in the city made us combine two materials that are usually not combined: steel and mud,” said Wallmakers.<\/p>\n

“Each container was set vertically, as we wanted better room heights, as opposed to the 2.4-metre dimensions that are generally available when containers are set horizontally,” the studio told Dezeen.<\/p>\n

“The twelve cut containers were placed using a crane in a span of one week and then welded together to form the basic structure of the building, along with a few reinforced concrete cement slabs that were added to connect at the floor levels.”<\/p>\n

\"PettiThe shipping containers were coated in a grid of mud<\/p>\n

To create Petti’s long, narrow form, the shipping container halves were organised in a staggered grid, with alternating sections being raised off the ground to create glazed openings below and high-level openings above.<\/p>\n

This arrangement ensures that the dining areas on both levels of the two-storey restaurant have access to natural light, while also creating a stack ventilation effect that helps to cool the interiors.<\/p>\n

\"Poured-earthThe earthen layer curves outwards where it meets the ground<\/p>\n

Covering the exterior of the containers is a layer of poured earth, which gently curves outwards where it meets the ground.<\/p>\n

This earth coating was applied in a perforated grid, with gaps that reveal the original surface of each container and help to improve the building’s thermal efficiency.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Bridge<\/p>\n

“Thatch-mud” scales cloak habitable bridge in India by Wallmakers\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

The diagrid arrangement of shipping containers informed the interior layout, with booths and triangular tables tucked into each container half.<\/p>\n

A deep shade of red covers the interior surfaces of the metal containers, complemented by chandeliers made from old pipes and areas of flooring made from discarded wood.<\/p>\n

\"PettiThe arrangement of containers maximises access to natural light<\/p>\n

“The layout was planned in a way that it allowed each group of guests to have their own private niche, even within such a narrow plot,” said the studio.<\/p>\n

“The interiors were designed keeping up with the raw and natural texture of the container to create cozy seating areas in the corners,” it added.<\/p>\n

\"Red-walledThe internal walls have been painted red<\/p>\n

Wallmakers is an architecture studio established by Vinu Daniel in 2007. In 2023, Daniel faced criticism on social media for his studio’s use of unpaid internships<\/a>, which he claims have an important educational benefit.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, the studio also recently created a habitable bridge home in rural Karjat,<\/a> which is covered entirely in a surface of furry thatch scales, and a house in Kerala made with discarded toys<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The photography is by Studio Iksha<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A cluster of stacked shipping containers has been coated in a layer of poured earth to create this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,2568,60,6339,814,815,179093,66038,68663],"class_list":{"0":"post-407092","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-india","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-restaurants","18":"tag-sectionall","19":"tag-sectionarchitecture","20":"tag-shipping-containers","21":"tag-tamil-nadu","22":"tag-wallmakers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}