Now that's thinking outside the box! Amazing pictures of 'green' condos, offices and a pop-up lobster shack made up entirely of empty shipping containers

Container to condo: A work is under way on the Exceptional Green Living on Rosa Parks in Detroit which, when completed, will be the first multi-family residence made up of boxes in the U.S.

The Office: The Box Office was constructed in Providence, Rhode Island, out of 35 stacked empty shipping boxes, making it the largest office building of its kind in the U.S.

Just like Legos: The Container City project at Trinity Buoy Wharf in London

In the past, when a container was retired from service in the shipping industry, it would end up discarded in a ship yard to be slowly consumed by rust. But now, the colourful steel boxes get a new lease on life by being transformed into apartments, art studios, office buildings and even restaurants.

HyBrid Architecture, based in Seattle, Washington, has been building housing from containers for nearly 10 years now and is credited with coining the term 'cargotecture' to describe this ‘green’ approach to construction, ABC News reported.

Homes and businesses pieced together out of the multicolored boxes which can be purchased for as little as $2,500 each have been springing up from coast to coast in recent years.

In Detroit, a project is under way to build a four-story condominium complex consisting of 93 stacked cargo boxes. Dubbed the Exceptional Green Living on Rosa Parks, the development has been in the pipeline for four years now, but suffered a delay due to the recent real estate bust.

Downsized: The Sunset Cargotecture cottage in Seattle comes in at only 192 square feet, but it is powered by solar energy and features a galley kitchen, a micro-bathroom, a transformer couch and folding bed

Hybrid: The solar-powered Container House in Nederland, Colorado, includes a main wooden structure sandwiched between two crates which house an office and a bedroom

Down to earth: The five freestanding shipping crates that make up the Camp Cinco in Brewster County, Texas, each serve a different purpose: a living room, two bedrooms and bathrooms, a kitchen and dining room and a storage unit

When completed, the condo building will be the first multi-family residence built from containers in the U.S. According to the plan, each unit will feature ductless heating and air systems, tankless water heaters and other energy-saving solutions.

In Seattle, the aforementioned firm HyBrid Architecture constructed the Sunset Cargotecture cottage in 2011. While the dwelling is miniscule, coming in at only 192 square feet, it is powered by solar energy and is equipped with all the basic necessities: a galley kitchen, a micro-bathroom, a transformer couch and a foldout bed.

While most architects see containers as Lego-like building blocks that are most useful when stacked, Mark Wallen went the other route when he designed Camp Cinco in the rugged terrain of Brewster County, Texas.

Instead of manipulating the boxes, he left them free-standing on the ground, with each container serving a different, clearly defined purpose: a living room, two bedrooms and bathrooms, a kitchen and dining room and a storage unit.

Workplace: Containership Office shown as part of the 2008 East Bay Green Home Tour in Richmond, California

Outside the box: Potential buyers and an agent look out of a $100,000 three-bedroom home made from four old shipping containers priced at $100,000 in Sydney,

Home sweet crate: A home made of shipping containers in Richmond California

The ranch was commissioned by Roger Black, a former Rolling Stone magazine designer who moved to the rocky desert in Texas to get away from the Hamptons.

A jumble of 35 blue and lime-green containers stacked one on top of the other make up the Box Office in Providence, Rhode Island. The 12,000-square-foot complex is the largest office building of its kind in the U.S.

Despite the easily accessible and relatively cheap building materials, developer Peter Case said the project set him back as much as $1.6million due to the high costs associated with transforming an empty crate into a functioning office space.

Besides living quarters and workplaces, containers have been used to erect some of the more unusual commercial spaces, like the pop-up lobster shack on wheels called Muvbox, complete with unfolding table seating and awnings.

Shipping souk: The Dekalb Market in downtown Brooklyn is made up of empty containers where 60 vendors sell arts and clothing

Lunch box: Restaurateur Kirk Lance opened a Mexican restaurant along an Oregon highway housed inside a shipping crate

Meals of wheels: The first Muvbox portable pop-up lobster shack sprung up in Montreal in 2006, but the idea have since spread to Toronto, New york and Paris

The idea for the quirky, crustacean-themed eatery was borne out of an art project in Montreal in 2006. Since then, similar boxes have surfaced in Toronto, Times Square in New York and even Paris.

In Brooklyn, 60 vendors have been selling their wares, from arts and crafts to clothing, out of shipping containers scattered around an empty parking lot dubbed the DeKalb Market.

But perhaps one of the more unusual ideas for how to use empty containers came one day to restaurateur Kirk Lance, who opened a taqueria along an Oregon highway housed inside a shipping crate he bought for $3,000.