Modular, stackable and robust, these cargo containers may not look like much on the outside but provide surprisingly refined accommodations inside and can be packed and shipped cheaply and easily around the world to meet different demand.

Recently renovated, the newest Snoozebox models can be shipped by road, rail, air or sea, fully deployed within two days and configured in a variety of ways for festivals, remote events, emergency housing or perhaps even temporary cities of some other yet-to-be-imagined sort.

Making them appealing for off-the-grid contexts as well, “each of the units require no mains service – no provision for electricity, water or sewerage is necessary. each room is climate controlled and features a wet room, double bed, flat screen TV, power sockets, free wi-fi and a safe.”

These small-footprint shipping container modules allow for “two upper level units, each offering two bedrooms, can be placed on top of the lower level, accessed by stairs with a walkway leading to each dwelling. internally, each temporary residence has four stowed bunk beds, which can be readily and easily converted.”

The older models were a bit more bare-bones in terms of their cladding but still provide all of the essential basics, including flat-pack circulation structures and shade provisions for sunny and hot climates.

If you are sick of worrying about your bike being stolen or taking a lock with you wherever you go, this design will solve both of those every problems faced by bicyclists around the world.

In less than 20 seconds, the Unstealable Bike‘s locking system can be deployed by unlatching and rotating two pieces of the frame, then sliding out and using the seat bar to connect and secure those two parts.

Unlike most quick-release seats, the ability to slide out the bar becomes an asset rather than a liability in this case, making it possible to lock up your bicycle with one of its most frequently-stolen pieces.

The scale of the components employed makes it easy to attach the cycle to anything from a slim signpost to a thick tree.

Created by a team of three engineers, the bike is currently a prototype and seeking funding for mass-production and sale. Its builders bill it as safe, well-designed and comfortable – a more useful variant of the frequently-seen projects for collapsible bicycles.

The Urbee 2 is strong as steel, half the weight of a conventional vehicle, and can be manufactured in a warehouse full of plastic-spraying 3D printers. The teardrop-shaped 3D-printed car is an ecologically sound hybrid, and it looks cool, too. Aerodynamic and futuristic, this car could be a total game-changer for the automobile industry, leading to a rise of small-batch automakers.

The three-wheel, two-passenger prototype vehicle with a generously sized, curved transparent roof (also made of plastic) was constructed by Kor Ecologic at RedEye, an on-demand 3D-printing facility with a Fused Deposition Modeling printer that sprays molten polymer one microscopic layer at a time to create the desired shape. The whole car takes about 2,500 hours to manufacture, but the process is fully automated.

The Urbee 2 3D-printed car’s light weight makes it so fuel-efficient, creator Jim Kor aims to make it from San Francisco to New York City on ten gallons of gas. Kor Ecologic’s design ideals for the project include causing as little pollution as possible during manufacturing, operation and recycling of the car, using local or regional and/or recyclable materials whenever possible, and making it affordable.

You might wonder just how safe a plastic car can really be, but Kor is aiming high in that department, too. The bumpers will be just as strong as their sheet-metal equivalents. The final goal for the Urbee is not just to exceed all current automotive safety standards, but be able to pass the tech inspection required for race cars.

For those who think that the glory-days of boat-building are over, think again – for there are modern-day Brunels, eager to build the next generation of ocean-faring superstructures. Here are 7 wondrous examples of epic modern ship design, from passenger liner to man o’ war, from staggeringly large to stealthily small – all demonstrating that when it comes to innovation, technology and breadth of ambition, the best designs are the ones making waves.

(Images via: Dark Roasted Blend)

Longer than the Eiffel Tower is tall, the Knock Nevis is a floating colossus with a fascinating history. Originally built in a Japanese shipyard for a Greek owner who couldn’t take delivery, the ship has had multiple owners, endured three name-changes and, while being used as a storage ship by Iran in 1988, been bombed and sunk by Iraqi jets. Today this near-half-kilometer-long behemoth can be seen permanently moored at the Al Shaheen oil fields, Qatar, where (as the Knock Nevis) it is being used as an FPSO.

(Image via: Relevant Search Scotland)

However, the title of Largest Ship In The World belongs to the Batillus-class supertankers of the late 1970s, each weighing in at around half a million tonnes deadweight. Massive they may have been, but all but one of these ships lasted less than a decade – the longest-lived was the Prairial, finally scrapped in Karachi in 2003.

(Image via: Oasis of the Seas)

Fancy sailing the world’s oceans atop a skyscraper? You’ll want to book passage on the Oasis of The Seas , the first in Royal Caribbean International’s new fleet of cruise ships…and the largest passenger vessel in the world.

(Images via: Oasis of the Seas)

Launched from Finland last month, the OotS is currently heading towards Fort Lauderdale on its maiden voyage. 70 meters high, 360 meters long and a whopping 225,000 tons (that is over four times heavier than the Titanic), it offers its passengers an astounding variety of luxuries including two-storey apartments, a mini golf course and an indoor park. Cruise travel gone mad?

(Images via: Crunch Gear via Ecofriend)

Attempting something a little eco-flashier is the Super Eco Ship 2030 (due to hit the seas in…well, have a guess). The ship is powered by hydrogen fuel cells and onboard solar and wind energy collectors – and with the help of a lightened, friction-reduced hull, the designed claim a 69% drop in carbon dioxide emissions compared with today’s container ships.

(Images via: Freedom Ship

Less a ship than a mindbogglingly huge chain of barges, the Freedom Ship is a vessel on a scale that even Roland Emmerich would raise an eyebrow at. It would house over 60,000 passengers (maybe even up to 100,000 at a squeeze) and would contain everything a modern community needs – even its own airport, turboprop-only. Where is it now? Lost in a sea of blueprints, without publicized investors (and at an estimated price of $11 billion this project needs a lot of them) and the target of accusations of scamming. If completed, the Freedom Ship would cruise round the world – and we have to ask, what exactly is it like to ride out a tropical storm in an oversized barge?

(Images via: 800HighTech)

Dear modern sea-pirates: how would you feel if one of these sidled alongside your scurvy vessel and ordered you to drop anchor? Meet the Visby-class stealth corvette, darling of the Swedish Navy.

(Images via: 800HighTech and Gizmodo)

Gizmodo likens them to waterborne Star Destroyers, and we see their point. These warships are designed to sneak under the radar at any distance above 13 miles in calm seas, thanks to advanced materials in its armored cladding and a greatly dampened electromagnetic footprint – and once up close, its guns, missiles, depth charges, torpedoes and grenade launchers would be sure to get the attention of even the most heavily-armed ship of hijackers.

(Image via: US Navy)

But for sea-policing at a disance, the prize goes to US Navy’s upcoming Zumwalt-class destroyer – a $3.3 billion, 21st-Century version of the ironclad. Thanks to stealth technologies its radar signature will be little larger than a fishing boat…

(Images via: US Navy and Wired)

…which would belie the truly formidable punch behind this hunter-killer, including an advanced gun system firing 10 rounds a minute to a range of 80 miles. Guided missiles can also be flung out the well-protected vertical launch tubes – and it has even been suggested that railguns and lasers might make up its future arsenal. For now, its cutting-edge nature means that a number of key technologies have yet to be fully developed. In every sense, this is a ship of the future.

(Images via: Inhabitat)

And last but not least, we have a ship that isn’t a ship at all – it’s a floating exhibition centre. This design, created for the 2012 World Expo in South Korea, is a pavilion with a difference…

(Images via: Inhabitat)

…because once the show is over, it can be detached from the shoreline and sailed elsewhere, drawn behind a tug. It may not be self-powered, but a ship it most definitely is – and one that would be towed around the South Korean coastline to wherever it is needed. The possibilities are intriguing: how about a theater where the venue goes on tour with the company? And is this the start of shipping that has a dual role, embedded in the seaward sides of our cities to perform an entirely different service to the community?

There’s nothing like the freedom to move and live where we want. Perhaps the greatest expression of postmodern mobility is when transportation devices are combined with living spaces. Creative portable living solutions can blend with urban surroundings, be adapted to different individuals or can be the epitome of over-the-top luxury.

This strange vehicle might look like a reconfigured garbage truck but it is actually an off-road luxury living vehicle – a converted mobile home. The series of Unicats are complete with top-of-the-line beds, bathrooms, kitchens and storage space and can travel on rough terrain. At the same time, they really do look like garbage trucks and can blend perfectly into an urban setting for mobile downtown parties.

The A-Z Wagon Stations are designed for maximum flexibility. Within a fixed shape the outside can be decorated and the interiors can be infinitely reconfigured and personalized by the owner and occupant. Some users have taken them and created plush lounges equipped with sound systems and others have created spartan and well-organized workspaces.

There is no mistaking this 2.5 million dollar mobile home for anything but the luxury liner of portable housing. An entire sports car neatly slides into the undercarriage and the interior looks like it could be the cockpit and living quarters of a futuristic space ship. The real question is: would you be willing to spend a mansion’s ransom on this and then be brave enough to take it on the road?