Puma on the Move

Ever wish you could pack up your home or office building and ship it off to an exotic locale with you? Puma’s creative team must have had the same thought, because it has developed a mobile 11,000-sq.-ft. (1,000 sq m) building, Puma City, which is already off traveling the world. Built for yachting’s Volvo Ocean Race (Puma entered its boat, Il Mostro, and its racing team), which spans cities around the world over nine months, the building opened to the public in September during the first leg of the race, in Alicante, Spain; its next stop is Boston Harbor in April 2009. Designed by the architecture firm LOT-EK, the structure consists of 24 steel shipping containers, each weighing 11 tons, that stack on top of one another, creating a building that includes terraces, a Puma retail space and a lounge area. When Puma City is ready to move on, it can be disassembled and shipped off to its next destination on a traditional cargo ship. The traveler’s mantra of packing light has never felt so outdated.