I was sure that I’d posted about this before, but apparently not. The Box that Changed Britain (which can currently be seen on YouTube) is BBC 4 documentary about the shipping container.

Poet Roger McGough narrates the extraordinary story of how a simple invention – the shipping container – changed the world forever and forced Britain into the modern era of globalisation.

It’s a premise that sounds incredibly dry, but the history of the box, the ideas behind it, the economics, and the open source factor (an inescapable world wide web metaphor) make for a fascinating watch. Would love to see a part 2 that covers the current movement for repurposing shipping containers into shops and homes.