German firm, Palleten Haus has been focusing their design efforts lately on affordable housing using none other than the shipping pallet. One of their first versions was the stellar modular pallet house, which showed in many spots around Europe. Efficient in terms of energy use and affordable in terms of materials, the PalletenHaus is 60 sq meter (655 sq ft) house, used 800 pallets and roughly cost of €8 per pallet.

Shipping Pallet Emergency Shelter

New York firm I-Beam Design was working on a design for emergency housing when they thought about using shipping pallets. Found anywhere around the world, they are a ubiquitous building block and set about to come up with an easy to build shelter. The Pallet House shelter can be built with only basic tools in about a day and can be upgraded over time with insulation and other materials for more permanent housing.

Jellyfish Theatre in London

Shipping pallets are a great and inexpensive building block for temporary structures. As these do not need to stand the test of time, the pallets can be put up quickly to form basic structures like this theatre in London. The Jellyfish Theatre was up and running during the summer of 2010 and could seat 120 people for its performances.