Buildings With Containers

8/3/2019 Buildings With Containers

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Building with Shipping Containers

An idea whose time seems to have arrived is the use of stockpiled shipping containersas modular units for building homes. Because of the balance of trade worldwide, these

hefty steel boxes are piling up in ports around countries and posing a heavy storageproblem. Several architects and builders are taking advantage of this surplus to recyclethe containers.

A container has 8000 lbs of steel which takes 8000 kwh of energy to melt down andmake new beams etc... The process of modifying that entire 8000 lbs of steel into a"higher and better use" only takes 400 kwh of electrical energy (or 5%). Granted it takesa bit more "muscle" but it is also called as Value-Cycling which may be the next step upfrom Re-cycling.


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Container units are stronger than conventional house framing because of theirresistance to "lateral loads" -- those seen in hurricanes and earthquakes -- and becausesteel is basically welded to steel. The roof is strong enough to support the extra weightof a green roof which has vegetation growing on it if the owner should want it.

As for their energy efficiency, when the appropriate coatings are installed, the envelopereflects about 95 percent of outside radiation, resists the loss of interior heat, providesan excellent air infiltration barrier and does not allow water to migrate in.


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One idea that has occurred in the meantime is that this system might benefit from theuse of SIP's (Structural Insulated Panels) for the roofs, rather that standard trussframing. SIP's are very well insulated, install quickly, and use much less wood than

convention roofs.


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Shipping containers are self-supporting with beams and stout, marine-grade plywoodflooring already in place, thereby eliminating time and labor during the home-buildingprocess. Cross said construction costs are comparable to those in conventionalbuilding. Four to seven units are used in a typical home.

This finished house is virtually indistinguishable from conventional housing.

Building with Shipping Containers, part2

Instead of nailing the siding Super Thermis used, a ceramic paint made by severalmanufacturers; it can be used as a paint, an adhesive, an insulator, a fireproofingmaterial and an acoustic barrier. With this ceramic paint, the insulation capacity is equalto a conventional house, or even better!


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The cargo containers, with a life span of about 20 years when used for their originalpurpose, have an "infinite life span" when stationary and properly maintained, they arelike a treasured antique: they may not be inherently valuable, but the history and thestorytelling add value.!

Environmentalists have embraced the design, applauding the recycling inherent toseveral designs. And advocates for affordable-housing like the design, since the totalcost of a housebetween $150,000 and $175,000 after the buyer settles upon the


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various optionsworks out to be between $73 and $90 per square foot, about half thecost of the conventional $200 per square foot for reasonable quality.

Some developers have recently opened several factories to manufacture such QuikHouses. There are a lot of elbows flying in this process, and this is the best way toprotect the quality of the house, to keep the accounting transparent, and to make suredevelopers are not unwittingly responsible for heinous crimes to the built environment.

Once these factories become fully functional, developers plan to export many of theirproducts, commenting that "the possibilities of working on a world scale are veryexciting".


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Over two hundred thousand containers hit shores worldwide every day of the year.Containers can be shipped to the interior of any country via trains and trucks. Shippingcontainers are like Lego toys and the modules can be assembled in thousands of ways.

In general it is a good thing to recycle materials that otherwise have no further use fortheir intended purpose, and this is true here. As for whether one can make acomfortable house out of these metal boxes, the biggest question is: insulation...it isessential, but there are many ways to insulate these containers, so this is not a bigconcern. Another concern that many people would have is whether a metal box would


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have adverse health effects because of EMF (electro-magnetic frequencies) generationor propagation. Some people are sensitive to these while others are not.

According to the tags on the doors, the timber component (the floor) almost invariably istreated with serious pesticide. There are multiple purposes to the pesticide treatments:a) to prevent transplantation of harmful insects around the world b) to protect thestructure of the floor c) to protect the contents from infestation and damage. So care

should be taken to either remove the flooring (if pesticide has been used) or protect itfrom affecting the contents of the container.

There is no doubt that these containers can be used to fabricate very strong shells thatwould withstand substantial abuse from the ravages of nature.


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With the green theme growing in popularity across every stretch of the world, more andmore people are turning to cargo container homes for green alternatives for office, andeven new home, construction.


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Many shipping container buildings look precisely like that which they are constructedfrom: old cargo containers used for shipping things around the world. That aesthetic isfine for some but others prefer something that looks at least somewhat moreconventional and blends in with their surroundings but that also recycles thesestructurally sound elements in a new design.

There are countless numbers of empty, unused shipping containers around the worldjust sitting on the shipping docks and taking up space. The reason for this is that its tooexpensive for a country to ship empty containers back to their origin in most cases, its

just cheaper to buy new containers from Asia. The result is an extremely high surplus ofempty shipping containers that are just waiting to become someones home or office.


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There are plenty of benefits of to the so-called shipping container architecture model. A

few of these advantages include: they are plentiful, they are easily transported, theyrestackable, relatively inexpensive (as little as $900 for a used container), they can beprefabricated, and theyre extremely durable. Residential applications are alsobecoming a popular topic of conversation among green supporters.


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In other parts of the world, places like Odessa, Ukraine already have the the biggestshopping mall in all of Europe which uses stacked shipping containers to form alleysthroughout the 170 acre site.


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In Asia, the Dordoy Bazaar in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan is almost entirely composed ofempty shipping containers stacked two high and chock-full of inexpensive trinkets and

toys. So, in other words, shipping container architecture is nothing new, but it is newwhen it comes to residential and office applications.


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This great example of shipping container architecture was created by architects PieterPeelings and Silvia Mertens. They live and work in these shipping containers which arestacked four high. The entire space is 2.4 meters wide by 5.5 meters deep by 12 metershigh. The bottom floor is used for work, dining room is located on the second floor,relaxation room on the third, and spectacular rooftop views from the fourth containerincluding a relaxing spa.


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This award-winning office design by Clive Wilkinson is made out of stacked shippingcontainers is the home office of Palotta TeamWorks, a US charity event company. The47,000 square foot warehouse is filled with shipping containers that have beentransformed into modern office spaces. This design layout saved the company a ton ofmoney on construction costs, and it allowed the entire space to be more open and airy.


The worlds first hotel built from recycled shipping containers has popped-up inUxbridge, West London. Each prefabricated container comes fully-equipped with


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fixtures, furniture, and windows from a factory in China. The company, calledTravelodge, says that constructing a hotel this way is 25% faster and 10% cheaper thanthe more traditional construction methods. Also, construction is much quicker, becauseall that has to be done is to fit each container together like it was a giant Lego set.Rooms at this London hotel start at about 20 EURO per night. The London area may

see more these portable hotels pop-up around the city as the 2012 Olympicsapproaches.

Opened in 1998, the Simons Town High School Hostel is constructed almost entirely ofused shipping containers. This amazing place is constructed out of 40 large shippingcontainers to be exact, and its big enough to accommodate up to 120 boarders.

The hostel manager gets his own 2 bedroom flat, while the other staff share 2 separateflatlets. Area residents were concerned that the project would prove to be an eyesore tothe community since it was made from grungy old shipping containers, but the finalresult proved otherwise with a modern-looking structure that is incredibly durable andaesthetically pleasing at the same time.


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This shipping container home from the so-called Zigloo Domestique project in Victoria,British Columbia, Canada is a residential home created by Keith Dewey. The home isbuilt out of old shipping containers, and the owner chose to paint them with an industrialstrength minty-green enamel, commonly found on shipping containers today, in order tomaintain the containers roots in the shipping business.


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While the exterior of the home may look a little rugged, due to the protruding containers,the 2,000 square foot interior of the house is quite comfortable and modern. The projectcost about $150 per square foot, compared to a similar quality traditional constructionproject that can cost about $250 per square foot.

This stunning home is almost like a piece of art that you can live in. Constructed using12 recycled shipping containers, the 12 container home home has all of the modernconveniences of a traditionally built home but with a unique element of style as well.


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A modern kitchen, huge wide-open floor plan, and gigantic windows that bring in tons ofnatural lighting are just a few of the great features of this home and in addition -construction costs were relatively inexpensive when compared to traditionalconstruction.



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This 2,000 square foot home, built in 2001, is actually built around a smaller cottage-style house that has stood in that location for decades. The cottage house almost lookslike a gigantic version of a dollhouse inside of the huge storage shed that forms theexterior of this innovative house.

The 3 bedroom 2.5 bath home is also made from 5 large shipping containers - 3 on thebottom, and 2 stacked on top of those. This place also contains all of the modernfeatures of a normal home, but its supposedly built to last much longer. The creator ofthis innovative home is actually selling these homes for as little as $96,000, or less than$120 per square foot - not a bad deal considering traditional construction of a new homeaverages about double that amount.


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This 3,000 square foot L.A. home features multiple storage containers in its design -each with its own purpose. Theres a storage container for the entertainment area,

library, dining room/office space, master bedroom, and bathroom/laundry room. Thisplace has plenty of large windows which provide plenty of natural lighting as well asawesome views of the garden and koi pond outside. Aside from using recycled storagecontainers, this home also uses recycled steel scraps in its construction which furtheradds to the green vibe that this home resonates - not to mention saved a ton of moneyon construction costs.


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Above is an amazing shipping container living space that transforms on demand into amodular work of recycled architecture. This living area is made from one large shippingcontainer that is modified to open up with the push of a button to form a usable livingarea. This space has everything you need: bathroom, small kitchen/bar area, and acouch to relax on. All it needs is some sweet transforming furniture.


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The Freitag Shop in Zurich is built entirely out of 17 old, rusted shipping containers. The85 foot high structure really emphasizes the companys dedication to eco-friendlyproducts, which includes messenger bags made from recycled tarps and tires. Thestructure features staircases between each level of the shop and a viewing area at thetop of thiseco-friendly skyscraper.


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Container Cities are designed to provide affordable, stable and easily constructedalternative solutions to creating conventional office, workspace and live/work spaces.


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When they are done designing the containers themselves become a colorful structuralsystem complete with nuanced design additions and modifications that blur the linebetween container and architecture. These modular creations can also be constructedand deconstructed/move relatively easy for short- and medium-term structural solutions.


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Completed in 2003, this East London youth center took only 1 day to construct theexterior! The structure is composed entirely of 7 used storage containers. The resultwas a cost-effective solution to traditional construction. Mile End Youth Centre has beenconsidered the future of inexpensive construction for buildings such as this one.

Building with Shipping Containers,

continued


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The awesome Riverside Building in London is a masterpiece of storage containerrecycling. This large office building is constructed out of a total of 73 used storagecontainers. It took only 8 days to piece together each container into a total of 22 officespace units. Construction of this building was completed in 2005, and the result was acost-effective office space and awesome views of the Thames River.

Check out this retro-looking prefabricated house located in the Austrian countryside.

This inexpensive home was created by Espace Mobile who sell prefab homes like thisone for between 55,000 and 95,000 Euros.


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Each one of these homes comes with a 3-year warranty, and each section of the houseis 4 meters wide by 1-15 meters long. Each section can be pieced together to thecustomers liking. This place offers spectacular views of the countryside through itsfloor-to-ceiling windows.

The Linx Shipping Container Shelter offers an innovative solution for temporary shelterapplications, such as for construction workers. The shelter is made out of 20 foot longshipping container that can be stacked 2-stories high.


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The structure includes a kitchen, dining room, showers, bathrooms, office space, and

sleeping areas - not exactly your average construction worker shelter.


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Hybrid Seattle takes a highly stylized and creative approach to creating containerarchitecture designs. Many of their works are, so far, purely academic exercisesshowing the potential possibilities of shipping container structures. However, they havebuild some small-scale modular housing units to test their theories and are in theprocess of developing a larger cargotecture housing project this year.


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Lot-Ek is always on the cutting edge of strange and interesting architectural designs soit is no wonder they have their own visions of shipping container houses. Their solutionsrely on a relatively simple external configuration that provides for more complex spatialpossibilities on the interior of their structures. They are fully equipped with everythingone would want in a home and lacking no luxury.


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So if all of this got you somewhat more interested in the idea of having a shippingcontainer structure of your own there are firms like Royal Wolf who create and sellreconstructed shipping containers. A lot of their applications are fairly low-tech (but thusalso way more affordable) such as storage or work-site offices, refrigeration and so on.However, they have extensive experience creating living spaces, recreation rooms,kitchens, diners, workshops and more for private citizens and the military.

Buildings With Containers

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