Monday, February 15, 2016

CONTAINER HOUSES

Container transport results in a lot of containers ending up in places where shipping them empty to somewhere where they will be needed costs too much to be worthwhile.  One result has been the development of "container houses".  (Google “Container Houses Australia” and you can come up with something like 2 million hits."

 This link gives examples that range from simple single container buildings like this basic unit that should be easy to move at some later stage and able fit on a very small piece of land:
low-impact-container-studio-in-texas-17
Then there are more elaborate things like this one below and beyond that are meant to be more permanent and impressive:
tim-palen-studio-at-shadow-mountain-1
Container homes are gaining popularity for a number of reasons:
  • Cost: Container homes can cost less than $30,000, rather than the hundreds of thousands or even millions for a typical suburban home.
  • Style: “We can sit these $180,000 container homes … beside a multi-million dollar home. You wouldn’t  know the difference,” Brad Lyons of Container Homes Designer Domain has previously told Domain.
  • Environmentally friendly/weather resistant: “Structurally strong and weatherproof, shipping/freight containers are an ideal base from which to construct a habitable space, without placing the same burden on the environment as conventional construction methods,” the Cube Modular Homes website points out.
  • Time: “Construction time on-site can be as little as seven days to fully weatherproofed condition,” says New Zealand–based Addis Containers.
  • Footprint: Having a smaller footprint means container homes are lower-maintenance, require less energy, are more flexible in where they can be built and minimise waste compared to traditional homes and construction methods.
If I had to live in places where class 5 cyclones are a possibility a properly tied down container might be a good place to be.
See here for standard shipping container sizes.  A single 20 ft standard container has inside floor dimensions of 5.9x2.35 m (13.0 m2)  and a height of 2.69 m.  A 40ft high roof container is 12.01x2.35x2.69m.
For someone who has spent a lot of time living in 6 m2 dongas even a single container sounds like spacious luxury.

1 comment:

  1. Absolutely, John.
    I visited a friend who is committed to this beautiful and simple lifestyle and is halfway done with construction (DIY).

    He explained that it could look so simple and affordable, but it needs some planning and research - no matter if you DIY or contract it. He ordered his planning tool at https://goo.gl/hVMdFx
    and seems that it helps a lot to get ahead the learning curve It is a paid planning kit that is worth looking at.

    https://goo.gl/hVMdFx

    I will post few pictures from his site

    ReplyDelete