Shipping container architecture The Nomadic Museum is composed of 152 shipping containers. It was constructed to house a photography exhibit in New York City in 2005, was dismantled, and was reassembled in Santa Monica, California, USA in early 2006. Shipping container architecture is a form of architecture using steel intermodal containers (shipping containers) as structural element, because of their inherent strength, wide availability and relatively low cost. Advantages Strength and durability Shipping containers are in many ways an ideal building material. Modular All shipping containers are made to standard measurements and as such they provide modular elements that can be combined into larger structures. Transport Pre-fabricated modules can also be easily transported by ship, truck or rail, because they already conform to standard shipping sizes. Availability Used shipping containers are available across the globe. Cost Disadvantages Temperature Labour Construction site Building permits Treatment of timber floors Solvents Books
The Intermodal Container FAQ Copyright © 1995-2007 Ernest H. Robl; all rights reserved. ( ehr@mindspring.com ) This document may be viewed, stored, or printed for personal use only , provided the following conditions are met: (1) It remains intact, with no changes other than for line-length formatting; (2) this copyright notice and all disclaimers at the end are included. This document (or any part thereof) may not be included in any publication, paper or electronic (including Web sites and CD ROM) products, without written permission of the author. Specifically, this document (or any part thereof) may not be reproduced on other Web sites. A westbound Union Pacific Railroad double-stack container train crosses the Keddie Wye trestle in the Feather River Canyon of northern California. PLEASE READ THIS: I am a photographer and writer specializing in transportation and travel subjects. For information on photos used in this document, please contact ehr@mindspring.com . Last revised 2007/11/23 Minor editorial revisions
Container Housing Companies One option if you want a container home is to buy a prefabricated unit from a container housing company. Why consider one of these outfits? They are worth considering if: you don't have enough time for such a big project; you don't have the necessary skills to build a cargo container building yourself; you want something more complex, designed by an architect, with many rooms and floors, contemporary finishes and interiors, modern and clean lines and maximum comfort. There are many finished and under construction projects all around the world that make use of containers for different purposes. Here you'll find links to several container building concerns that sell homes made from cargo containers. Addis Containers is a shipping container house design and construction company from New Zealand. On the container home side, they reportedly have a 320 square foot home for around $40,000 available. 1. 2. Another company we're happy to see out there is Logical Homes.
Shipping Containers Show Promise for Living Space With tens of thousands of empty shipping containers clutteringAmerica’s seaports, one New York City architectural firm has developed a novel idea for converting the ubiquitous metal boxes into low-cost housing and working space. Firm officials are now talking with developers about making it a reality. Click here to view image>> Mark E. Strauss, principal and director of planning for Fox & Fowle Architects PC, came up with the idea after receiving a speaker’s package for a recent conference on building density. "Density is the next frontier in responding to sprawl and in rebuilding livable urban neighborhoods, but we have an irrational fear of it," says David D. The Fox & Fowle team chose an 18.6-acre site in central Gloucester that included abandoned industrial property, open space and woodlands. The Strauss team removed the sheathing and used the 8-ft-wide x 9.5-ft- high x 40-ft-long containers as structural components for 351 duplex loft-housing units consisting of four containers.
News - Clinics to Africa - 2003.0115 Clinics to Africa by ArchitectureWeek Although solving the global AIDS crisis may be beyond the scope of architecture, a young nonprofit has demonstrated that architects can apply their skills to help with this intractable humanitarian problem. It is estimated that three-quarters of the world's HIV/AIDS population lives in Sub-Saharan Africa, most without access to health care. One of the obstacles for medical professionals in Africa is lack of adequately equipped facilities within the vast continent. Architecture for Humanity has recently concluded a competition for the design of a fully equipped, mobile HIV/AIDS health clinic. The top-ranked project is by Mikkel Beedholm, Mads Mandrup Hansen, and Jan Søndergaard, of KHRAS Architects, from Virum, Denmark. Second place went to students Brendan Harnett and Michelle Myers of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. The third-Place award went to Heide Schuster and Wilfried Hofmann of Dortmund, Germany.
Two if by Sea: DIY Cargo Shipping Container Home on Stilts « Dornob “One if by land, two if by sea” goes the poem of Paul Revere – but not in reference to a pair of sea-shipping containers radically converted into a single on-land dwelling. A local train yard and a few hundred dollars can buy you a few five-thousand-pound insulated metal boxes. And at that price, who would not be tempted to plan their new home around shipping container-sized units? Paul Stankey (and family) not only bought his structural materials on the cheap, but also used simple do-it-yourself processes to construct his cargo container house step by simple step – starting with pipes to leverage the containers off of the trailer attached to his truck. After pouring simple concrete foundations, he and his partners used railroad ties, vehicular force and rounded pipes to roll the containers up and into place before welding them to the piers below.
Blog : Living Inside the Box: Creative Eco-Friendly Design Using Shipping Containers Most of us have seen a tower of shipping containers at least once in our life. Throughout the US there are over 700,000 abandoned shipping containers. As the US moves away from being a manufacturing economy, we receive many more of these containers than we use to export goods, creating a surplus of containers that, well, don’t contain anything. As the world scrambles for ways to become greener, people are looking for ideas for recycling these old containers, and putting them to some good use. The most popular type of shipping container construction is modular construction. People are also looking to shipping containers to solve problems of world housing. Not only is shipping container construction incredibly environmentally friendly, it can also be used for emergency relief. Shipping container construction is the new craze in modern architecture.
SustainableSources.com: Shipping Container Housing « Shipping Container Housing