Green Seas, part 1
As sustainability becomes more of a global trend in all business aspects, much attention is being paid to building with recycled materials. One of the most innovative technologies of the past half-decade that has recently become more popular is container housing. Container housing is the construction of buildings using shipping containers after their shelf life at sea has expired. While shipping containers have a life span of about 10 years at sea, the solid structural capacity gives them a minimum life span of 20 years in-building after they are taken off the ships. We truly believe that this is among the most innovative technologies in sustainable building. For the next few days, we would like to take you through a few pioneering projects and designers applying this new technology to the built environment. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride!
In London, England, a development group called Urban Space Management, Ltd has been pioneering container housing for years. Their projects range from work/live artist studios to music studios, and everything in between. Their first project, Container City I, is a landmark for container development. Originally three stories in height providing 12 working studios, the development was completed in only 5 months and installation time was a mere 4 days! This was in 2001, before most of us could spell the word container. They have since built schools, artist retreats, children’s centers, and music studios around England and Scotland on the same principles. Inspirational is too bland a word to justify their work.
A Dutch container company named Tempohousing is taking an interesting approach to container housing. They’ve partnered with a decoration factory in China to produce turnkey container homes. Their website showcases the different models, all of which are shipped to the port closest to the end buyer, where they can be simply dropped into place and moved into. All the electric wiring and plumbing is done beforehand, so that they only need to be connected to the local utilities to function. Talk about plug and play technologies! Tempohousing’s products have been so successful that last year (2006), they completed a 1,000 unit student housing project in Amsterdam called Keetwonen. The project is made entirely of modified 40’ shipping containers. They have since added a café – restaurant, supermarket, office buildings and sporting area, all out of containers.
On the other side of the world, in New Zealand, Addis Containers is designing creative original residential container homes as well. Our personal favorites, the "4-floor glass" and the "Townhouse 1," show how container housing can also produce stark modern designs for a luxury home. Want something even more luxurious? De Maria Design Associates Redondo Beach, California House is a contemporary style home with 20’ living room ceilings, and two walls of airplane hangar doors that open completely. Luxury comes with a price though - in this case, half of the price of traditional custom home building in the area, a mere $125 per square foot!
As container housing around the world takes off, we see its versatility in use. From student housing and lower income projects to luxury homes with a modern edge, containers are replacing concrete walls with style and innovation. Stay tuned for more on Container Housing tomorrow in the second part of our series!