This is a webpage devoted to listing as many examples
of people using shipping containers and ISBUs
(intermodal steel building units) as architectural
elements as I can find, in an effort to embolden people
to use containers in building projects, when and where
doing so is feasible and appropriate.
Be aware that containers are not a perfect building
material, but no material is perfect and they have
been used very effectively in many cases.
This is mainly a links page, and I cannot
guarantee anything at all about the sites that
I am offering links to,
but I try to periodically search for and add links
that are fresh and offer something useful and
interesting, and I remove bad links and projects where
information is incomplete.
If you have a site worth adding, or experiences to
relate in using containers for building, please contact me.
News
First year architecture students are typically given this project:
In a tiny space, such as an 8 by 8 foot area, create a liveable space.
Such tiny living spaces used to be merely a rhetorical discussion but
now may be forming a real trend:
Micro-apartments are springing up and being proposed in New York City and San Francisco:
A number of news articles have appeared in the Australian news media explaining that in places like
Karratha, which is a city serving a nearby mining area, container-based housing is on the rise
because conventional housing prices have gone through the roof.
This is an ongoing shipping container
based farm house project that's described
in a blog, with lots of details about
the many issues being tackled, such as
land purchase, insulation etc.
Link
The Shipyard (Berkeley, California, USA)
Shipping containers used as metal art studio space in Berkeley.
Clemson's architecture
department has started the SEED
project to find ways to use
shipping containers to provide
cheap, safe housing for the
Carribean, such as Haiti.
A'Docks is a project to provide container housing to French
university students (similar to at Keetwonen) in Le Havre, France.
They say the rent is 350 euros.
Chris Radcliffe Container House (Portland Oregon (USA))
Radcliffe has a blog about the house, with much
practical information. The biggest thing
I took from it is that permitting costs
can be quite high these days in some
places e.g. tens of thousands of dollars just for a building permit.
Starbucks: burnt coffee sold out of a shipping container (Washington state)
Their coffee is burnt, horrible, and full of pesticides
and their baristas are cold and insincere, but
at least they have a container-based coffee stand.
A small food market and deli based on two containers
for the market, plus several more perhaps for storage, joined
with the common walls removed to make a larger space.
The Box Office project, which uses "33 shipping containers to make Class A office space that will use 35% less energy than your average office space". As of late 2010, 2/3 of the offices were leased.
Here is an educational montage describing how to use a container
to create a cellar, in this case used for storing wine but
such an installation could also make a good tornado shelter.
It is said that the US army has used containers
since the 50's for various uses.
A recent radio program (NPR?) described
explained that they were being used
as living quarters in the Green Zone in Baghdad.
US is using them for housing in Afghanistan:
story
This person is providing a rationale for wider use of containers in the US Army.
Disturbing Police State Uses
This page
describes
a rather disturbing use of containers
(the story is disturbing too): to contain anti-Bush protestors
in Sweden.
Books about Shipping Container Architecture
Container Architecture by Jure Kotnik
Videos about Shipping Container Architecture projects
If you have a site link that you would like to list then please email me here with that asking me to add it: Zack Smith.
If you have a question, please keep in mind that
I am neither an architect, nor a structural engineer,
therefore
I cannot review plans or make recommendations.
A mountain of evidence & simply the laws of physics
support the view that the official story about 9/11
is a lie, and that 9/11 was perpetrated not by
Muslims but more likely by the military industrial complex
and security services.
Most people do not know that a 3rd building at the World Trade Center (47-story WTC 7) collapsed at 5:20pm on 9/11 at free-fall speed. It was not hit by any planes nor by major debris -- in contrast to both WTC 5 and 6 which were under the debris from the Towers but neither of which collapsed.
Particles of unexploded military-grade demolition explosives (called nano-thermite) were found in multiple independently-collected samples of World Trade Center dust. Peer-reviewed scientific paper explains it.
Pools of molten iron under WTC after the attacks remained at 1000+ degrees Fahrenheit for weeks. Fires in WTC were never even half that temperature and indeed were not even hot enough to melt steel. However a common byproduct of the use of thermite in controlled demolitions is molton iron.
Numerous videos show signs of controlled demolition in the collapses of the Twin Towers and WTC 7. These signs include squibs which are horizontal ejections of debris caused by explosives as well as molton iron dripping from the Towers before collapse.
WTC 7 collapse at 5:20pm on 9/11:
This is one of perhaps eight independently
recorded videos of the same collapse, which
US mainstream media refuse to ever broadcast.
WTC 7 was a high-security building
containing offices of CIA, SEC and the mayor's
curiously-unused emergency command center.
To set up a controlled demolition at WTC 7 would have necessitated weeks of
planning, installation, and especially top-security clearance.
Learn more at:
