Container City

Last night I saw "Modern Marvels" on the History Channel and they mentioned using industrial shipping containers for simple, low cost construction for residences, office space, schools, and more. It struck me as an absolutely brilliant idea.

Here's a brief explanation of the concept from Container City:

Containers are an extremely flexible method of construction, being both modular in shape, extremely strong structurally and readily available. Container Cities offer an alternative solution to traditional space provision. They are ideal for office and workspace, live-work and key-worker housing.

Basically, what the idea entails is to build various living quarters and other facilities into connectable shipping containers for easy transport and then put them together like LEGOS at the point of construction. They are solidly built, easy to stack, and there already exists an international network designed to transport these containers by boat, train, and truck to almost anywhere in the world. There are already examples of this being done in places as diverse as London and Pakistan.

As Kevin Kosbab writes:

Eventually, the plug-and-play structures could be internationally standardized, as shipping containers themselves already are. Then you could stick your house on a boat (contents and all), move across the world, and still be right at home. Imagine: moving without packing up! It’s a globetrotter’s idea of heaven. We’re a long way from having a standard—most of the projects we’ve talked about are still only planned or prototyped—but we can see big bucks in a company that can figure out the logistics.

Sean Godsell has captured the idea of using containers for providing a home for the displaced, using a design he calls FutureShack:

Godsell, an award-winning Australian architect, conceived of FutureShack to shelter the world's displaced -- homeless refugees, victims of natural disaster or the survivors of war.

For those situations, his answer is the recycled shipping container now stationed on the museum's lawn. The basic unit, which once carried cargo from China, is a steel box 22 feet by 8 feet and 8 feet tall. The interior has been lined with plywood and fitted with spare kitchen and bath facilities. The dramatic touch is a peaked roof that provides more than shade. It turns the industrial box into a child's-eye image of home.

See more photos of FutureShack and read more about it here and here.

What is particularly compelling about these designs is the speed with which they can be constructed.

While I don't see these replacing the common American home anytime soon, they do seem to be a tremendous innovation in construction and I can conceive of them being very useful for semi-permanent structures in areas around the world. They also lend themselves to mass production technologies that are not easily applied to conventional houses. If someone can come up with methods to cheaply construct and transport these, there may be fortunes to be made and a lot of good that can be accomplished with them.

Also see Wikipedia's entry on shipping container architecture.