Container Homes
As a child, when asked to draw a house, almost all of us would have drawn the typical detached house with a double pitched roof, but what do the homes of today look like? Well, the answer to that will differ between each individual and circumstance and while this is a very broad question, there are many different concepts of ‘homes’ in different countries, cultures and religions. This post specifically explores the idea of container homes in the built environment, with their desirable qualities and examples of projects that have utilised them successfully in their designs.
What is a container home?
Container homes are modular systems built from repurposed intermodal containers, otherwise known as shipping containers. They typically act as the structural element and are used as a general frame that can be added to, to achieve a liveable condition and efficient environment. Becoming increasingly more popular through the idea of temporary mobility, affordable and practical living spaces, these unused and disregarded pieces of metal are converted into livable spaces, as backyard budget projects and larger schemes, by cutting out openings, adding insulation, plumbing, electricity and internal amendments.
What's appealing about it?
Whilst it may seem very untraditional and unusual to want to live in, essentially a steel box, shipping containers have many pro’s, including ideas that correlate with social, economic and environmental factors prevalent in today's society, that make it desirable.
The first quality is the lack of negative effects on the environment. Repurposed multiple times before being disregarded, these durable containers are built to withandle external wear and tear, whilst carrying heavy loads in harsh climates and transportation conditions. This creates the possibility of being repurposed from a container to a home and then recycled back into steel at the end of its lifetime to be used in a new, less demanding form like food cans, household objects, vehicle parts etc.
Due to its nature of being a ‘unit’ and therefore employing a modular concept, these containers are typically all the same dimensions with a standard height x width x height. This not only means that they can be placed in a variation of patterns to maximise space use of the parameters, but they can be easily transported to areas of need as temporary shelters in places of war, vaccination stations in less developed countries, homes for the homeless etc. A good example of this being applied to a real-life project by Waugh Thistleton Architects, who created portable vaccination units to give access to people who typically would not be able to access these healthcare facilities, increasing the number of people with immunisations. You can read more here.
Another big advantage of container homes has to be the availability. The lack of building materials, construction time and money to finance these processes can sometimes make it difficult to get a project started. Due to the trading nature between countries and different destinations, it’s much easier to source a container as they can be found in many locations globally. This immediately removes the problem of accessibility and not having enough of a building material, waiting to import it with all the additional costs. Most of us in the UK would have witnessed how availability and accessibility can be a huge hurdle in the design and construction process, in 2020 when Covid-19 had impacted many fields of practice. With the lack of accessibility to materials, it put a lot of residential projects on hold and caused more damage in the finances of projects and practices in the long run.
Maximising off site manufacturing and pre-fabrication, all that leaves on-site is the assembly of parts which reduces cost, waste, time and harmful fuels being emitted into the local environment from machinery. This also increases the opportunity to manufacture in one location and distribute elsewhere due to its easy transport which creates unlimited possibilities, especially when the concept of prefabrication allows for flexibility with scaling and bespoke design ideas.
A second project which sparked our interest is a student housing scheme by BIG. Located in Copenhagen, they created a floating student housing complex on a harbor, stacking the accommodation units to form social spaces. This design draws light to the other possibilities of using shipping containers off land to create populated spaces. You can read more here.
Overall, whilst there is a wide use of shipping containers currently, there’s still a lot of room for development and exploration in how else we can use it to design, beyond its general scope. There remains so much potential in reusing elements from other industries in the architecture field, it forms the question of what else can we repurpose? If you found this post interesting and it’s got you thinking about all the possibilities in the design realm, check out our other posts and content on our instagram account @Archidabble
