A Step Up from Cardboard Houses – Shipping Container Homes

I had heard over the last few years that there had become an over-abundunce of shipping containers around the world. So much so, that it was just cheaper for China to make more than to ship them back home. More specifically according to Mother News Network there are over three hundred million shipping containers just sitting in ports empty and unused worldwide. As you might expect, just like a redneck with extra cars laying around the garage/yard/living room, people decided to use them to create something else.

I guess I can see how someone could eventually envision a house while viewing stacked rows of containers, but I have a hard time seeing it. Of course, I’m only here writing about it and not designing them or building them. In case you were wondering, the standard-sized shipping container is 8 feet by 20 feet or 160 sq ft. Not very big, but they are prebuilt boxes and they are far more common than a mostly on the level politician. Throw 20 of them together and you’ve got 3200 sq ft. Not to0 bad…ok so you still have 20 boxes that resemble shipping containers. But the nice thing is that as a rigid structure these shipping containers can be cut and redesigned to create a multitude of different household features. Windows, bathrooms, terraces and kitchens and so on. It really becomes the ultimate Lego house.

Not only is this form of architecture innovative, but it’s also pretty lean and green. Instead of the shipping containers sitting in a port somewhere rusting away they are being repurposed and creating new homes. In some places like Amsterdam these shipping containers are being used as dorm housing for college students. Cheap and a good use of material that likely disintegrate. One’s man trash is another man’s new house. And just think, hanging pictures will be super simple: all you need is a magnet!