
Coming Home to a Shipping Container - edward
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/22/realestate/home-in-shipping-container.html?_r=0
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dpark
Shipping containers are terrible to use for homes for so many reasons. By the
time you stick multiple together to create enough space and cut windows and
doors (and then reinforce them to fix the damage you caused to the structure)
to make them acceptable and livable, you end up spending more than you would
with typical light frame construction to end up with a cramped space a low
ceilings and poor insulation.

It really is a fetish. There's no sensible reason for containerized homes
(absent maybe disaster zones, but even then no one's really building completed
container homes and shipping them; it's still done on-site).

~~~
drderidder
I think it started as an affordable alternative to stick frame construction in
a few instances where the containers were readily available, but I agree it's
become something people want to do even when its not cost efficient in their
area. On the other hand, why shouldn't building a house be as simple as
joining two or three prefabricated, easily transported, container-sized
modules together? It just needs the right price point.

[edit] There's a company called Bone Structure that has a modular steel
building system that's almost a hybrid between pre-fab and on-site custom.
Still expensive though.

~~~
rasjani
Quite a lot of Finnish houses are build from prefabricated elements. One would
typically just build a foundation and trucks would bring in the wall
structures (not sure about roofs) and raise them. After that it's only about
hvac, outer walls and interior.

Also, Finnish construction standards are quite high, not only because of
climate :)

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lightbyte
How do these houses stay warm in the winter? Shipping containers have 2mm
thick walls, and at the very least the orange home pictured in the article
looks like it has walls that are _just_ the container wall.

~~~
iak8god
Taking a close look at the living room photo, the orange wall on the right
behind the sofa looks like it may just be a facade over what is presumably a
thicker, insulated wall like those drywalled exterior walls visible on the
other side of the room. Specifically, the way that orange wall overlaps that
slightly dropped section of the ceiling makes me think that it's not actually
the exterior wall of the container.

~~~
logfromblammo
It could be the portions of the container wall that were removed for doors and
windows.

~~~
maxerickson
I link the designers product page for the house in the thread. It's clearly a
side wall of a container, it's just an interior wall of the structure.

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rb808
One thing I'm not sure of - are these containers new ones so benefit from
cheap mass manufacturing - or cheap old ones that are too rusted/bent to be
used any more? I'm not sure why containers are more effective than mass
produced modular houses.

~~~
jtolmar
You can buy containers that are new, one trip, or well-worn. Usually the one
trip containers are significantly cheaper than new, and well-worn are somewhat
cheaper than that. But it varies, and I've occasionally seen new ones be
cheaper for odd sizes.

The "used once" category is most popular among container home enthusiasts.

~~~
TorKlingberg
If there is a large market of one trip containers, that must mean there are
companies that buy new containers, use them once and then sell them. Who does
that and why?

~~~
jtolmar
My guess would be trade imbalance. If you can't find something to put in it,
re-using the container means paying to ship it empty.

~~~
mojomark
Yes, they are from US - far east trade imbalance. Regurgitated from my reply
above:
[https://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch5en/appl5en/ch5a3e...](https://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch5en/appl5en/ch5a3en.html)

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patrickk
There was an amazing, upscale home built from multiple shipping containers
featured on Grand Designs. Here's an article about the house itself, sadly the
episode doesn't seem to be on youtube:

[http://www.archdaily.com/593806/grillagh-water-house-
patrick...](http://www.archdaily.com/593806/grillagh-water-house-patrick-
bradley-architects)

I think this is the episode: [http://www.channel4.com/programmes/grand-
designs/on-demand/5...](http://www.channel4.com/programmes/grand-designs/on-
demand/57386-006)

~~~
jdavis703
That episode is on Netflix, in case anyone wants to watch it there. It's
Season 12, Episode 4 "County Derry":
[https://www.netflix.com/title/80160755](https://www.netflix.com/title/80160755).

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ghostbrainalpha
Considering the build cost on an Adobe Dome home is 6k, I always wonder why
they are not popular compared to a shipping container.

[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2582344/Home-
sweet-d...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2582344/Home-sweet-dome-
Man-quits-job-builds-dream-mini-home-just-six-weeks-9-000.html)

~~~
mastax
Considering the size of that home, you could probably build a similar home out
of almost any material for about the same price. You could probably pay a
contractor to make you a traditional wood-frame home of the same size for the
same money in less time. Still, that's an interesting and remarkably practical
home that guy built for himself.

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logfromblammo
Seems like it would be better to build pre-fab housing modules with maximum
building envelope 469"L x 88"W x 98"H, and use those 40' high-cube containers
to ship them. At the destination site, build the foundation, docking racks
from structural steel, and a climate-appropriate roof and insulated outer
shell.

The pre-fab is built in a factory, shipped to the site, rolled off the
container truck with a ramp and a forklift, and rolled into the rack. Each one
is essentially 250 sq.ft. of shotgun house.

Alternately, make a pre-fab "core" that consists of all the essential
plumbing, HVAC, and wiring for one house, and erect a piecemeal house around
it using traditional methods and local materials. You can fit one core for a
2-story house inside a 20' standard container, or two in a 40' container.

The extensive on-site modifications required to turn a standard shipping
container into a decent house necessarily preclude isotainer homes from being
economical or ecologically sound. The advantages of container-based shipping
are best exploited by using the containers _to ship factory-built things_.

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cjCamel
In Bristol, UK we're into shipping containers in a big way. We use them as
restaurants and shops[1], we put startups in them[2], and Massive Attack house
the homeless in them![3]

I've heard that the startups are boiling hot in the summer and freezing cold
in the winter. Hopefully the homes for the homeless are better insulated.

[1] [http://wappingwharf.co.uk/retail-at-
cargo](http://wappingwharf.co.uk/retail-at-cargo)

[2] [https://www.bristoltemplequarter.com/boxworks-the-
launch](https://www.bristoltemplequarter.com/boxworks-the-launch)

[3] [http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/explore-
new-s...](http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/explore-new-shipping-
container-bristols-440138)

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pards
Reminds me of Neal Stephenson's book "Snowcrash"

~~~
jstarfish
It's been a decade since I read it, but I thought he lived in a self-storage
unit, not a shipping container?

~~~
passivepinetree
You're correct. Hiro lives in a U-Stor-It by the LAX airport.

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tryingagainbro
Shipping Container...great for a shed with some tweaking.

Why reinvent the wheel? These cute solutions in many cases exceed the cost and
never fulfill the stated desire. After spending all that money, it's still a
container house, and almost 100% is sunk cost.

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vmarshall23
Well at least we can all agree that "Coming Home to a Shipping Container" is
still preferable to "Coming Home _in_ a Shipping Container" </snark>

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contingencies
An experienced New Zealand architect once suggested to me that one of the best
features of modular homes was their deployability by helicopter to remote
locations.

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jordache
it's a fine idea... but man, get that box insulated!

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yeukhon
Can they withstand earthquake as per CA's standard, if one is built in CA?

~~~
dsfyu404ed
If the roof designer spent more than a nanosecond trying to regain some of the
rigidity lost by cutting the roof off then yes. The ceiling is already ~8ft
with the stock roof so there's plenty of space for bracing. In stock form you
can roll an empty one over and not hurt it much.

~~~
generic101
If you're in an earthquake, you don't want your house to roll over.... I'm
assuming the container is attached to a foundation to prevent movement. If you
are worried about an earthquake, bodily injury from glass windows breaking is
probably your biggest concern.

