Sky high prices of real estate in the contemporary world have stimulated the search for and development of alternative housing solutions. One such attempt is the ConHouse system of small-size housing container units, which takes the housing/office ISO container to the next evolutionary level.  As opposed to the other container projects, which mostly feed on the excess of available cargo containers, ConHouse pushes the development of containers manufactured especially for housing and office purposes.

Even though the past 20 years have significantly changed the face of architecture, the basic form of these containers has remained the same. The ConHouse system now upgrades them to enable a quality of living comparable to classical housing. This is achieved mainly through rationally designed ground plans, carefully selected materials, a well-lit interior and the customized outer appearance of individual units. By enabling its occupants to coshape their compound unit according to their particular needs, ConHouse takes after the inventive automobile industry, where car owners can choose the components they desire, and after the IKEA-developed winning recipe of interior design.

The 2+ is a two-level mini housing unit composed of two containers perpendicular to each other. It shows that a minimal number of containers combined in an innovative fashion offers fresh yet functional architectural solutions. The upper container provides a projecting roof above the entrance as well as serves to shelter the back terrace. The ceiling of the bottom container is also a terrace of the first floor.

The pink-dotted façade illustrates the wide range of possibilities for tailor-made exteriors, the choice of which is as simple as deciding about which mobile phone cover to put on. The system’s modular nature enables containers to be added to or subtracted from the compound as needed, so that the ConHouse can grow or contract depending on the actual spatial needs of the people using it. Lower prices of such live/work units make them competitive as compared to traditional housing and are intended to increase the number of home-owners, who can then use the extra cash to expand their living space or invest more into interior design.

Source

The housing consists of 100 apartments made out of old shipping containers.

Description from the architects:

The new town is the result of the transformation of old shipping containers in modular housing units equipped with every comfort. Mounted on a metal grid, the shipping containers have given shape to a four-story building that houses 100 apartments of 24 square meters each.

The architect Cattani said the thoughts that accompanied her work. “How do I prevent students, prospective tenants, they feel put in the box? Compelling needs have arisen. Necessary to conceive of a lightweight, transparent, and certainly not solid. Hence the idea of independent living, to avoid the stacking effect.”

The solution was found in a metal frame that acts as a structural support to the old shipping container, while allowing to stagger the units, and create new space for walkways, patios and balconies. “The metal structure – Cattani says – it allows a better identification of the different rooms, and enhances them through the external extensions that become terraces and balconies. The sequences of the transverse corridors giving access to the apartments on the façade create a succession of full and empty spaces that gives the structure a more visual transparency.”

The building designed by the metal structure is spread over four floors, which are distributed on the 100 studios. The first level was raised from the ground. In this way, the units here guests can enjoy the same privacy afforded to units on the upper floors. All the apartments overlook a garden inside and are equipped on both ends of the glass walls that allow natural lighting of spaces.

To ensure maximum heat and sound insulation, the walls of the container adjacent to the outside and those that divide the different units have been coated with fire walls in reinforced concrete 40cm wide, and come within layers of rubber to dampen vibrations.

The external facade is designed by the combination of the old “boxes” that has kept the undulating, repainted in metallic gray. Inside, the designers chose white walls and wooden furniture. Each studio has a bathroom, kitchen and free Wifi.

Source

It’s an awesome idea for shipping container homes.

Just leave a comment if you like this shipping container home.

The Dunraven School located in Lambeth, South West London just got a new sports hall and gymnasium, but it’s not your typical gym. This sustainable structure, which took only 3 days to build, is made from brightly colored recycled shipping containers! Designed by Container City, SCABAL Architects and Furness Engineering, this green gym features four courts, a viewing gallery, a changing room and an office.

Why build a gym out of recycled shipping containers, you ask? Using recycled shipping containers was more cost effective for the school (in fact, it cost about half as much as a brand new gym would cost). Plus, the school wanted to emphasize the importance of recycling and sustainability to its students. Other green features of the gym include energy efficient lighting and heating controls, plenty of natural light and ventilation, and shower water that is reused for a water harvesting system.

The school was awarded the “Best Small Building Project” at the 2009 Building Industry Construction Awards.

It’s obvious that the students at Dunraven love the new gym, but so does the entire community. Community groups gather there on the weekend for various sports activities and to help promote the importance of sustainability in education.

I think that building any type of school structure from recycled shipping containers is a great idea, and I hope that more schools decide to follow in Dunraven’s footsteps.

Source

Gregory Colbert originally conceived of the idea for a sustainable traveling museum in 1999. He envisioned a structure that could easily be assembled in ports of call around the world, providing a transitory environment for his work on its global journey. The first public installation of Ashes and Snow at the Arsenale in Venice, which opened in 2002, inspired the aesthetics and architectural concepts used in the Nomadic Museum.

Colbert transformed the interior of the Arsenale using atmospheric elements including stone, curtains made from one-million pressed paper tea bags from Sri Lanka, and minimalist lighting techniques. Founded in 1104, the Arsenale was originally used to build and launch long ships to sea via the Venetian canals. The interior architecture of the structure provided an ideal setting for Ashes and Snow: the monumental space gracefully accommodated Colbert’s large-format photographic artworks and films. The show was a critical and popular success, and remains one of the most attended exhibitions by any single artist in Europe.

Originally made of shipping containers, the architectural design evolves as it travels. The most recent Nomadic Museum, in the Zócalo, Mexico City was the largest bamboo structure ever created. Designed by Simón Vélez in collaboration with Colbert, the structure occupied 5,130-square meters (55,218 square feet) containing two galleries and three distinct theaters. For the first time, the Nomadic Museum incorporated water as a design element to recall the unique history of Mexico City, which was once surrounded by canals. This architectural choice honored the symbolic significance of the Zócalo as the center of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, a city founded by the Aztecs on a small island in the middle of Lake Texcoco in 1325.

Like other elements of Ashes and Snow, the museum is an on-going project that will transform in new locations to adapt to its environment and the evolving artistic content of the exhibition itself. Colbert continues to collaborate with innovative architects to integrate the most recent advances in sustainable architecture and give new expression to the museum as it travels.

The Nomadic Museum, the traveling home of Ashes and Snow, is charted to travel the globe with no final destination.

Source

A house with 2 bedrooms. 2 full baths, full kitchen, laundry room…

All the comforts of home. If you are considering purchasing a mobile home or a place at your lake property or deer lease these units make a great solid alternative at a very reasonable price. Completely wind/water and rodent tight.

A very good example of shipping container housing.

Source

Contained within a 20ft shipping container, the cyber cafes will be distributed to schools across the country for charity purposes.

source: here and here