Creative Repurposing Of Shipping Containers
There's a new trend of modifying and re-purposing used shipping containers and sticking them together to build a house! Shipping containers make great eco-friendly, recycled building materials. They're water-tight, strong, created for transportation, available worldwide, durable, simple and versatile in their design.
Living in a shipping container home invokes images of basically living in a box but with good design doesn't have to be that way.
One of my favorite designers building homes with shipping containers is award-winning architect Adam Kalkin, who's been featured in the NYT, Vogue Magazine, CNN, Dwell, InHabit, and many home building books for his unorthodox building designs.
“Twenty-one thousand containers hit American shores every day of the year, [they] can be shipped to the interior of the country via trains and trucks. They are like Legos and the modules can be assembled in thousands of ways,” he explained in an interview with CNN. source
I've been following Adam and his impressive projects for some time with great interest. He really thinks outside the box, or should I say inside the box, when it comes to building with shipping containers.
Here's an example of one of his larger designed homes.
Adam Kalkin's 12-Container House
Here's another one of his famous home projects.
Adam Kalkin’s Old Lady House is a Modern Shipping Container Masterpiece
Not everyone needs such a huge space and that's one the best things about using shipping contains as a building material. It's like building with Lego blocks making it very adaptable and limited only by your imagination.
Using a shipping container on top of a cement wall shell the containers act as a roof for the structure saving on roofing costs and doubling the square footage of the space.
Tiny Shipping Container Home
I'm currently visiting Vietnam where they use shipping containers a lot for building projects and stumbled upon a hostel made entirely of shipping containers. Even their swimming pool is made out of a container.
Vietnam is amazingly beautiful by the way. This is where I'm staying right now. Living On The Beautiful Beaches In Da Nang Vietnam
Taking it a step further Adan Kalkin created a push button house that unfolds into an indoor-outdoor space with the push of a button unleashing the creative possibilities of re-purposing containers for construction.
Adam Kalkin in CNN
Here's some of the most imaginative uses for shipping containers used in construction today including semi-mobile all-in-one swimming pools, apartment complexes, floating homes, urban spaces, luxury homes, corporate studios, research centers, and public pavilions.
im looking to build a shipping container home in the near future, i have seen many of these videos in the past and they are a great source of information on the process of building one.
im also looking to incorporate some principals found in other alternate living structures such as Earthships and tiny homes, i most certainly recommend you look into these kinds of living alternatives as well as they are extremely interesting and lean towards more sustainability, repurposing, etc. than luxury and visual aesthetics found in contemporary homes and buildings.
Earthships are really cool. I looked all into them and even helped build one. They are a hell of a lot of work to build and most building inspectors will not sign off on them. But they are really cool.
Yep, the best hardest work i ever did.. mind u ive built Two small ones with only volunteers in 14!days ... so that its very cool indeed! Fortunately ive mainly built in india and so after 4 builds ive still never even seen any kind of inspector ;))
Heres a pic of earthship karuna, my home and first ever build..
In the UK earthship sheppey got through all the hurdles and just received an official government negative carbon footprint! It is hard work pushing it through building regs but if u are in the right spot it can go well!
great work mate, it looks fantastic, would love to see more images if you have some you would like to share. i love the intricacies of these structures, particularly the bottle walls :) i hope to one day get to this level of awesomeness.
heres the very start!
a solar powered jacuzzi ;-)
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Looks really cool and fun to build. I bet you learned a lot.
I could write a book about what i learned! .. oh wait ... ;) lol ..
I take it you have written a book.
AMAZING!!! i love the warmth of these structures, all personally designed just how the owner wants it. Not just a generic cut and paste job out of a catalog. good job mate, totally dig it :)
thanks! yes you can see more on my website
www.earthshipkaruna.net
you can also read the whole story with more pics in my book, available on the homesteaders co-op where you can pay with steem ;-)
https://homesteaderscoop.com/product/earthship-chronicles-ebook/
its a great read if you are thinking of self building, i share so much in this story!
you can do it!~ just never give up and make sure you get started in the first place ;-)
coolies ill check it out
yeah you have to make sure you are 'able' to build them by making sure the council/regulatory body approves of what you are doing. Hopefully the more get built and 'pass inspection' the more we will see this form of eco structure take firm footing for the future of the planet and, in turn, mankind.
We have 'workshops' here in Australia where you can learn to build the structures from scratch by donating your time and efforts to help build one, sounds like you may have done one of these in the area you were in at the time. learn by doing.... its a good way to attain the skills and knowledge needed.
oh yes, theres all sorts happening in australia! you have a nice little law that makes it easy IF you build VERY small.. Unless the rules changed, you can build without regulations hampering things when its below a certain size ;-).. I know Rachel and Duvvy have done loads of work out there also..
i never did ANY workshop or training matee, i just went for it! crazy i know! i learned on the job!
Learning on the job works. I'm a graduate of the University of YouTube.
Each council has its own set of rules and regulations in oz, for instance if i wanted to build one in the burbs i live in now, its a frim NO WAY!! lolz. but if i choose a town which has a small population and not much going on there , they will more than likely say 'yes' due to less strict rules AND they want more people there for the economy etc.
So it comes down to doing the research and making requests to find out which areas will 'allow it' and going form there. personally im looking at separating myself from the riff raff, so the more remote the better ;P
Sorry, it sounded like you were part of workshops in building them with volunteers. Personally I have learned in a number of settings from uni to youtube, bottom line it dont matter how you learn as long as you 'get it done playa', thats all that matters :)
Yup! So many reasons why, with the lack of thermal mass in containers beings a big one! Earthships really do offer performance and comfortmin a coZy way, not the modern clean style with stark lines etc
unfortunately we are all restricted by the rules and regulations set forth by our councils and local authorities. In many places they don like you even partially "burying" anything...because you know... you may be hiding a meth lab in there, lol.
Hence my adaptive approach in stealing the 'best' ideas we can utilize from each of these alternative living options and building the best version we are 'allowed' to build... as they say 'you gotta do with what you got' :)
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Love these all when I get my land I am looking to build from all recycled material. Definitely noted thanks 💯🐒
Very nice post! Thanks for sharing!
I am thinking of building a bamboo shed or small cottage on a concrete poles. But long term wise, a container will last much longer.