Shipping Container Condos
For everyone who’s seen pictures of cargo ships and thought to themselves “Geez, I sure wish I could live in one of those shipping containers!”, well you’re in luck. Developers are looking to build a seven-story condo project built from these containers in Salt Lake City. “City Center Lofts” as it’s called, looks to take advantage of the sustainable qualities (i.e. recycling/re-use) of these used shipping containers which can cost 1000-3000 dollars each.
But “Lofts”, really? We officially throw that word around too much. When I see that giant steel shoebox with barn doors on one end, I don’t really think “Wow, that could be a great LOFT!” ….. Maybe “Compartment”. But then again, I guess we’re chunking at least 50K off each unit price when the project is called “City Center Compartments”.
I am however, intrigued by this idea. The idea of using shipping containers as housing has been around for a long time, but hasn’t been much more than fixtures at travelling art installations. Seeing this materialize may shape many views on sustainability. The designer, Adam Kalkin, has built shipping container homes previously, but this project seems to have the largest scope of any of his listed works.
“Residential design using shipping containers. . .is still a novel approach anywhere in the country,” says Elizabeth Mitchell, director of the Utah chapter of the American Institute of Architects. “You’re re-using all the energy and raw materials that went into creating the shipping container rather than using new materials – it’s an element of sustainable design. But the architects who get into this are mostly intrigued, I think, by the aesthetic challenge of taking something industrial in appearance and transforming it into a place someone would want to call home.”
(From the Salt Lake Tribune via Grassroots Modern)
And here’s the link to the project page – City Center Lofts
Upsides – Sustainability (Saving the world)/Being Hip, Trendy, and Modern
Downsides – You live in a storage container/The container is in Salt Lake City
And, you never know, it could spur a whole new surge in mobile homes..
photo credit: Spatial Mongrel
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October 6th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
Honestly, I think your take on the idea is biased and lacks understanding… I was actually researching this idea and came across your article. It was the first negative take I’ve seen yet.
This isn’t the prettiest (yes pretty) installation I’ve seen in shipping container homes, and it’s more wide spread than you’d think.
Also for someone with little to no income, this is an excellent idea for stable housing units.
I’m going to end this before I drop to name calling, but perhaps you should have done a LOT more research on the topic before you published the article.
October 15th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
Of course it’s biased… I don’t like it. That’s my bias.
That’s why it’s an “Opinion”, they work best when you form your own.
And of course I have an understanding of this quirky little habitation fad, I called everyone I knew in the Shipping Container community, and had asked if I could jump on the bandwagon as well, but they said it was full.
Thing is, I find re-use of shipping containers to be a great idea, when produced in a practical manner, and generally much closer to the ground. Just because each ‘intact’ shipping container can support 35 tons, doesn’t mean constructing a giant tower is necessarily the best housing solution.
This reminds me of straw-bale housing. Sure it’s a great idea, yet maybe not for a gigantic bale housing tower.
And certainly shipping containers could be a great answer to low-income housing. Personally, if a shipping container was set up with basic amenities, I’d prefer one in a disaster to the formaldehyde-filled FEMA trailers.
In terms of project scope, this project is very similar to the London Travelodge, as seen here on Treehugger
The construction type seems very similar, and while they’ve constructed this hotel from custom ordered containers directly from china, it would seem that from a sustainability standpoint, someone would inevitably step up to retrofit leftover containers for this use. Of course, this pre-fab method cuts 25% of the build time, yet only trims 10% of the contruction costs. For my 10% however, I’ll take traditional materials and methods.
But yes, my take IS biased and lacks understanding. As far as “dropping to name calling”? You may wanna save that for anyone who tries to charge you a half a million (lowballing my guess-timate on this one) for a shipping container loft.