Shipping Containers Housing Benefits

What are the shipping containers housing benefits? Shipping containers can be used to build houses, garages, shelters, offices and almost any type of building you can think of. Why would you want use them for such things instead of traditional construction materials?

• They are readily available. There are millions of empty shipping containers cluttering the world's seaports. In New York there are about a million empty containers that overflow the seaport and jam storage yards.

• Such containers are cheap. The average container life is 2-3 years, then they are liquidated to make room for newer leased models. Because of this you can find them at real cheap prices. More on this in our costs section
• They are built to resist the not so friendly environment of the world's oceans: tough corrugated steel and tubular steel frames, one and a half inch thick marine grade plywood floors, vandal-proof locking steel doors, water-resistant welded seams, and all weather paint. Their rigid steel structure makes it easy to stack them when turning shipping containers in housing. They can be insulated and provided with windows and sanitary and electrical installations.

These characteristics make shipping containers great candidates for land based buildings. For these reasons they can be used for larger projects such us a entire affordable housing communities: student housing and senior living facilities are excellent examples.

Such shipping containers housing projects are already on the move. Searching the net, you can find references to some of them. Here are a few:

• an article talking about Keetwonen a property developer based in Amsterdam that specialises in converting containers into temporary student homes;
• an article about a project initiated by Fox & Fowle Architects PC for converting the ubiquitous metal boxes into low-cost housing and working space;
• an article about shipping containers housing as a possible solution to Britain's housing crisis.

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