As I’m nearing the end of my college stint here in Utah (Though there may be a good possibility that I may stay in the area after getting a job) the thought of where am I going to live inevitably comes up. There are a lot of possible options, including renting out an apartment or part of an apartment, buying a house, buying a house and then renting, living in a tent, etc… etc… One of the more interesting options that my roommate brought up today was living in a shipping container.
Shipping containers?
Yes. Shipping containers. First of all, they are already built exactly the same size, they are already water and rustproof, are 8′ wide by 8′ tall, and come in the 20′ and 40′ long varieties, have a built in floor, are insulated, and can be bought and shipped used for < $2000 apiece. Add in water, electricity, walls with some additional insulation, a door and you have a self contained unit that you can set down anywhere, hook up, and go at it. Now the real fun comes in when you start designing a permanent home with several containers together, stack four together, weld, and gut the interior and you have 16' foot ceilings and a big open 16' x 40' living area, or just put in a staircase and you you have two 40' x 16' living areas with only 8' ceilings. Not surprisingly there's several projects right now that have built whole living complexes out of these things.
Don’t believe me? See for yourself: (And the original article that sparked my interest is here: http://joeynovak.com/blog/life/container-housing-for-10-30-sq-ft/)
An entertaining look at a container house in Minnesota
Container City in London
CNN News Report on shipping container homes
Regardless of if I actually try to do something like this, its a really cool way of building and is a unique way of reusing a lot of unused metal. College housing anyone?
- Paul Rohde
I like the tent idea.
What about rental storage places? Some of the fancier ones have garages.
Yes, this is a very good idea. We’ve been doing such stuff and it really works :-)