Hong Kong is the most expensive city in the world in terms of housing prices relative to average income. Not everyone can afford a US$900,000 apartment, and those who face crises such as a lost job can be in real trouble very quickly. The authorities looked around the world for solutions to the problem and…
How to take in the big skies and awesome, rugged landscape of Montana, USA? Put a home in it that celebrates the world around it! This was the vision of Livingston, MT based architect Ty Kelly – a shipping container home with a hell of a view. Kelly was born in Livingston but his family…
Prisoners serving time in Auckland are to learn construction skills while converting shipping containers into op shops for the Shakti charity. This is a win-win. The prisoners converting the shipping containers into the shops will be able to learn new skills that will help get them jobs and hopefully stay out of trouble on their…
A new shipping container farm has opened in Brisbane, supplying local businesses with herbs and vegetables that may otherwise have had to be imported from far away. The farm owner went into container farming due to drought on his own land. With our ever less predictable climate, there’s a risk that what arable topsoil we…
Shipping containers come in two main sizes – the 20 foot container (1 TEU) and the 40 foot container (2 TEU). A company in the US has just launched a 1 TEU shipping container home called the Vista C that is small enough to be sent almost anywhere in the world, yet has the facilities…
A family in the Caribbean island of Costa Rica had a bit of a problem – their three grown up boys were getting under their parents’ feet, needed more space, yet did not have the funds to build or buy their own homes. The solution? Three shipping container ‘cargotecture’ homes were built on the family’s…
Let’s look at prisons made out of shipping containers. Those who live a crime free life, with their biggest rebellion having three glasses of wine over dinner instead of just one, may think that prisons should be hellholes for people to rot in. There’s a problem with that – people don’t reform in adverse situations….
A Greek company, working in conjunction with a natural fibre mattress manufacturer, has developed a 40ft shipping container home that is energy efficient. Cocoon has the container homes on sale for US$65,000 per unit, though if you wish to have more than one container in your block / blocks you should contact the company to discuss…
The thought of a shipping container classroom might make you think of something austere and industrial – perhaps something for a state school that’s really strapped for cash? The German International School Sydney (GISS) has developed teaching spaces that would make rival schools jealous. This is shipping container repurposing with real style. GISS background The GISS…
Could a shipping container mall revive the centre of Newcastle in England? Nearly every city in the world has a carbuncle of derelict land near their centres where antisocial behaviour reigns and the general population avoids. The hope is that by having bars, restaurants and boutique shops in a currently struggling part of the former…