The Many Architectural Applications of Shipping Containers vol.2

In volume one, we discussed homes, hotels, and retail outlets and their benefits. They are only a fraction of what you can do with shipping containers. The volume two will be about container facilities for relaxation and discuss swimming pools, saunas, and bathhouses.

A traditional swimming pool’s installation costs might be between US$6000 and $50,000 not to mention excavation and decking costs. A shipping container, on the other hand, can be purchased with approximately $2000.  The additional costs consists of making the pool water proof by lining the interior with a water-proof lining or welding and painting the interior. Also, regular pool filters, pumps and fixtures should be fitted to the container as well.

Shipping container swimming pool is a nice DIY project. For example Stefan Beese, an experimental architect used a 30 cubic cargo container to turn his New Orlean’s backyard into a luxurious swimming zone. What’s more, he only needed about $5,000 to $7,000 to do that. You can read his whole story through this link.

Shipping containers can be now used as saunas. A Canadian design studio Castor has designed the first container sauna.

The 8 ft container is a fully-operational sauna box that uses wood for heating and solar energy for lighting. The mobile sauna also comes with an integrated iPod stereo and an electric guitar hook-up. Also additional creature comforts such as a magnetic truck light, castor stool, and bronze antlers are included.

A company named SOAK has an eco-friendly container bathhouse project. This container complex will be able gain 100% of its power from solar energy. The bathhouse also gets a substantial of its water from nature by harvesting and filtering rainwater. They will also reuse the greywater by directing it to their patio’s garden meadow.

The company wanted to shipping containers because they are inexpensive to occupy, easy to move and quick to retrofit. Shipping containers also offer a durable and good-looking aesthetics that will support their vision.  SOAK’s goal is to build a bathhouse for “healthy hedonists” that want make an effort to be healthy but do not want to be dogmatic or ideological about it. What’s more they want make their business sociable and sustainable.

Shipping containers combined supporting construction material is all one needs to build their pools, saunas or even bathhouses. We in Shanghai Metal Corporation sell them both. Please visit our websites on containers and construction material for detailed descriptions. Check also our social media platforms.

    

Tuomas P. // SMC Editor

Sources: See our articles on container swimming pools, saunas, and bathhouses.

Continue to chapter 3

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Constructions That Defy the Limits of Shipping Container Architecture

The most shipping container structures consist of only one container. These kind of structures make good micro-homes, offices or pop-up stores. Still, it is more common to build bigger container constructions. What might be the maximum amount of containers one could use for a single building? These examples will lead to the answer.

Detroit’s The Power of Green Housing Development will upcycle 93 shipping containers to build the multi-family home complex shown in the picture above. This four-floor house of flats will have 20 residences of one to three bedroom solutions. The residents will also have their own protected parking garage. Its tankless water heating system and ventilation will guarantee low energy costs. (via Inhabitat)

This shipping container complex will have an area of 270,000 sq ft for shipping containers which refers to approximately 700 shipping containers. New York’s SuperPier is US$200 million project that will include a restaurant and a retail complex with bathhouses, sky parks, performance spaces, a rock climbing gym and a garden. The complex will be built to upgrade the existing installation and will be opened during summer 2015. (via Inhabitat)

The complex that New York-based architecture firm LOT-EK is designing in Taiwan, will consist of 1,620 shipping containers. Recycled containers will be the main material for Taichung city’s Cultural Center that will hold art shows and screen films among many other cultural activities. The complex will be built to be eco-friendly by integrating a rainwater reuse system and energy-efficient ventilation/insulation system. (via Inhabitat)

So how large can shipping container complexes become? Well, containers are designed to hold heavy loads of weight on their four corner pillars that allow the piling of several containers. Building tall container towers is limited only by the properties of forklifts and cranes. Because containers are made of a simple steel structure that allows simple operations of cutting and welding, the width of complexes is also not limited.

 

Actually, some shipping container constructions are built to be expanded as necessary. For instance a container bungalow in Spain shows this example. Therefore, at least in theory, there seems to be no limits for the size of shipping container complexes.

No matter how big the world’s shipping container complexes will grow in the future, Shanghai Metal Corporation will keep on providing prefabricated shipping container construction and shipping containers internationally. If your business is need of them, please contact us with this form. Please also follow us on these social media platforms.

    

Tuomas P. // SMC Editor

Please use the the social media boxes below to SHARE this article to reach all the container builders everywhere.

In Container Homes Winter Is Always Outside

Shipping containers are a superior building material and the mainstream for affordable housing. As a form of prefabricated construction, shipping containers houses can to huge extent be built elsewhere than in their final destination. In order for shipping containers to become livable homes, they need a makeover including a proper insulation.

Shipping containers are usually described as an optimum construction material for areas with relatively high temperatures. The reason is that there are well know techniques on how make shipping container houses naturally ventilated. For instance the shipping container cruise terminal in Seville is designed to resist high temperatures during hot summers.

Shipping containers are also suitable for places where winters are long and cold, and where it snows a lot. Originally shipping containers were designed to resist rough weather in the seas during shipping and therefore shipping containers later became an excellent building material. It seems that shipping container architecture was invented like Coca-Cola – by accident.

There are examples of shipping container winter homes that are suitable for Northern countries such as Northern USA, Canada, Finland and other Nordic countries.  For instance an American real estate agent Jeffrey White is transforming shipping containers into affordable and eco-friendly homes for low-income families in Salt Lake City. Each home is made out of two shipping containers, and the whole projects costs 120,000 dollars including the land they sit on. (source)

In order to build beautiful homes like these, the shipping containers need to be enforced with proper insulation. In Shanghai Metal Corporation we sell both shipping containers and highly moisture resistant glass wool for insulation.  Our prefabricated container homes come with polystyrene foam insulation. If you are building affordable homes we will gladly offer you all the material. Just send us an inquiry and our English speaking staff will contact you. Meanwhile please visit our social media sites for future updates.

    

Tuomas P. // SMC Editor

Pictures and original articles: The Fair Verona, Jetson Green, Small Cabin Plans, Tiny House Blog, Inhabitat

São Paulo Presents Marvellous Container Art

The Brazilian city of São Paulo organized a design weekend during August 2014.  During the weekend some fabulous pieces of design art were presented. One of the providers was a Brazilian design company Contain[it] that transforms pieces of shipping containers into beautifully designed furniture.

Among the works on display were a lounger chair, lamps, vases, modular shelving, and a table that are made out of shipping container scraps.  The scraps are collected from the company’s shipping container projects that turn discarded containers into new spaces.

Shipping containers are becoming a mainstream construction material for green and environmentally friendly construction projects. In general, the world is suffering from oversupply of shipping containers because they are seldom reused for shipping.

Shipping container architecture solves the problem of used shipping containers turning into waste, but only partially. Shipping container houses, villas, hotels etc. need to be modified through welding which creates waste of container scraps.

Contain[it] solves this problem by giving the container scraps a new life and therefore creating art with zero waste. The company’s mission is to create art that gives an impact in an intelligent way. The company really gives a great contribution for the well-being of nature.

Today sustainable architecture and shipping containers are becoming synonyms. No other building material can be same time as durable and low-cost as shipping containers. Shipping container architecture enables designers to create environmentally friendly construction that can easily be retrofitted to any natural environment.

As an experienced provider of shipping containers, Shanghai Metal Corporation is proud of serving its international clients as well as giving a major environmentally friendly contribution to the construction industry. You can also familiarize yourself with our product offering by visiting our website. You can also send us an inquiry about any product you have in mind, and our English speaking staff will give you assistance. Please also visit our social media sites in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

Tuomas P. // SMC Editor

Pictures and original articles: São Paulo Design Weekend, Contain[it], Inhabitat

Green Campus – Steve Jobs’ Last Wish for Apple

Before his death in 2011, Steve Jobs announced that Apple wants to build a massive and green campus in Cupertino City California. The construction project has been put off many times but Apple‘s CEO Tim Cook has told that the complex will be finished in 2016.

The sketches of the space-like building look simply astonishing. The Apple campus has been said to become one of the world’s largest corporate campuses and the world’s greenest building. 100 percent of the facilities will utilize renewable energy and just like Coca-Cola in developing countries, Apple will also use solar power in its construction.

The 260,000 square meter campus will accommodate harshly 14,000 employees who will have the possibility to utilize offices, fitness facilities, auditoriums and cafeterias inside the complex. For enabling such facilities the budget of the project has been raised to over five billion US dollars.

Designed by Foster and Partners, Apple‘s campus will be naturally ventilated meaning that air-conditioning and heating is needed only during 25 percent of a one-year period. The natural appearance will be generated 7000 surrounding trees..

Shanghai Metal Corporation is also specialist in construction projects that are sustainable and environmentally friendly. We also execute prefabricated construction projects and build homes, hotels, villas and offices out of shipping containers. If you are looking for a reliable international construction company and construction material, you should visit our website or just send us an inquiry and our English speaking staff will get back to you. Meanwhile please check our social media platforms Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

Tuomas P. // SMC Editor

Pictures and original articles: Inhabitat, Apple, The Verge, Bloomberg Business Week

 

Living on the Edge of a Floating House

In today’s world people are taking construction business the dew dimensions. The ultimate extremes seem to be in space and underwater but another setting of prefab architecture is on the surface of water.

The world has many examples of beautiful floating architecture. A floating house has basically two features that are superior compared to their on-the-ground counterparts.

First, floating houses offer safety in areas suffering from floods. An article on BBC tells about an idea of floating houses saving people from UK’s floods. Besides residence, also school buildings have been converted into floatable forms. The concept of floating school buildings has already been applied in Nigeria.

Second, a floating building also operates as a transportation method. An example has been set in Finland, where sauna rafts have become a sort of a summer trend. Sauna rafts are basically rafts that are equipped with motor engines that move the raft in a moderate speed. Inhabitat has written more about the design of Finnish sauna rafts that also include a patio and hammocks. Formerly Shanghai Metal Corporation wrote an article about container saunas and container swimming pools, but this solution has both of them in one package.

For construction businesses the environment brings challenges as we’ve seen in case of floating architecture. In large major projects it’s the pioneers of the business who define the standards for quality. Shanghai Metal Corporation is one of them, not only because of the width of its business that encompasses prefab building, containers and steel building but also due its success in executing successful projects including some of the largest steel bridges in China.

For information about our construction projects, please visit our website. Please also follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

#BuildingValueAcrossTheGlobe

Tuomas P. // SMC Editor

Pictures and original articles: BBC, The Huffington Post, Inhabitat, Inhabitat, Inhabitat, Inhabitat, Inhabitat