The Many Architectural Applications of Shipping Containers vol.11

Shipping containers are made to be durable. Because of their strength they are also an ideal building material that can be used to build safe homes. Actually, the safety level of shipping containers is so high that they can be used also to build prisons and shelters.

In Australia’s Victoria, the local government is establishing a prison system of 50 containers.  Victoria is an area of overcrowded prisons, and therefore containers bring an excellent solution for the problem. Australia is planning to apply the same solution in other areas as well.

Victoria’s prisons are meant for medium-security prisoners. The next question could be, taken the fact that shipping containers are as they are, how can one increase their security level? Modifying the prisons environment would be the only option. Setting up an Alcatraz style prison in the middle of an area of water area would work.  That is actually something that can also be implemented with containers.

Shipping containers, with some modifications,  can also become protective underground shelters for natural disasters or terrorist attacks. The most important modification is roofing.

Even though containers’ walls are designed to resist rough weather even in extreme conditions, most people like to bury their container bases in order to make it invisible. Still, one needs to take into consideration that the containers’ steel roofs are not made to last heavy loads. Containers are designed to lie on their four strong corners. So therefore, after digging a hole for the container one should design a frame that supports adding a gabion basket on the container. The gabion basket filled with rocks will protect the container. See original articles for more details.

Where the containers’ exterior surrounding has some limitations, the interior design is basically free for users’ own imagination. Today some containers come with a generator and bathroom solutions making the containers livable apartments.

Shipping containers, prefabricated container houses and other construction material can be purchased from Shanghai Metal Corporation. See our webpages for more information. Feel free to send us any questions through this form. Check also our social media channels for future updates.

    

Tuomas P. // SMC Editor

Continue to Chapter 12.

Pictures and Original articles: Rawlinsons.co.nz, Sourceable.net,Theage.com.au, Abc.net.au, Asiapacific.anu.edu.au, Greenbiz.com,Daily Mail, Odt.co.nz, Ttora.com, Treehugger.com, Foreign Policy Research Institute, Sourceable.net, Prepper-recources.com,Containerauction.com, Emyplanb.wordpress.com,followingfuji1.blogspot.com, Luxtica.com

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Shipping Container Bunkers – The Cure for Natural Disasters and Terrorism?

Due to their widely applicable physical features, shipping containers have become a good alternative for affordable housing, mobile retail and building hotels just to name but a few. Shipping containers can also be used as protective shelters for natural disasters or terrorist attacks.

There are a lot of options for choosing appropriate material for building a safe bunker. Even though shipping container is not possibly the best alternative, due to its wide availability and cheap price, for average consumers it is perhaps the only option. A used shipping container can be purchased with approximately US$ 2000. The United States use over a million shipping containers annually to import products from abroad but because it is expensive to ship them back, most of them stay in the US. According to some estimates there are over 700,000 used shipping containers laying in US ports waiting for new use.

Even though containers’ walls are designed to resist rough weather even in extreme conditions, most people like to bury their container bases in order to make it invisible. Still, one needs to take into consideration that the containers’ steel roofs are not made to last heavy loads. Containers are designed to lie on their four strong corners. The four corners also enable stacking various layers of containers. So therefore, after digging a hole for the container one should design a frame that supports adding a gabion basket on the container. The gabion basket filled with rocks will protect the container. See original articles for more detail.

Where the containers’ exterior surrounding has some limitations, the interior design is basically free for users’ own imagination. Today some containers come with a electric generator and bathroom solutions making the containers livable apartments.

Shanghai Metal Corporation has a long experience in offering high quality containers for shipping and housing. For more details of our containers and container houses, please see our website. Please also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. You can also download our mobile application by scanning the QR code below.

Tuomas P. // SMC Editor

Pictures and original articles: Ttora.com, Treehugger.com, Foreign Policy Research Institute, Sourceable.net, Prepper-recources.com, Containerauction.com, Emyplanb.wordpress.com, followingfuji1.blogspot.com, Luxtica.com,