The Many Architectural Applications of Shipping Containers vol.9

Today shipping container architecture is applied in housing, entertainment, education and recreation to name but a few. They are also used to build sports facilities. Here are some examples.

The Las Vegas design studio M-rad‘s design of the extreme sports park puts recycled containers into reuse and takes a full advantage of them. The 42-acre container complex built near the Las Vegas strip combines accommodation, commercialism and food production.

The sports park has versatile options for recreation. The shallow lake in the middle of the park and its beaches enable people to do surfing or engage in other physical activities. There are also motocross tracks and skate parks among many sports venues.

Visitors of the park can stay at luxurious container hotel towers that offer an 180 degree view on the park site. The container construction site consists of three container towers of which two belong to the hotel. The third one is a production facility for local organic food. Harvesting is done with the help of wind and solar energy that along with natural ventilation meet 80 percent of the parks energy production.

Another sports related instance of shipping container architecture is a container skate park in Afganistan. The mega shipping container skate park will be built by an international NGO Skateistan that uses skateboarding as a tool for youth outreach in both Afghanistan and Cambodia. The most recent skate park in Mazar-e-Sharif is an educational safe have for children.The 6000 square meter educational and sport complex was built out of repurposed shipping containers and other locally sourced materials to host 1,000 local children on a weekly basis.

It is yet unfold whether the skate park grows the future’s Tony Hawks or even enhances Afganistan’s economy but for the well-being and sophistication of local children the shipping container skate park is in a big role.

Shipping containers are a sustainable and durable building material whose use is growing more and more mainstream. What’s more, due to their incredibly high availability, they would otherwise become industrial waste. Therefore, in order to prevent environmental disorder, the use of recycled shipping containers in building, say, homes, hotels, offices, schools, hospitals or recreational facilities, is today’s eco-friendly architectural solution.

Shanghai Metal Corporation is specialized in shipping containers and prefabricated shipping container construction. We also ship our products internationally. Visit our websites for specific details or send us your questions via this form. Check also our social media sites for future updates.

    

Tuomas P. // SMC Editor

Pictures and original articles: Inhabitat, Skateistan, Inhabitat, JRN.com, M-rad

Continue to chapter 10.

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Renter’s Horror Stories

Whether you’re moving out for the first time or a long time renter, this article is a must-read. There is renters heaven and renters hell, so soothe your burning memories of unbearable housemates and unfair landlords with the following horror stories.

The Surprise Under The Oven

“After coming back to my apartment post-wisdom-teeth-surgery-stay at my grandmother’s, I smelled something rotting. Then, I proceeded to see 5 mice before I fell asleep. First thing in the morning, I called my landlord to get an exterminator, but I couldn’t figure out what smelled so terribly. Turned out there were 5 dead rats wedged under the oven.”

The One That Smelled Of Fish

“I used to live above a fish store and on a hot summer day, the smell would take over the apartment — not to mention, attracted little critters to the house.” – Michelle Manetti, Associate Edior, HuffPost Home

The Landlord Who Stole The Bathtub

One story tells a landlord that removes the bathtub as won’t pay extra for carpets and curtains. He never specified this wasn’t part of the agreed price, yet took it upon themselves to take a Jacuzzi bathtub out of the deal.

If they are looking for a replacement, Shanghai Metal produces stainless steel kitchen and bathroom sinks. As an ISO 14001 (International Quality Management System) Company and recipient of the “Star Enterprise Award,” Shanghai Metal Corporation prides itself on exceeding international standards of quality and reliability. We guarantee the best prices, quality support, and fast delivery. To find out more, please visit our Website or send your inquiry here. Our English speaking personnel will be more than pleased to help you. Follow us on  LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel. Or you could try our new mobile app by scanning our QR code.

Sources: Telegraph, Huffington Post

Siobhan R.// SMC Editor

Read more articles by this author here.

 

#BuildingValueAcrossTheGlobe

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,

Container Houses – The Next Big American Dream

The container housing industry is becoming mainstream as it is now a sub category of affordable housing. Building a home out of shipping containers enables also medium income consumers to hire an architect in a very reasonable price. Thereby, container homes might be the next American dream.

Companies have also noticed the advantages of container housing. For instance Starbucks has already installed its container coffee shops in Seattle and London. Container homes also come with a pretty nice design.

One of the benefits of shipping containers is their modularity. They are made as same sized and designed to be piled up and fit optimally in cargo ships. Containers are like Lego blocks. You can pile them up and thereby even create a multiple floor or a multiple wing mansion.

Shipping containers are also designed to be able to resist rough weather in seas. Thereby they are made of really durable and tough material that ensure the safety of a container home. In addition, the material is really simple to modify. Cutting, reforming and other modifications are done by welding which is a simple and cheap procedure. Building a nice patio with a jacuzzi is suddenly affordable.

Also one great thing about containers is that their are available in all all over the world and their transportation is extremely convenient. Containers are designed to fit in a standard shipping cargo leaving no blank space in the ships. Because of the new mainstream use of containers, their weight-to-value ratio is to increase.

The benefits of container homes have been recognized worldwide. For instance, in Finland, container housing is becoming a great solution for offering affordable student homes. Please read about more the Finns’ solution to student housing in our blog. Also the world’s hotel industry is going wild of containers as new companies offering transportable accomodation solutions emerge. Container hotels is also in a luxury top-end category in the hotel industry. Please read more about luxury container hotels here.

China is a major exporter of shipping containers and Shanghai Metal Corporation is one of the leading businesses in that field. To know more about our container houses, villas, hotels and offices, please visit our website. Also follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. You can also download our new mobile application by scanning the QR code below.

#AddingValueAcrossTheGlobe

Tuomas P. // SMC Editor

Pictures and original articles: Smartplanet.com, Ecopressptc.com, Inthralld.com, Homedsgn.com, Buzzfeed.com, Bobvila.com, Australian Council of Trade Unions,  Wikipedia, Prefabfan.com

Container Homes – Solution for Student Housing

In Finland there is a high demand for student homes as the number of available apartments in student villages is getting lower, and students are forced to pay a very high monthly rent. Some students have to pay over 800 euros rent every month. According to a survey conducted by the Finnish periodical Iltalehti, 40 percent of the thousand respondents said that their funds are really low due to expensive rents. They are now designing economical student homes, made of containers.

Harri Nordling, a Finnish container home designer, has designed beautiful container student homes. The container homes can be applied to build multi-storeyed blocks of flats using containers. This sort of solution has already been applied in Sweden. Container homes are easy to build. They are also low-cost and environmentally friendly.

 

The only obstacle for applying the solution seems to be on the legislative and ideological aspect. The local decision makers need to be convinced and societal acceptance needs to be acquired from a large audience. The container student homes have been presented in the city of Pori, where the solutions have gained positive feedback both from the city’s authorities as well as from the public.

The designed student homes are 14 square meters, including a bathroom, a living room and a kitchen. They also plan to design a garden and some room for recreation on their roofs. It is yet uncertain when the container homes can be mounted, but it only seems to be a matter of time.

In Shanghai Metal Corporation, we also offer high-quality container homes for convenient housing. To know more, please see our container house web site. Please also follow us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Tuomas P. // SMC Editor

The original article in Finnish: Iltalehti.fi

Pictures from: Hansacontainers.com