How Academia Changes What We Think About Shipping Containers

The new application possibilities of shipping containers have already managed to attract the attention of various communities including artists, designers and architects. Universities are also applying shipping containers in their research on engineering, arts and human sciences. Here we will present some examples.

Shanghai’s Tongji university’s students came up with an idea of a light-weight, solar-powered and self-sufficient house that could be built out of shipping containers. Their work, the Y container, is a structure that uses photovoltaic panels for heating floor and water. The six containers form wings that direct wind for natural ventilation. The Y container was built for a Chinese couple that could not afford independent housing. (via Inhabitat)

The students of Geneva University of Art and Design together with Bureau A built a container housing complex that helps to observe people’s living habits. The eight inhabitable shipping container pods all have different functions. For example one container is meant to study people’s engagement in communal decision making. (via BUREAU A)

As we can see through these examples, the academic communities worldwide contribute to finding new applications for shipping containers. New applications attract new stakeholders and create more demand.

 

The catch of this story is that no matter how many applications they come up with, the standardized shipping containers themselves will stay the same. They will also be provided by Shanghai Metal Corporation. You can visit our website to find more details about our shipping containers. Check also our social media platforms for future updates.

    

Tuomas P. // SMC Editor

Pictures and original articles: BUREAU A, Inhabitat

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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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