The Many Architectural Applications of Shipping Containers vol.5

Our fifth chapter on shipping containers’ architectural applications will discuss examples of how and why they are an excellent choice for creating affordable and sustainable schools and student homes. It might be that even this generation of students will get familiar at least one of them.

Using shipping containers as temporal school houses has at least two rationales. The first reason is that especially old wooden school buildings are likely to have mold issues that may cause severe health risks. For example an article of a Finnish science magazine Tiede states that every second school in Finland has mold issues (source). Students are therefore either forced to stay in their mold school or move to another school. Container schools could be installed in relatively short time and with relatively low costs.

The second reason can be studied from Samsung. In 2012, the South Korean electronics chaebol established a shipping container school in the South African village of Phomolong as a part of its corporate-social responsibility program. The school offers its 21 students premium education facilities with solar powered electricity system and notebooks, an Internet connection and Samsung Galaxy tablets. (source)

The lack of affordable student homes creates another application for shipping containers. For instance in Finland there is a high demand for student homes as the number of available apartments in student villages is getting lower. Students are now forced to pay a very high monthly rent. Some students have to pay even over 800 euros of monthly rent. 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 also be expanded to  multi-storeyed blocks of flats. This sort of solution has already been applied in Sweden. Container homes are easy to build. They are also low-cost and environmentally friendly.

So many deficits in housing can nowadays be solved with shipping containers. Therefore we offer a large variety of shipping containers in Shanghai Metal Corporation. We also offer prefabricated container building solutions. Please visit our web pages for detailed descriptions. Check also our social media sites.

    

Tuomas P. // SMC Editor

Pictures and original articles: Tiede magazine, Cnet, The Volt Report,Arch Daily, Wintech Modular Buildings, Lion Containers, Design Boom, Iltalehti.fi, Hansacontainers.com

Continue to chapter 6.

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Shipping Container Swimming Pools!

As the readers of our former articles have seen, shipping containers have others ways of use besides logistics. Containers are not only convenient in student housing, hotel industry, affordable housing and retail, they also work as nice swimming pools.

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 pools have attracted crowd in many public events. For instance the fashion brand Tommy Hilfiger introduced a container swimming pool in Berlin’s Bread and Butter fashion trade show in 2011. Also the city of New York has arranged some container pool parties in Manhattan.

Also consumers have engaged into container pools. Including Stefan Beese, An experimental architect who 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.

If you are looking for an inexpensive swimming pool solution you might want to consider using a shipping container. Shanghai Metal Corporation has been a reliable provider of shipping containers for years. Our open top containers can become excellent swimming pools. For winter swimmers, we also offer refrigerated containers.

Please also follow us on our social media platforms.

    

Please also check our new mobile application by scanning the QR code below.

#BuildingValueAcrossTheGlobe

Tuomas P. // SMC Editor

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