Student – Shanghai Metal Corporation

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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Dream Home Furnishing With IKEA’s Very Affordable Little Helper

If you ask any present college student or graduate where they bought their furniture while at school, odds are IKEA is high up on that list. As of January 2008, IKEA became the world’s largest furniture retailer thanks to their product management, placement and quality given to their customers. IKEA’s product lines range from your everyday table spoon and doorknobs to larger media furniture, sofas, and full furnished kitchens. With style and functionality at it’s forth front, IKEA needed a material that would both look aesthetically pleasing with their items and durable-stainless steel was the answer.

Using China as the main example; out of their 2615 products on sale, 544 have in one way shape or form stainless steel. With over 20% of their products in China containing stainless steel, it’s a great thing that most of IKEA’s stainless steel articles are sourced from Asia, including China at 90%, Taiwan and Korea with the final 10%. The ability to adapt stainless steel on their existing products gave them that hint of style they needed.

With IKEA’s popularity at a world’s recognition, they have attracted new and modern designers. The ability for these designers to use stainless steel in their products has helped promote IKEA product as not just functional but stylish, as well as potentially raise their revenue. With some products, consumers have a choice of whether or not to include stainless steel in their product. For example, you could buy a bed frame and keep the wooden legs that it comes with, or opt to spend $20 more on those stainless steel legs which makes your bed look better. At the end of the day more people choose to spend just a little bit more to make their bed look sleeker and better looking.

The example of the bed legs is just one small one, but it shows the significance a small change can make. Stainless steel has absolutely helped IKEA pave the way to different markets with their high quality and affordable products.

It is this same idea of affordability and quality that we here at Shanghai Metal Corporation bring to the table with your stainless steel needs. 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: Ikea, Stainless Steel Report SMC stainless steel pipe

Mario B.//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

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

SMC Welcomes International Interns

This week, Shanghai Metal Corporation (SMC) welcomes our summer international interns to Shanghai! Our international interns come from all over the world and will be the new face of SMC.

From international trade, marketing, sales, to human resources, SMC is happy to provide the most unique internship experience as they have an opportunity to communicate with international clientele from around the globe. As SMC’s young brand ambassadors, the interns aim to share their knowledge and talents in an effort to promote the manufacture corporation as a fun and viable industry.

They will be participating in marketing and sales strategies that will allow continuous assistance for their specialized products through various social media networks but also gain personal experience through cultural diversity in and out of the work environment.

Meet our International Interns:

Our international interns will set the vision and the strategy for how our products and services will reach thousands of customers. They will be partnered up with a highly a engaged team and bring creativity to transform the business, as well as contributing a geocentric approach to international business.

Welcome to Shanghai Metal Corporation!