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Home Sweet Shipping Container: Detroit Housing Project
ABC News ^
| November 23, 2012
| Karin Halperin
Posted on 11/23/2012 4:14:58 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
The first U.S. multi-family condo built of used shipping containers is slated to break ground in Detroit early next year.
Strong, durable and portable, shipping containers stack easily and link together like Legos. About 25 million of these 20-by-40 feet multicolored boxes move through U.S. container ports a year, hauling childrens toys, flat-screen TVs, computers, car parts, sneakers and sweaters.
But so much travel takes its toll, and eventually the containers wear out and are retired. Thats when architects and designers, especially those with a green bent, step in to turn these cast-off boxes into student housing in Amsterdam, artists studios, emergency shelters, health clinics, office buildings.
Despite an oft-reported glut of unused cargo containers lying idle around U.S. ports and ship yards estimates have ranged from 700,000 to 2 million the Intermodal Steel Building Units and Container Homes Association puts the number closer to 12,000, including whats sold on Craigslist and eBay.
HyBrid Architecture in Seattle, which has built cottages and office buildings from containers for close to a decade, coined the term cargotecture to describe this method of building. Co-founder Joel Egan warns that although containers can be bought for as little as $2,500, they shouldnt be seen as a low-cost housing solution. Ninety-five percent of the cost still remains, he says.
Heres a few recent North American projects including the new condo project where the shipping container takes center stage...
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Local News; Society
KEYWORDS: architecture; cargotecture; construction; container; detroit; housing; manufacturing; michigan; shipping
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Obamavilles.
To: Springman; cyclotic; netmilsmom; RatsDawg; PGalt; FreedomHammer; queenkathy; madison10; ...
Not a bad idea. If I could get away with it I'd consider something like this for a home add on. Sink some six by sixes in the ground and put a roofover and siding on them.
2
posted on
11/23/2012 4:19:47 PM PST
by
cripplecreek
(REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)
To: 2ndDivisionVet
3
posted on
11/23/2012 4:23:05 PM PST
by
GeronL
(http://asspos.blogspot.com)
To: 2ndDivisionVet
A step up for many, no doubt.
long dare be a pug fo dat pasma anna shef fo da nikes yo !
4
posted on
11/23/2012 4:23:11 PM PST
by
tomkat
(a million tiny cuts .. add yours daily .. be creative)
To: 2ndDivisionVet
They make decent storage buildings but I would not want to live in one.
5
posted on
11/23/2012 4:24:14 PM PST
by
Bubba_Leroy
(The Obamanation Continues)
To: 2ndDivisionVet
And how long before Detroiters turn those into hellholes of crime, drugs, destruction, graffiti, whorehouses, and the like?
Not long.
6
posted on
11/23/2012 4:25:51 PM PST
by
A_Former_Democrat
(Elections do have consequences, young people of America)
To: cripplecreek
We use one as a storage building for my church. I’ve been thinking of buying one and hiding it on some land as “hunting cabin”.
7
posted on
11/23/2012 4:29:16 PM PST
by
Bryanw92
(Sic semper tyrannis)
To: 2ndDivisionVet
Architects study latest in housing innovation originating in Appalachia . . . .
8
posted on
11/23/2012 4:29:33 PM PST
by
WilliamofCarmichael
(If modern America's Man on Horseback is out there, Get on the damn horse already!)
To: A_Former_Democrat
Don’t give them any ideas... LOL
9
posted on
11/23/2012 4:30:22 PM PST
by
2ndDivisionVet
(You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.)
To: 2ndDivisionVet
Not bullet-proof, but gives more protection than sheetrock alone. They’ll need that in Detroit.
10
posted on
11/23/2012 4:30:28 PM PST
by
RightWingConspirator
(Obamanation--the most corrupt regime since Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe)
To: A_Former_Democrat
>>And how long before Detroiters turn those into hellholes of crime, drugs, destruction, graffiti, whorehouses, and the like?
The day they move in. Possibly sooner if the builders don’t put a fence around them during construction.
11
posted on
11/23/2012 4:30:52 PM PST
by
Bryanw92
(Sic semper tyrannis)
To: cripplecreek
I have seen someone tale the jumbo sized ones and put three together and make a decent looking house.
12
posted on
11/23/2012 4:30:52 PM PST
by
Blood of Tyrants
(Why is the government more concerned about protecting a microbe on Mars than an unborn baby here?)
To: cripplecreek
they’d be great underground bunkers.
13
posted on
11/23/2012 4:32:37 PM PST
by
Secret Agent Man
(I can neither confirm or deny that; even if I could, I couldn't - it's classified.)
Ideally, we need every member and regular user to contribute to keep Free Republic up and running strong.
14
posted on
11/23/2012 4:39:47 PM PST
by
RedMDer
(May we always be happy and may our enemies always know it. - Sarah Palin, 10-18-2010)
To: Bubba_Leroy
Two of my friends and I lived for a year in an eight by twenty in Afghanistan.
15
posted on
11/23/2012 4:41:35 PM PST
by
Hotmetal
(Home from the sandbox.)
To: 2ndDivisionVet
Not as elaborate, but their was someone selling multi-units as one dwelling @ the Oshkosh airshow. They were rather neutral when I opined about their product in a Obama world...
16
posted on
11/23/2012 4:43:02 PM PST
by
taildragger
(( Tighten the 5 point harness and brace for Impact Freepers, ya know it's coming..... ))
To: Bubba_Leroy
They aren't that bad, actually. Said the guy that lived in an 8'x12' tin-roofed shack in the mountains for over a year.
They are a a PITA to run 'lektrikity in, though, if you want it to look somewhat nice.
/johnny
To: 2ndDivisionVet
Before looking at the article, I expected this to be about the homeless living in abandoned shipping containers. No doubt if Romney had won, that’s what this would have been about. I guess with another four years of Obama, the MSM had to report “the brighter side” of living in shipping containers.
18
posted on
11/23/2012 4:44:03 PM PST
by
TwelveOfTwenty
(Ho, ho, hey, hey, I'm BUYcotting Chick-Fil-A)
To: 2ndDivisionVet
The first U.S. multi-family condo built of used shipping containers is slated to break ground in Detroit early next year.LMBO!!
To: WilliamofCarmichael
20
posted on
11/23/2012 4:45:27 PM PST
by
2ndDivisionVet
(You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.)
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