You’ve heard of tiny houses, and now comes the shipping container house. There are companies all over the country creating new homes out of shipping containers. For example, a business in North Lima, Ohio, is making shipping containers for the sole purpose of turning them into homes.
The owner of Steel Valley Container Structures, Ed Macabobby, is constructing housing from shopping containers that he is hoping to use for low-income people and displaced veterans. The first model is complete. It’s a 650-square foot home made from two shipping containers. The model has modern bedroom and bathroom spaces, as well as a spacious kitchen and even space for a washer and dryer.
Durable, steel shipping containers can last up to 25 years on average, and they require very minimal maintenance. These features make shipping containers very ideal structures for homes, even if they are not traditionally used for that purpose. Most shipping containers are rated for 175 MPH winds and can actually make safer modular spaces than many traditional mobile homes.
Macabobby isn’t the only one with this brilliant idea. Melbourne-based Studio Edwards has perched three connected shipping containers on a Wye River Surf Coast hillside. The house is referred to as “House 28” and it’s a weekend retreat in southeastern Australia. It was designed with sustainability in mind, set on steel stilts anchored in concrete piles.
The three 20-foot long containers are shielded in galvanized steel sheeting, with two forming an op-plan living area and a water closet and main entry. The third containers holds the beds and bathrooms for the home, while the minimalist interiors are covered with marine plywood. The containers are also clad with large windows, allowing tons of natural light to seep in.
This House 28 also takes it a step further, incorporating a green roof with native plants grounded on top. This roof provides insulation during the colder months, as well as a rainwater filtration system. These new shipping container homes could make strides for not only homeless populations, but for the environment as well.