What we think of as shipping containers are actually called intermodal containers, because they are designed to work with distinctive modalities of transportation. The box on a boxcar train, a stack of them on a products ship and the boxes taken away around by cranes in shipyards are all the same. These were designed for exactly this modularity, and have become ubiquitous around the world. So much so that many cities find they have to deal with excess shipping containers in a number of ways.
Constraints in a Port City
In some places around the world, shipping containers have proven to be a advantage for local artists, students and other creative types. How is this possible?
Take Seattle for example. As one of the largest ports in the united states, Seattle is filled with containers in every stage people shipping containers for sale. Shelterkraft is a new company on the scene taking advantage of the older shipping containers that have no current use beyond cluttering the skyline.
Shelterkraft takes these containers and remodels them into self-contained living spaces. They have modern appliances. They have recycled cardboard countertops. They have low energy lighting. They're recycled, they're green and they're affordable. Best of all, they're made out of containers, so they're automatically highly mobile.
While small, the market for these container housing units is large and growing. People use them as mobile homes. They are very effective as backyard cabins, additions or stand-alone office spaces. What more can they ask for in a city with hard to follow building codes?
Expensive Nights out partying
Berlin is in a similar situation for different reasons. It is a destination for students and a generally young population, with a flourishing and active nightlife. The problem that most of these people encounter, however, is the aging living structure of the city. What housing is available is generally expensive, and for the money, it lacks many of the basic amenities considered necessary for modern life.
The solution, as planned by the developer Jörg Duske, is shipping containers. Specifically, a large number of containers stacked, built together, secured in place and become a single large housing complex.
Shipping containers save quite a bit of money on new construction, but they aren't perfect. They're metal boxes, after all, and that means they go through warmth. However, a similar project in Netherlands has proven the concept, and the method for changing a shipping container into livable space is well known. The advertising is the issue -- how does someone attract individuals to their housing when it's made out of containers? Thankfully, the reduced price tag and the population of Berlin should make it easy.
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