| oblem of affordable housing has been a problem in | | | | container home is nothing more than a |
| many areas of the world for a long time, even | | | | do-it-yourself mobile home and would rather not |
| before our current economic turn for the worse | | | | see their ugly construction in their towns and |
| happened along. To combat this problem and also | | | | cities. However, other than a similarity in the size |
| to address the issue of sustainability, some | | | | and shape of the basic building block of a |
| architects started looking at alternative building | | | | container home, and the industrial-feel of it's steel |
| materials. | | | | sides, there really is no comparison between the |
| One of the building materials that they discovered | | | | two. |
| was used shipping containers; in many parts of | | | | A mobile home lacks the hardy construction of an |
| the world makeshift dwellings had been made out | | | | all-steel shell and the stackabilty of the engineered |
| of these large metal boxes previously but no one | | | | container building block. Whereas the mobile home |
| had really played with the idea of using them to | | | | is rather dangerous in a high wind-speed storm, |
| design a house with all the amenities of home | | | | the container home is more than strong enough |
| before. | | | | to withstand the high pressure. Buildings |
| Shipping containers come from anywhere that | | | | constructed out of shipping containers have a |
| ships large quantities of goods; the containers are | | | | modern building block feel to them, often |
| pre-packed then put on boats and/or trains and | | | | reminding an observer of an oversized Lego |
| the goods are delivered all over the world. Due to | | | | structure. |
| the expense of shipping the used empty | | | | Shipping container homes can be made "from |
| containers to locations that need them from | | | | scratch" if you want to design your own home, |
| locations that don't, sometimes they end up just | | | | with pre-designed plans, or pre-fabricated; it's all |
| sitting around empty. It is reported that it can | | | | up to you. They are generally fast to install, |
| cost more to ship a used empty container than | | | | mould-free and termite-proof. Some pre-made |
| to just buy a new one! | | | | varieties are also designed to work completely |
| Due to the materials used to make shipping | | | | off-grid so that they are ideal summer cabins or |
| containers, they can be easily recycled into new | | | | homes for people who want to live in nature. |
| containers and other steel items, but using them | | | | Container homes may just be the option that |
| "as is" to build homes can save energy as well as | | | | many people could benefit from in these tough |
| recycle the materials. There are a number of | | | | economic times; however, with the problems in |
| concerns that some people have about these | | | | some areas to allow permits for alternative types |
| container homes but there are also many | | | | of housing it might be a while before they're |
| advantages as well. | | | | available as widely as they could be. |
| Some container home naysayers say that a | | | | |