From Guest Blogger Cherry: Container Engineering–Helping to Build Sustainable Cities
Over the years, there seems to have been a quiet but increasingly popular revolution when it comes to building alternative structures and homes, with shipping containers being increasingly used to build structures in limited spaces. A great example of this is Container City, which is located in East London. This was initially constructed in 2001. This ambitious construction project took just 4 days to put the shipping containers in place and was then fitted out over 5 months.
Since then, container engineering has become popular within the UK, with a number of companies, schools, and charities, all incorporating recycled shipping containers into their design.
- Container City II
- OBS Tower
- Birkbeck Mews
- BBC Broadcasting Studios
- Islington Boxing Club
- Cuffley School
- Mile End Park Youth and Extreme Sports Centre
All of these places took inspiration from the success of Container City and used the same concept to design a cost-effective shipping container office, home, school, studio, and sports centre.
Container Engineering to Solve the Housing Problem
The original idea of Container City was to be able to provide not just affordable housing of good quality but also being environmentally friendly as well. The original structure created an area of 4,800 square feet, which spanned 3 stories high and provided comfortable studio apartments / workspaces. The idea was so popular that the builders added additional floors, making the structure four stories high, providing a total of 14 units. It is estimated that around 80% of the materials used to construct Container City came from recycled sources, making it an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional building methods, which would also take longer to build.
The success of Container City has led to a host of people copying the idea and creating unique spaces, which people are utilising in a number of different ways. The shipping container homes can also be surprisingly comfortable, with plenty of space for single people to live in, and it is not as claustrophobic as you would think!
Comfortable Living in a Shipping Container
When you look at property prices in London, you may be quite shocked to find that the cost of these shipping container homes is less than £50,000.00. This is remarkably cheap for central London. Do not worry though as you will not have to sleep on a bed made from wooden pallets as the inside of these shipping container homes are indeed very comfortable. They have been likened to the TARDIS in Doctor Who, being bigger on the inside than you would have thought. In each unit are spaces that you can find in a traditional home such as:
- Sleeping Area
- General Living Area
- Kitchen Area
- Bathroom and Shower Area
- Sometimes you even get a balcony!
You do not have to worry about whether either as all of the shipping containers have insulation to help keep the cold out as well as ventilation to help keep it cool during the warmer times. The inside walls are finished off like any normal wall, so you cannot see the corrugated walls.You can even paint them or hang wallpaper.
As these are semi-permanent structures born out of clever container engineering, you can even move them to a new location very easily if you wanted to. So if you are looking for something which is environmentally friendly, as well as being affordable, living in Container City could be the solution that you are looking for!
