yes, architects are finding out what taiwanese have known all along: shipping containers make dandy structures.
shipping containers are cheap, they interlock,are practically bulletproof,tornado proof(if you weld them into a concrete/rebar foundation) and with some imagination you get the following great results:
www.containercity.com
containercity.com/cove-park.html
my hope is to buy some land down here, put some containers on it, and make a “Wai Ji Chun” (foreigner’s village).
That’s an awesome low cost idea. The apartments in the pics look really nice too, and I like the idea that they put grass on the “roof”. Makes it look more green and less “urban”.
I have seen a new sing-along-place use a shipping container. Painted nicely orange, a door-way cut in the middle and a lockable door set installed, some tables and chairs and a pop-corn machine, area in front of it paved and bingo! a new place to sing karaoke for the old locals.
Good use of a shipping container I thought.
think about it. you buy a piece of land for 5000US (that’s quite a plot in some places in the US) and instead of going into debt on a house for 30 years, you plop down 2 or 3 containers, fix them up, and you owe… NOTHING!!
solar panels to charge batteries. rain water collection/filter/storage system for all your water needs. total off the grid living.
this way you can say “screw the system” in style. i’m gonna do it if i can. i want one for my garage, one for living room, and one for the bedroom.
The firm I worked for in the UK used shipping containers for storage. We had a container for wood (plywood mostly) and one for vacuum-bag and composite supplies (rolls of fiberglass, kevlar, carbon fiber) and one for hazardous materials, which I nicknamed ‘the bomb’. Inside there was a 55-gallon drum of acetone, several 5 gallon jugs of methyl-ethyl ketone and some peroxide catalysts, as well as a solvent waste drum. Even in the tropical sunny UK the inside of that hazmat box got pretty hot… I can only imagine what a problem that could be here.
What about galvanic corrosion when you set a big metal box on the damp ground and put an electrical system inside it? Not the kind of challenge that the usual homebuilder faces. It’s not insurmountable, just different.
Guys, it’s not just plant the container anywhere … you need to prepare a foundation and you need to do cutting and welding doors and windows, interior design, insulation, plumbing, electricity, sound proofing … you name it … putting something up like a few of these containers can set you back quite a bit … 1,5- 2 million NT$ even when you do it yourself you need to buy everything … it’s cheaper than a house and it’s nice to live in when it’s well done and thought through … otherwise go and live in chicken shack … 
SA, don’t tell me you live there and you have an adsl line installed there …
Only when I’m on the outs with the old lady.
that chicken shack looks like an inviting change of pace from my nagging wife.
I’ll second that. A quiet outdoor place.
I’ll second that. A quiet outdoor place.[/quote]
Actually not quiet… there’s a big stadium-loud KTV chicken shack right across the way.
hey tainan,
ever built a deer hunting lodge? or a deer perch? love those things. i saw one deer perch that you can stay in all night.
I’ve been to an artists-in-residence centre in Scotland that has some of those things. They looked pretty good.
check this site for a really pretty one. hit cargotechture, then studio 320. got another one coming if i can find it.
sandman, did you go to Cove Park???
Yeah, that’s the place. I was just visiting my bro-in-law though. I wasn’t an artist in residence, but he was up there composing.
i was thinking about applying.
[quote=“theposter”]hey Tainan,
ever built a deer hunting lodge? or a deer perch? love those things. i saw one deer perch that you can stay in all night.[/quote]
Like a “Tree House” ? We used to smuggle stolen liquor and women up into ours, ran an extension cord up the trunk, had a sliding window and a fan to blow pot smoke out of.
I like this container village idea, kinda of like a Taiwanese trailer park.
yeah think about it: we could all chill out and relax in our own little cribs.
Personally I’m leaning towards the dome life. Lots of different companies offer domes. Check out monolithic.com for an example. They’re really strong and durable, perfect for the typhoons that hit Taiwan, and they’re energy efficient, too. They can even be built underground, since they’re strong enough to support immense weights on them.
