I realize this is a bit OT of my normal fare here, but I thought it was interesting. Apparently island nations tend to have a surplus of these (more imports than export), and compared to some of the structures there, these might well be superior strength housing. If they put in some French doors, it will really “open them up”.
Clemson faculty explore how to convert shipping containers into emergency housing
CLEMSON, S.C. — Resources to solve the housing crisis in Haiti may already be on hand.
Some Clemson University researchers have been experimenting with ways to convert shipping containers into emergency housing in the hurricane-prone Caribbean, where a surplus of the sturdy boxes often sits in port yards.
Pernille Christensen, a research associate in the Richard H. Pennell Center for Real Estate and Ph.D. student in planning, design and the built environment; associate professor Doug Hecker; and assistant professor Martha Skinner of Clemson’s School of Architecture, collaborated on the SEED Project, working to develop a method to convert the shipping containers into homes.
The original idea was inspired by housing crises that have followed large hurricanes in the Caribbean and United States. However, Hecker said shipping containers would meet those needs in an earthquake zone, too.
“Because of the shipping container’s ‘unibody’ construction they are also very good in seismic zones and exceed structural code in the United States and any country in the world,” Hecker said. “They have also been used in other countries as emergency shelters in the case of earthquakes. As the SEED Project develops this will certainly be an area that we incorporate. With a few simple cuts at the port, a storage container can be turned into something that is livable and opens to the site.”
Faculty and students sought a way to put displaced people in emergency housing that could be sturdy and safe on a permanent site. Putting families back on their own land quickly is key to the idea. Families displaced by disaster often do not return to their permanent homes for years, if ever, but the Clemson researchers are looking for strategies to implement the SEED Project as quickly as possible, ideally having a modified container on site within three weeks.
“You get people back in their communities and it strengthens those communities,” Christensen said. “They work on their home, not a temporary shelter, and then they work with their neighbors to rebuild the neighborhood. It leads to a healthier and safer community. And these are places often in dire need of better housing.”
Many Caribbean countries import more containers than they export, which leads to the surplus of containers in those nations.
“The project has a double mission: to address the local need of providing adequate housing for people in need while solving a global problem of recycling – giving purpose to empty containers that would otherwise be discarded,” Skinner said.
As part of this research, the group is studying the cycles of natural disasters by looking at the larger picture through mapping and logistics to understand how containers move, available surpluses and ultimately coordinating the cycles of natural disasters with the ebb and flow of container supplies worldwide.
The SEED Project also includes plans for using another surplus item, 55-gallon steel drums, as a way to create a starter garden – from seed – on the roof of the container homes as a way to get food crops started when the ground may be contaminated by stormwater. Water also would be filtered through the drums before being used in a water pod comprised of shower, sink and composting toilet.
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Back in the 80’s I did commerical fishing in Bristol Bay Alaska and during the summer I lived in a container.
I actually rented it from the Cannery. Something like $100 for the 6 weeks of the salmon season.
They are not to bad, secure with a good lock and insulated enough to handle the Alaska summers.
We just had to be out before they needed to fill them with canned Salmon for shipping.
Mindy.
” Ray (09:42:55) :
Steele (09:30:30) :
They are cheap compared to any other material and labor. You can actually get a brand new 45 feet container for about $4000 or less.”
We’re back to the problem of poverty here. GDP / capita in Haiti is 1200 USD according to the CIA world factbook so for them even that container is expensive. I guess that’s why the EU offers billions to developing countries…
… not to buy accomodation or fight poverty but to fight the production of the worlds most evil and sinister enemy: CO2. The gas that brings death to whole planets (see Venus).
How much study do they need. The Taiwanese have been converting and living in containers for years. Get the scientists out of the way and call in some good old fashioned fabricators.
According to my best friend (an LT in the national guard here in Florida), when he was overseas last year he stayed in something very similar to a shipping container.
This is actually a good idea.
JoePapp (09:21:07) :
Comment from the old “Nuclear Power” engineer.
ABSOLUTELY! The containers are “rigid bodies” with structural integrity. (Unlike masonry structures, which depend on GRAVITY to hold them together.
Just be careful about cutting out too much of that unibody without reinforcing the structure. Unmodified they are capable of withstanding hurricane force winds, but modified (i.e. windows, doors, etc cut into the sidewalls) they lose this strength unless the openings are reinforced.
Very exciting. The most interesting “modern architecture” I’ve ever seen in years in both the UK “yuppy flat” version and the Australian emergency version. The idea of the “flysheet” above to protect from direct sunshine I saw years ago to keep a camper van cool. I can tell you that system works very well and I notice that the Australian uses it even for the outside loo.
I’d like to know more about wall and floor insulation, though.
Think of it as a two fer: You can pack relief supplies in them and once emptied set them up as shelter. Keep in mind that the US military has been using ISO containers for years as part of things such as mobile hospitals. The Surgery, X-ray and other areas of a hospital that reguire a sturdy enviorment are spec built into an ISO container that have walls that let them open up and interrconnect and you can attack tents to them as well. I spent 6 months in Zagreb Croatia as part of Fleet hospital 6 back in 94 in this type of enviroment. As to heating and cooling the military has units for that and shouldn’t be that hard to get.
Here is an article about what the army is testing right now for a “Doc in a Box”, complete with expandable walls at the push of a button:
http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=26254
Steele (09:30:30) :
I’m willing to bet that Haiti imports more than they export. It’s my understanding that it would cost more than the container is worth to ship out empty. I think good deals could be gotten for the empty shipping containers.
Whatever happened to the Katrina RV’s?
Except for the naturally occurring pathogens, human waste contains those other things because of all the meds being used and additives in processed foods. Like they say, garbage in-garbage out.
Composting human waste is perfectly safe when done properly, and it makes the best compost there is A friend had a sample analyzed for pathogens by a soil lab. It was free of pathogens and the person who tested it said it was the healthiest soil they had ever seen, nutrient rich with vigorous soil bacterium. I’ve seen garden tests where the plants growing in humanure amended soil gave at least a 25% higher yield than their non-humanure counterparts.
The Humanure Handbook:
http://weblife.org/humanure/default.html
In situations where sewage infrastructure breaks down, humanure composting is a great alternative in that it’s low-cost, convenient and can be established anywhere. There is a group in Chicago doing an urban humanure program. I’ve personally seen at least a dozen successful backyard humanure systems, and there are no foul odors when the piles are managed properly.
http://humblepilechicago.blogspot.com/
I set up a humanure composting system for a small housing collective a couple of years ago which included building a comfortable bucket toilet, which is basically just a wood box with a toilet seat on top, a tp holder on the side, a door in front to swap buckets and weather stripping to seal the lid and door. It’s totally clean and odor free.
Humanure composting is a great solution in general, especially in areas where water is scarce or standard sewage treatment isn’t feasible. Personally, I think pooping in water is one of the stupidest ideas humans have ever come up with.
YOU MEAN IT TOOK A UNIVERSITY TO COME UP WITH THIS??? I’ll even bet there was federal money involved! Jim-Bob and his cuttin’ torch and Johnny-Roy and his tow-truck could’a come up with this on a bar napkin before they finished their first Budweiser.
The idea has a sound core, a container provides durable shelter at fairly low ($2000/unit) cost. It’s a transportable steel cave.
There are lots of extras that can be added, windows, electricity, running water, toilets even, if there is money, but these are non essentials. They can be added as people get richer..
There is a problem of scale. Haiti for instance has just added a couple of million homeless people. Housing them would take many hundreds of thousand containers. They are not available in the timescale or the quantity needed. Plus there is no way to get them there, as the transport system has collapsed, even without factoring in the need to haul 40 foot long steel boxes.
The fundamental problem is that a few dollars worth of corrugated steel sheet roof plus some manual labor to erect walls provides almost as good a shelter as the container. Sheet steel is easy to deliver anywhere, manual labor is close to free. For poor people, $2000 is absurdly unaffordable. Worse, if they have to move, a frequent event for those too poor to pay local taxes or bosses,, they cannot move their property with them if it is a 40 foot steel box. So why would anyone accept it unless it was free, with all the negatives that that carries with it.
There are many different takes on shipping container living. A few of them can be seen here at fabprefab.com.
Something fairly simple like this one on Flickr would be emminently doable I would guess. They are strong, can be made secure and as has already been suggested – take them to Haiti full of supplies and build a home out of the container that is left.
I wonder if you could make them ready to go – kitted out as a temporary home *and* with emergency supplies already in them.
” Steve M. (10:29:19) :
[…]
I’m willing to bet that Haiti imports more than they export.”
Yes.
“It’s my understanding that it would cost more than the container is worth to ship out empty. ”
No. You can actually invest your money and buy your own container and then have it rented out to anyone who needs one. There are agencies for this. Shipping it empty loses you money but far less than the container is worth.
As far as these shipping containers goes, I think they’re a good idea if you can’t think of anything else. For example, just one shipping container could hold hundreds of 12′ diameter geodesic dome kits that could be quickly and easily assembled for temporary housing and disassembled for re-use somewhere else. The main problems I see with shipping containers is they’re cumbersome and require heavy equipment to move them around.
Anyways, I guess ya make do with whatever resources are at hand but I think there are better solutions for temporary disaster relief housing.
peace
The containers do look like they can be used for the job.
The question is whether the research will be completed in time to be used in Haiti’s emergency.
NO! No! No!
Google Haiti and Hurricanes and you’ll see why they make everything out of concrete. It’s very wet, salty, and very, very windy.
Does anyone want to imagine the damaged caused rusty giant chunks of sheet metal flying all over the island?
The problem with most humanitarian efforts if they are not well thought out they usually end poorly.
I saw remains of these shipping containers tossed around like leaves after a typhoon in Guam. They would need to be anchored extremely well. And, wow, would it be hot to live in one in the tropics!
I’ve used them for construction shacks. In a hot climate like Haiti, they’d heat up unless you stretched a fabric shade, like a bimini, over them, especially in the summer. If you welded a couple of struts on to the container, the fabric could be extended to create a shady outdoor space, by stretching it to them.
Ah,Jim B. containers have been used for shipping,on salt water,taken at high speeds
(up to 85/90 mph ) on fast intermodal freight trains,I had clients who used them for outdoor storage on the southern Oregon coast for decades,properly lashed down, I can see no problem.
I’m forwarding this to a Charity I work for…
There are companies putting all sorts of stuff in containers. There is one company that puts a bioDiesel production faclity in them. (D-One Oil?)
Per them getting blown around: No more so than cars, trucks, roofs… but they have the advantage that you have easy attachment points for steel cables to ground anchors. Similar to the way mobil homes are strapped down in tornado country. It works.
Oh, and a simple ‘rain fly’ can be used to keep the sun off. The other thing is that you don’t need to cut vents in the walls. Open the doors and it ventilates well. So pack a “screen door kit” with it. Open the shipping doors when you want it to be accessable, have an ‘inner wall’ that is screening to keep bugs out but let air in. Going to work? Shut the metal doors and lock ‘er up. Think like the old WWII Quaset huts. Basic structure, then a “door and window” wall on each end. Put a small stove in it with a vent out the roof and you are pretty well set.
Per “shipping in domes” or tents or whatever. Yeah, do it. Then use the container as a home / office / workshop too… These are not conficting uses.
The containers can be packed with whole cities worth of goods, equipment, food, shops, hospitals, kitchens. Unpacked and used, then reused as homes.
Bill Marsh (09:09:34) :
“Aren’t those things going to get a tad warm in the tropical sun??”
Why not paint them white to reflect global warming? :o)
————
A C Osborn (09:18:45) :
“If I remember correctly someone built a whole building from Containers in the London Docks area a many years ago.”
You are correct as I remember too.
http://housingprototypes.org/project?File_No=GB016
http://www.timeout.com/london/property/features/4122/London_homes-the_luxury_shipping_container.html
http://www.containercity.com/article-2.html
————
The idea of using containers for housing and offices is well established even in the Western developed world. They would appear to have to be sturdy for sure as one can see them stacked high, one on top of the other, on container ships, ladened with goods for export/import. They seem similar the idea used in Britain relating to prefab housing when houses were in short supply after the blitz WWII. I might be wrong but I think they were only meant for temporary shelter yet many survived into this century I believe.
http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/1_edin/1_edinburgh_history_-_recollections_prefab_housing_background_+_recollections.htm
———–
“More than 50 years ago, the U.S. converted steel shipping containers for use as portable command centers and medical facilities in Korea.”
http://www.bobvila.com/HowTo_Library/Converting_Shipping_Containers_for_Housing-Building_Systems-A2382.html
—————-
Maybe not such a crazy idea?
We had an experimental house at Georgia Tech architecture back in the early 90s, not a new idea.
Europe uses them a lot for this type of thing.
Living in a container is not too sexy, but it works.
ISO containers are made from Corten steel and are designed and built to live as deck cargo in some of the world’s most inhospitable seas. They will not be damaged by a hurricane or by a wet, salty environment. I have seen 2-storey container-based offices live through a Number 10 Typhoon in Hong Kong and suffer no damage at all.
In Hong Kong the indentations in the steel walls on the outside were filled with a slab of polystyrene insulation and sheeted over with treated aluminium after the fitting of four windows and a door, then the inside was treated in the same way. Result? A well-insulated and most liveable box. The addition of a ‘disposable’ canvas or banana-leaf sun roof would provide an easily replaced sun-screen.
I know I’d rather live in an earhquake-proof box than in a concrete-block and tin-roofed shanty!
I’m puzzled as to why a University study into this concept is at all necessary. It is in practise all over the world.
@ur momisugly E.M.Smith (11:14:23) :
BTW, The WW II huts are called Quonset huts. I lived in one for 6 months, also in Hong Kong in 1975, at a place called Volunteer Slopes.