All Things Considered
Online journal by St. Jude's – British printmaking and textiles designed by printmaker Angie Lewin, painter printmaker Mark Hearld, British workwear designers Old Town and others.
Contain Yourselves
Posted by Kate Sullivan
Spending a week in a static caravan has made me think that having a sea container for a holiday home would actually be quite possible. Back in April when it was hot and sunny, I remember driving around the the narrow Norfolk roads gazing at the beautiful countryside and having a vision of owning a re-vamped shipping container tucked in some idyllic meadow ready for weekend getaways. There would be no electricity, but there would be gas fired lights and fridge, clever storage and open views.
On holiday, I got thinking of the parallels between the static caravan we stayed in and sea shipping containers that have been converted for habitation I'd seen in an article a while back. These containers come in varying sizes up to 12m x 2.4m, stack like Lego and with clever use of internal space and window positioning can feel remarkable spacious. There's people out there already doing it - stacking these rudimentary metal structures next to and on top of each other and living in them. I came across a website, Fabprefab which really intrigued me. It shows examples of architect designed shipping container homes from all over the world - some in outstanding locations. Being solid, functional objects, sea containers are also relatively cheap to obtain - making them a fairly affordable choice. They could be the answer to key worker affordability or shipped to areas in need of emergency shelter or even, as in Africa, turned into shops and hair salons.
Urban Space Management have built several housing projects using sea containers, one of them being the much published Container City II in Trinity Wharf, East London. Brightly coloured containers are stacked at jaunty angles, some with balcony's and most with porthole windows.
Posted by Kate Sullivan on September 28th, 2007