Rough Draft Research Abstract

A Shipping Container Home

Thesis: Is building a shipping container home in Kamloops a feasible alternative to standard construction, while keeping in mind all the limitations in design and the (dis)/advantages that come with them?

Right now, there are millions of shipping containers being transported from one port to another and many of those will be retired once they reach their destination, as they will have reached the end of their maximum 20 year life span (Brown 2009).  Once that happens, they will be discarded, re-purposed, or recycled for their steel.  One of the first ideas for alternate uses of retired shipping containers was actually as emergency shelters after the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake in Japan (Bergdoll, 2008).

One option for the re-purposing of these shipping containers is to turn them into homes.  This idea has been around for about 20 years, but has only recently begun to flourish, as modern technology is now at the point that it is possible. They can be combined to create modern, innovative houses.  Since shipping containers are built to withstand every climate from the Arctic Circle to the tropics, it can withstand any climate it is put in as a house.  However, one of the disadvantages shipping containers is that, being made from steel, they conduct heat extremely well.  That being said, they would need a very large amount of insulation to keep heating and cooling costs down, and to be able to keep a consistent, comfortable temperature inside the home.  A couple other disadvantages are that shipping containers can be damaged from use, or there may have been some spillage of cargo when it was in use, meaning that it would need to be thoroughly cleaned before being used.  Also, in order to place the containers as needed, a crane or forklift will be needed, as shipping containers are extremely heavy.  It can also be somewhat difficult to obtain a building permit, since shipping container homes are still relatively new to the construction field.  There are, however, many up sides to using shipping containers to construct homes.  They are readily available from multiple sources, they are modular, so on-site work can be cut down some, and they are generally quite inexpensive.  Even brand new, the majority of them cost anywhere from $2,000.00 to $7,000.00 each (bigsteelbox.com).  Also, the cost of labor to build the house is mainly for welders/steel cutting which can be more expensive when looked at separately, but once the project is done, the overall cost is generally lower than traditional construction.

Included in the design will be all the appliances and furniture that a traditionally constructed house would have, but used in a slightly different fashion.  All the openings (doors, windows, etc.) would be structurally reinforced once cut out, so they could take the load of everything above them.  Also, combining uses/rooms is a great way to save space, and reduce the cost.  For example, having a bed that folds up into the wall to combine multiple uses into one room is a possibility.  Furthermore, when built off site and combined in a modular fashion, the costs to transport materials to the site are taken down to just the cost to transport the modules once they are complete.

The purpose of this research report is to determine if building a shipping container house in Kamloops, B.C. is feasible nowadays.  In order to determine this, the report will look into the structural capability of shipping containers, the climate in Kamloops and the design of a shipping container house.  The design will try to include green technologies to reduce the carbon footprint of the house, space saving measures such as combined uses in rooms, and an exterior design that will somewhat mask the unmistakable appearance of shipping containers to appease anyone who may object to living by/seeing such a building.

Comments and corrections are welcome!