04 SHIPPING CONTAINER HOMES

In response to recent natural disasters across the globe, this is architecture that addresses needs rather than desires, but like most our projects we believe it does both. Shipping container homes are intended to provide a temporary housing solution to young couples or single dwellers. Yet, they can also serve as a prototype for mass-produced, relocatable emergency and relief housing. These Eco-Houses have applications to a variety of needs – post flood, fire, earthquake, typhoon, hurricane, tsunami or similar natural disasters; couples' flatlets, bachelor pads (studios) or remote housing.

The main volume of the building is a recycled 20-foot shipping container – a universal module that is mass-produced, inexpensive, robust and durable. As a basic unit the container can also be used as required by aid co-ordination agencies, or in locations prone to disaster. It is designed to be shipped, and is easily transported by road and rail. All infrastructures for handling the module are available throughout the world.

Most importantly, shipping containers are ubiquitous and can be found all over the world. They,  can be extremely inexpensive to obtain; at others, discarded containers can be found free of charge.
The containers as such have had minimal exterior changes: minor additional slots to fit the structure, a top-hinged front opening for entrance, and a series of operable panels in the roof for ventilation.

A Shipping Container Home can be fully erected within 24 hours. A pair of steel brackets with telescopic legs is fixed to the outside of the container, which is located on site by truck or rail-mounted lifting gear. Site levels are established and the legs are pinned into position. Pivoting broad steel plates at the base of the legs eliminate the need for footings, so little site preparation is necessary. Uneven terrain and slopes up to 45º can be accommodated. All fixings are simple mechanisms, requiring basic tools and skills, and little maintenance for remote locales. These EcoHouses produce thermal insulation of R4.0, shading by openable external shutters to co-efficient exceeding 0.49, and natural ventilation, the Moist Tropical/Rainforest Climate type also being supplied with roof lights/vents.

Both eco-homes are provided with optional passive solar batch water heaters and passive solar cooking ovens, to fully utilise the energy potential of the blazing tropical sun. The Dry Climate type alone makes use of the SKYTHERM® roof pond, with bifold, retractable insulating panels. The pitched roof intended for the Moist Tropical/Rainforest Climate is easily adapted to local versions of “home” with its galvanised steel frame designed to accept thatch, mud and stick, palm fronds, etc. The containers, however small, are packed full of furniture, fittings and architecture – both in design and ideals.

Since people in tropical climates enjoy spending a lot of time outdoors, both designs were envisaged to be accessed via ramped patios (or porches), serving as extension of the indoor space. You may also feel free to select either of the two plan types, as both can be roofed using either of the two roofing systems accordingly.

We have focused on possibilities of using containers in the least modified form, thereby reducing the work required to adapt them to a level where you might be able to perform the necessary conversion work single-handedly, in DIY fashion. As a housing alternative to renting or buying, it is one that offers a high degree of portability, customisation, and security.

Shipping Container Homes provide good, cheap housing that can be erected or moved close to schools, hospitals and existing communities, instead of ripping up the countryside and forcing people to the edge of existing cities, creating urban sprawl, or where the quality of life may not be very high, public services are stretched, and the car is a must.

They are cheap, adaptable, durable, transportable, stackable, lightweight and reusable.

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ECOTECTURAL DESIGN FEATURES

Feature 1: ISO Marine Shipping Containers

There is much practical potential in the creative reuse of industrial products in housing. Nowhere is this more obvious than with the ISO standard marine shipping container which, in communities where trade deficits are the norm, often accumulate in great numbers. Shipping containers, such as the one featured here, are being left in harbours because it is cheaper for steamship lines to leave empty containers at ports charging nominal fees, than to pay the freight to ship them back to their ports of origin.

Containers are clear-span steel box frames at 20 feet length and are structurally sound, with or without their wall and roof skins, thus allowing the sides of the box to be modified in any fashion
without presenting any loss of structural integrity. A variety of lift devices and dollies - some with integral motors - can be attached to the sides of containers to make them self-mobile.

Their simple modular forms and their inherently non-toxic composition of steel and aluminum have proven highly versatile. The so-called Hi-Cube containers, featuring a 9' height and commonly used for refrigerated containers, seem most useful. They feature heat cured polyurethane or styrofoam core aluminium and steel sandwich panel walls and aluminum plank decking. They are like low-cost, ready-made, non-toxic buildings. Refrigerated shipping containers are insulated with four inches (100mm), all around. The outer walls are always made of aluminium with stainless steel interior walls and floor. The floor finish is made of teak. In the tropics, it is most advisable to paint the containers in light colours, so as to reflect the excessive heat.

The concept of "Nomadic Housing" (i.e. housing designed for rapid demountability and easy transport) has lately become quite compelling all over the world, particularly among the people intrigued by the idea of economical and practical housing which can be routinely transported from place to place around the globe along with all personal belongings, and the shipping container meets the idea quite well.

Containers are both a solution to today's urban housing problems as well as a sensible way to recycle industrial products. 

Feature 2: Skytherm® Roof Pond

LEGEND:

a) Water-filled polythene bags on a steel-deck roofing, covered with polyurethane panels that can slide, bifold or roll, either manually or mechanically, to cover or exposethe bags;

b) Winter heating by day;

c) Winter heating by night;

d) Summer cooling by day;

e) Summer cooling by night. 

Roof ponds, such as the Harold Hay's SKYTHERM® system, have been designed and used in hot dry climates of
Arizona and New Mexico in the USA, but also in moderate temperatures such as that of the California coast.

The roof pond, or SKYTHERM®, places the thermal mass in the roof structure. It depends on a switchable, exterior insulation scheme, making it effective for heating and cooling alike. In the heating mode, the insulation is deployed by night, while in the cooling mode, it is deployed by day. The thermal mass, such as water in the containers, must remain in direct thermal contact with the interior of the building. A structural steel deck is a typical thermal connector for the system.

Effectiveness of the SKYTHERM® system has been well displayed in a 140.55m2 single-storey house in Shiraz, Iran, where it reduced the heating demands by 86% and cooling loads by 52%. 

Feature 3: Passive Solar Batch Water Heater

This is a 30-gallon water tank mounted in a double, or triple glazed box, fitted with insulated reflective covers.

During the day, the covers are opened to let the sun's rays hit the black surface of the tank and heat the water within; at night, the shutters are closed to conserve the heat. The freezing shutters are optional in mild climates, albeit essential where freezing is a danger.

It can be self-made and requires moderate carpentry and plumbing skills. Building it generally costs from US$300 to US$400 (installation and plumber's fees included), but cost can be further reduced by obtaining a used water tank in good condition, and by building the insulated heater box of recycled lumber.

The batch water heater saves as much as 25% of water-heating costs in moderate and cold climates, but savings can be further increased by using two (or more) 30-gallon tanks.

Feature 4: Passive Solar Oven

Since most cooking can be done in less than 4 hours, the solar oven is well-adapted to the sun's schedule. It is ideal for the slow, crock-pot type of meal that requires slow cooking at relatively
low temperatures. Turkey, for instance, will cook as fast in a solar oven as in an electric one.

It is yet another example of the greenhouse effect. Light enters and is transformed into longwave heat. The insulation is designed to hold in this heat and is painted flat black to increase the heat
absorptiveness of the oven. Convection and conduction losses are minimised by caulking. The reflecting panels act like mirrors; when set at a proper angle, they bounce all the light and heat that strikes them into the window opening. This causes a further rise in oven temperature.

The skills required to build this oven are quite moderate. Generally, a solar oven can cost from US$40 to US$50, but even less expensive units can be built of cardboard, costing only US$25.

Without the reflectors, oven temperature will reach 139°C (250F) on a clear, 36°C (65F) on an overcast day. With the reflectors, oven temperatures will reach from 194°C to 222°C (350F to 400F).