Inter-modal construction means applying many methods – often unconventional ones – for housing and commercial construction. It frequently implies recycling materials for reuse as building components. More than 50 years ago, the U.S. converted steel shipping containers for use as portable command centers and medical facilities in Korea. Now, architects, designers, planners, and homeowners are finding renewed interest in these inter-modal steel building units (ISBUs) as they look for affordable, sustainable housing options for the 21st century.
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Shipping containers at Tampa Armature Works are cleaned, prepped, and fitted for windows and door openings before heading off to the construction site.
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Converting Containers for Construction
Steel shipping containers can be used for affordable individual housing units or as building blocks for larger homes or structures. These units are designed to carry everything from vases to Volkswagens all over the world. They are sturdy, manufactured to international standards, easy to transport, readily available, and a great cure for urban blight.
David Cross and his associates at Tampa Custom Equipment and Tampa Armature Works (TAW) are blazing a trail in container housing. “We asked ourselves, ‘How can we take a container and make it usable for a contractor,’” Cross says of their initial approach to designing container housing. Starting in 2003, Cross and TAW began to coordinate the development of a handful of container-built homes in South Carolina, Florida, and California. Prior to their involvement, there was no focus on adapting these containers for easy construction and use as housing units. “No one organization, in my mind, designed and executed a container house for Sally and Joe America before TAW,” Cross says. With one house complete and three others under construction, consumers may well ask why build houses out of rusty steel boxes.
Shipping Containers as Building Blocks
Containers make structural sense. They are manufactured with heavy-gauge Corten steel to make them strong and fairly impervious to the elements. These ISBUs come in two standardized sizes — 40 x 8 x 8 feet and 20 x 8 x 8 feet. They are ideal building blocks and can be stacked up to nine rows high without compromising their structural integrity.
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This model shows how shipping containers are converted for use as building blocks in a modernist design that is eco-friendly, efficient, durable, and visually exciting.
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“These are much stronger than anything you’d normally build with,” says Steve Armstrong, a structural engineer who partners with Cross in the design of these buildings. “They are designed to withstand the violent, pitching deck of a ship at sea.” ISBUs are resistant to fire and insect damage, too. The corrugated-steel look is easily camouflaged inside and out with windows, siding, insulation, and drywall.
Reducing Construction Costs and Environmental Waste
Container-built homes are popping up in design competitions, urban planning sessions, and university housing discussions worldwide because they are ready-made, consistent, strong, and available. This pre-fab architecture is likely to continue as a trend, helping to house homeless and displaced populations, build up without eating up valuable land, and create easy, modernist expressions for urbanites and nature lovers alike.
“Through the use of an ISBU system, we can radically reduce the impact on the amount of trees needed for a home,” says Cross. “By as much as 99 percent.” The system is green, easy, and inexpensive. “It is an advantage that they are factory built. The structure goes up very quickly,” Armstrong says. With manufactured building systems, there is no guesswork or fitting. They are built to specifications and are consistent every time they arrive on site. This reduces time for the building crew and architects as they are working with known and reliable specs. “Pre-manufacture drives the costs down,” says Armstrong. The savings come from reducing the on-site labor and shortening the materials list. “If this type of construction happens in large quantities, you will find significant savings,” Armstrong says.
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This container has been prepared on site for use as a building module. It has been insulated, painted, and fitted with exterior doors prior to delivery.
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Barriers to Container Building
The number of container homes in the U.S, is still quite low, but developments like those in Desert Springs, California, Seattle, Washington, London, and Amsterdam are increasing their visibility. Builders themselves can often be a major barrier to new construction methods because it takes time to educate the crews. During that initial period, construction pace is down, which makes it more costly. In the long run, familiarity, ease, and speed will make this type of construction easy and affordable, especially in communities that lack affordable housing.
Perhaps the biggest barrier to increased production of container homes is the stigma that is attached to the ugly metal boxes left abandoned in urban shipping yards. Transformative thinking and a willingness to move outside of the box can bring this technology to the forefront of urban planning agendas everywhere.
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