37º IAHS World Congress on Housing: - Universidad de Cantabria

XXXVII <strong>IAHS</strong><strong>World</strong> <strong>Congress</strong> on HousingOctober 26 – 29, 2010, Santander, SpainCODE: 252“CONTAINER ARCHITECTURE” FOR LOW-COST,TEMPORARY AND ENERGYSAVING HOUSING DESIGNC. Masotti, A. FerranteFaculty of EngineeringDepartment of Architecture and Urban PlanningUniversity of Bologna, Italyclara.masotti@unibo.it; annarita.ferrante@unibo.itKey words: container, low-cost, temporary, energy saving, housing, emergency, re-use, sustainable.AbstractContainers, freighter dedicated components, present high potential as prefab structures to beused in the building sector, with special regards for emergency and temporary housingconstruction.Containers are portable, available in a consistent amount, structurally resistant and durable;furthermore they can be easily placed on the ground without special foundation works.The possible technologies to be applied in the re-use of containers have to be simple andfunctional, especially in case of emergency settlements. In case of temporary use notexclusively associated to emergency conditions, aesthetic, environmental features and lowcost solutions have to be considered as important requirements to be addressed. The paper, bymeans of specific comparison among different use of containers in existing prototypebuildings and new design procedures, outlines the possible structural adaptation to achieve anew housing for a renewed life style, respecting socioeconomic and environmentalsustainability. The different solutions range from very simple houses, with limitedmodifications, to highly complex schemes, with high tech materials and plant for achievingself-sufficiency for stand alone or “off the grid” solutions. The paper also presents a realprototype container’s adaptation, whose progressive construction phases’ analysis showsseveral design components at the technological scale of the building.37º <strong>IAHS</strong> <strong>World</strong> <strong>Congress</strong> On Housing Science 143