shipping-container-homes-white-paper-2014-12-10

Alternative Housing: The Shipping Container HomeM. Martinez-Garciatransportability, the modern and self-containeddesign, and the efficiency of space.” The MDUcreated for the University Art Museum (at theUniversity of California - Santa Barbara) wasdesigned to “travel with its dweller to the nextlong-term destination, fitted with all live/workequipment and filled with the dweller’sbelongings” (LOT-EK, 2014). The MDU caneasily be configured for permanent residency.Another example of the next gen container isIndustrial Zombie’s fully mechanized container17units. From its Push Button House , featuringpop-up/drop-down living, sleeping, andbathroom quarters, complete with ambient18lighting, to its GOPRO multi-story structure offour full-sized containers – each on-end andconjoined – Industrial Zombie’s containerbuildings truly demonstrate how quickly andeasily a container house or compound can bemobilized and quickly functioning throughmechanization.Impact on Real EstateIndustryGiven the nearly one way flow of goods comingto the United States and excess supply ofISBUs, the growing green movement, and thecost and time savings associated with shippingcontainer homes, the container-housing trendwill likely continue to gain momentum. Howmuch momentum is hard to say; after all, thereare some downsides to container homes.Despite the fact that container giants likeHapag-Lloyd and OOCL are usingenvironmentally sensitive products such aswater soluble varnishes (Hapag-Lloyd, 2014),tin-free paints and bamboo flooring (OOCL,2014 ), some ISBUs have been treated withpesticides and chemicals (Glink, 2014) toprotect shipped contents. Then, there arezoning issues and local regulations to consider.And, unless the homeowner has a decentbudget, the container home will remain lookinglike just that…a container.NIMBYNot unlike mobile homes and the cookie cutterhomes of the 1950s, container homes have theirshare of critics – one of them being Gary Imhoffof DC Watch, a neighborhood watchdogorganization. In response to the containerapartment building planned for DC’s Brooklandneighborhood, Imhoff is reported as saying,“Prefab shipping container houses can be madeto look nice in architect’s plans. So can trailerparks. But I suspect that a few decades of wearwill quickly turn them into slums” (Neibauer,192014). Another critic’s arguments areunderstandably fueled by images of an infamousbuilding constructed in Mankato, Minn., in theearly 1970s (Hood, 2012). In 1972, Valley View20Apartments were constructed using 20 mobilehomes, stacked four stories high, on a concreteframe (Adkins, 2013). The property, referred toby journalists as one of the nation’s ugliestbuildings, later fell into disrepair and wasultimately purchased and demolished by the city(Adkins, 2013).17 www.inzombie.com/" \l "!push-button-house/c20ct18 www.inzombie.com/" \l "!gopro/co9y19 www.startribune.com/local/yourvoices/181679951.html20 mobilehomeliving.org/stacked-mobile-homes-highrises-of-the-past-present-and-future/Page 11 of 22