Let us think out of the box for a moment and deviate from traditionally-built homes as our source of inspiration for our new home project. Would you like to live in houses made of steel, specifically the shipping containers one would expect docked at ports?
Look at some photos here for inspiration from HOMEDIT.
Aside from being made of steel, these building materials are actually spacious, resilient and can weather harsh conditions like strong winds, fire and earthquakes, Press Enterprise reported.
Each container may be purchased via Inland Southern California for about $3000, the site added. For a detailed costing, check out CNN's report, based from Quick House's estimate.
The "first permitted shipping container home" in the Mojave Desert, was introduced by Architect Walter Perry Scott in 2010, according to Press Enterprise. Now, coupled with its affordability, the trend of having these shipping containers as the next step for cozy living is building up in the said area.
IPME, a California firm that delivered this style of using re-purposed shipping containers to Las Vegas and Orange County, hopes to build a duplex in Redondo Beach using these materials. "We plan to break ground on it in six months," Craig Rapoza, a principal owner of IPME, told Press Enterprise.
However, there are hurdles along the way such as permits and some competitions. Rapoza explained that obtaining construction permit for such homes is difficult. "Most cities and towns have never seen construction with a container, so they don't know how to address building codes and adapt it," Rapoza added.
Take the case of Luke Iseman, a businessman and artist who set up a $2,300 container on West Oakland last year to make a model of a "do-it-yourself community" with the aim of helping address San Francisco's housing problem. Yet, despite his noble intentions, he allegedly faced "stiff opposition from the city," as reported by Press Enterprise. City Inspectors reportedly told Iseman that he and his co-founder, Heather Stewart, "violated health and building codes for treating soil, setting up electrical wiring and retrofitting containers for a collection of shipping container homes without asking the city's permission," Press Enterprise wrote.
Laurence Pokras, an architect commissioned by IPME in 2013 for its trade show, shared his opinion to Press Enterprise, "I think the hurdles are there because this is taking away the wood guy's business."
Hopefully, these blocks along the way may be cleared and health-issue problems may be addressed so that this kind of housing may be available to many people especially in times of calamities and global housing crisis.
