CargoTecture

Architects are recasting the assumptions of manufactured housing construction with designs that make a positive solution out of America’s trade deficit.

Say again, how is that?

Increasingly, the U.S. imports more goods than it send back overseas.  While oil tankers are too expensive to discard, many of the shipping containers are left in US ports.  These uniform steel boxes (either forty feet by 8 1/2, or 20 by 8 1/2 feet) that once held plasma screen televisions or melamine-laced milk are now idled, waiting for a return shipment order.  While the cartons are not actually thrown away, the paucity of outgoing shipments insures that there is a geographical imbalance, with the surplus in the US.

Enter some creative architects, many of whom are working on the West Coast.  Patrick Tozier of Global Living Systems is designing homes in Hawaiian subdivisions.  The goal is to make an affordable house.  Tozier can provide clients with a 2000 square foot house, fashioned from sections of four shipping containers.  The homes are insulated with ceramic paint.

A Tozier home destined for a subdivision lot in Puna, Hawaii

Hawaii is home to a number of other participants in this market, from Containers Hawaii to Green Island Builders.  Although the cost-efficiencies are attractive, permitting and perceptual issues are still hurdles, they say.

The steel structure adds a lot of strength to the building.

In California, some designers are stacking the homes.  Demaria Designs, in Redondo Beach, is not far from a steady supply of shipping containers at the Long Beach Port.  This is a beatiful home that expands on the clean lines of containers to project a feeling of modernity and security.  The homes are filled with light and glass.  This design won an award from the American Institute of Architects.