examples of using shipping containers as buildings

This is fairly standard practice in the third world, where cheap and easy reliability outweigh comfort, and you can't trust the local builders. However, they're really ugly. But good luck.

Rich

It can be slightly annoying as well. Normally when you ship something, you rent the container. However, in those parts of the world where people make houses out of them, you normally have to buy one to get the shipper to take it there. If it actually comes back, then super for you. So a side effect of using containers in the above manner is that all things shipped to those places cost more.

Tim Worstall

construction offices and crew space on the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge

Tacoma News Tribune - couple weeks ago

That is not germaine to the discussion of using containers in buildings in the West.

It's a matter of artistic ability. I have seen very attractive container homes. The designer has to be able to make use of the verticality inherent in the corrigation of the metal.

Not every person can do that well.

But I have seen many, many conventional homes that were equally ugly. For instance, the homes with cheesy rock facades attached to a wooden frame based home. Or aluminum siding. Or in the Western US, the over-use of stucco to achieve a vaguely adobe like look.

Do you have any links to really good looking homes built from shipping containers?

Stick tothe positive side of your side of the discussion to win converts.

Harp on the negatives of the other side of the discussion if you want to talk to other converts and try to prove how much of a "true believer" you are.

JIm Buch

There are plenty of surplus shipping container anywhere you go in the world.

Gordon

Some are even floating in middle of the ocean.

Quoting from:

On February 11, 2001, Ellen MacArthur completed the Vendee Globe singlehanded nonstop sailboat race around the planet, perhaps the most grueling challenge in the world of sports, and docked amid the 250,000 well-wishers who had braved a winter night to welcome her back to France. Alone and unsupported, she had spent more than three months at sea and had beaten everything the race could throw at her--storms, icy seas, exhaustion, rigging failures, and, when she was fighting for first place, a catastrophic collision with a submerged shipping container that could have cost her not just the lead but her life. But Ellen had always known that the dream she was chasing would demand her last ounce of fortitude. To give any less would be to let down herself and everyone who believed in her.

Quoting from:

Whatever lies ahead, the resilient young Englishwoman is now fully recovered after 36 hours spent making repairs following Kingfisher's collision with a floating shipping container, which tore off the port daggerboard and sheared off the "crash-tip" on the port rudder.

Yes, there are various projects listed here:

My city (Long Beach, CA) says that Shipping/Cargo containers cannot be used in Residential, Commercial, or Industrial zones for storage. I remember seeing Portland Oregon government page that says the UBC allows this use as long as the city issues a permit. I think in Florida they call them SBU (Steel Building Units) or something similar to the military discption of SIBU. What is the correct term to use to get zoning to appove? Prefab, Steel Buildings, Modular Steel Units, ISBU?

Prefab, Steel Buildings, Modular Steel Units, Steel Building Units? Factory built modules? What is the proper achitectural and engineering term for permanent useage of these modified containers?

Thanks,

Brian