Comments on: Container Living

By: Eric

Eric — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 23:56:18 +0000

I thought about it awhile back, and it would work, but you’d need insulation and paneling, a torch to cut ventilation and window holes and the usual electricity and plumbing. Plus a site. You could half-bury it too.

By: Magpie

Magpie — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 05:01:42 +0000

I know that usually, when people build strawbale, they coat it in cob to make it more fireproof. From what I’ve read, burning cobbed straw will just kind of smolder. My friend is going to build his house out of cob and the firecodes are making him have an electric motor on his well so that it can put out any fires, even though his dang house is made of dirt. sigh.

By: DavidSD

DavidSD — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 02:48:42 +0000

@willow: typical hay bales when used in insulation have an R-value of 40, but if they get moist they sometimes have a rot problem. Local fire codes may prohibit their use- even though they’re no more flammable than conventional insulation.

By: willow bl00

willow bl00 — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 23:05:33 +0000

I wonder about insulating using bales of straw or hay, which often also go to waste. Hmm..

By: DavidSD

DavidSD — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 21:54:37 +0000

For the one year I was doing the hated architorture MFA, this was one of my research focuses. Shipping containers as modular architecture has precedents as far back as the 70′s, when containerization was standardized. Furthermore, the things are cheap or free in America, as the country imports far more than it exports, and leaving the things to pile up by docks is cheaper than discarding or recycling them.
Sadly, since nobody makes money off of creative reuse of resources, building codes and local ordinances tend to be slanted against them. Few urban areas allow living in containers unless an expensive architecture firm has doodled pictures of them and hired a contractor to site and modify them. This apparently makes them design instead of garbage. The fact is that shipping containers are structurally sound with no modification stacked up to 12 high. Insulating them for heat and cold is wicked easy, too. Good luck getting the permits.