There isn’t much that can’t be done with a second-hand shipping container; they provide the structural integrity required by load-bearing projects such as multistory dwellings and swimming pools. These steel boxes effortlessly withstand vertical and horizontal forces. Second-hand shipping containers make for an ideal sustainable infrastructure resource: they’re Eco-friendly and sturdy. These versatile boxes can be stacked, much like wooden blocks, and are easily transformed into breathtaking office spaces, chic bars, and public libraries.
- Container Home
Container homes are losing the stigma of being lowbrow, much like folk art. Moreover, dwellings are the quintessential shipping container project. These structures are almost impenetrable, like a fort, and present the designer with unlimited arrangement options. However, low cost and sustainability are misguided motivations for crafting a second-hand container home: it may be costlier to properly transform a shipping container into a living space. However, these tin-can homes provide unsurpassed passive security. Arguably, passive security and art inspire the creation of a container home. These homes are undeniably inhabitable art.
- Agricultural Uses
Second-hand shipping containers allow for the cultivation of agricultural products in the harshest of environments. According to Growtainer.com, conex boxes are the “production facility of the future.” These containers may be modified for hydroponic cultivation of a variety of goods, even in a perpetually frozen landscape – insulating the grow chamber to maintain a constant temperature allows for year-round cultivation. Moreover, companies such as Arctic Greens utilize modular boxes to provide an uninterrupted food source in Alaska’s Kotzebue, a region that possesses a yearly average of 27 degrees. “[Second-hand shipping containers] provide a constant food source in an environment that can be less than friendly to gardens,” according to the Goipma.com.
- Container Pool
Second-hand container pools transform pool ownership from brazen to conscientious. “The traditional pool is a symbol of excess and waste. This is a little more modern, more modest. [Re-purposed shipping containers pools] can be resold, and you can take it with you if you move (The Pacific Sun).” The crafty individual can construct a shipping container pool with some ingenuity and a blow-torch. According to Modpools.com, shipping containers provide the structural rigidity to create a portable pool. Water exerts a great deal of pressure on anything that attempts to contain it, and most materials aren’t capable of handling the pressure, however, shipping containers possess the fortitude to hold thousands of gallons of water. Moreover, new technologies in 3D printing allow for making custom pool liners.
Whether you plan to create a house, hydroponic grow chamber or portable pool, second-hand shipping containers afford the fortitude and versatility to meet your needs. Through shipping containers, horticulturists no longer need to worry about extreme or fluctuating climates. Pool ownership becomes an attainable reality and a house becomes inhabitable art.