BNIM Container Home

We are very excited today to have a guest author to the Saner Container.  This author not only lives in a container home, he has shown it to the world on MTV’s “Cribs”.  Sam Glassberg presented his home on “Cribs”, showing off the versatility and eco-friendly aspects of their shipping container home.  Now he has shared some of his experiences with the Saner Container.

As a film and television student, being on a real television show was probably one of the most rewarding experiences of my entire life. It was also created one of the most awkward experiences of my entire life when a complete stranger came up to me in my college’s dining hall and said “I saw you on Cribs. I really liked your house”. Awkward for me because, well, I think that would be pretty awkward for anybody, but also amazing because I realized that people I don’t even know and didn’t tell to watch (probably the most I’ve tweeted or facebooked in my entire life) appreciate what my mom created.

I live in a house made of shipping containers. Weird. It’s a bit like a circus at times with the amount of people stopping to look at it on the street, and the amount of tours I’ve had to give, but I really love it. At first the idea seemed a bit crazy, but now it’s bizarrely normal. The house is composed of concrete, 5 shipping containers, glass, and metal and is truly a work of modern architecture. With geothermal heating, passive solar heating and lighting, and other recycled materials it’s also a house that gives back to the environment. It’s a structure to be envied by all, and luckily for those who envy it, it will soon be available for everybody to have.

Living room dining room and hall

In collaboration with local Kansas City architecture firm BNIM, my mother has begun creating new living, working, and retail spaces that will be available and affordable for nearly anybody. While my house is perfect in my eyes, new designs and configurations of this prefab design are going to be released in many different forms. It’s bespoke living. Studio apartments, dorm rooms, vegan restaurants, and boutique hotels are all ideas my mom had that are about to become a reality. If you can dream it, Debbie Glassberg and BNIM can build it.

For pictures and more information on Sam’s house, check out some of these links, pictures – and of course the MTV video:

KMBC, Kansas City’s ABC affiliate, ran a series on the Glassberg’s home. Follow their home being built:

KMBC – 1st story
http://www.kmbc.com/news/18414304/detail.html

KMBC – 2nd story
http://www.kmbc.com/news/20004971/detail.html

KMBC – 3rd story
http://www.kmbc.com/news/23860045/detail.html

KMBC slideshow
http://www.kmbc.com/slideshow/news/23858878/detail.html

Exterior

Den

Kitchen

Bedroom

Camoflaged 20'

You have used containers at work or during building a home.  You love to hunt.  You don’t have a cabin on your land.  Enter – the connex box.  Drop a container on your land, add in a door and some windows and you have a perfect hunting retreat.  Whether it is just a basic spot to base camp, or a complete man-cave, conex boxes offer all the flexibility and ruggedness to be a perfect hunting cabin.

You can insulate them, add in heat (or cooling, or both), add in features that make the cabin perfect for you.  It might be the ultimate get-away cabin for the guys or it might be a snug, welcoming place to bring your kids and grandchildren to teach them how to hunt.

Here is a series of my new favorite hunting cabin.  I got these by email from a colleague.  If you know anything more about this cabin, please let me know!

It starts with 2 used containers

Seal up between the containers

Archway in the living room

Use cut outs as overhang

Interior work

More interior work

Living room and bedrooms

Living room and kitchen

Finished Exterior

Refrigerator 40' container

So you want a container.  You know it needs to be insulated, but what exactly will fit your needs?  Containers come in two styles – standard shipping container and refrigerator (reefer) containers.  Here are some general rules of thumb that might be helpful.

1)      Refrigerator containers are ideal when you need to store items at a particular temperature year round and you have a power source to run the container.  They are considerably more expensive than standard containers, which may play a role in your decision-making.

Inside refrigerator container

2)      If you are storing general items, the standard containers are great.  Standard containers are used around the world, year round for transporting the vast majority goods manufactured year round.

3)      If you are modifying the container, standard containers are much preferred to refrigerator containers.  Refrigerator containers have loose insulation between two walls, which makes modifications a huge headache.  Also, if you are using the container for living space, you will be very disappointed with a refrigerator container floor.  They are grooved to drain any liquid away from items being stored.  While that is great if the container isn’t plugged in and you are storing ice cream.  It is not as great if you want to live in the container.

Inside used 40'

One other consideration for those who are modifying containers – if you plan on adding electricity or plumbing, you will want to insulate the container once you have added those and done all your modifications.

If you still have questions about which is the right one for you, please call us and we can discuss your needs further.

Inside a Double-door 40'

Standard ISO shipping containers come with two swing doors on one short end of the container.  But that doesn’t work for everyone.  Today, we are going to cover some different options you have when purchasing containers.

1)      Double-door containers.  These are containers with standard swing doors on both ends of the container.  Because these are not as common and are so useful, they are generally only available as “one-trip” containers, meaning they are manufactured in Asia, make one trip to the US and then sold to you.  Since they are one-trip containers, they are freshly painted, have no markings and are a great option.  But they are also more expensive.

Open-roll-up door on container

2)     Roll-up doors.  If you want a used container and need the access, but not the price tag, consider adding a roll-up door on the opposite end.  Roll-ups can be added either to the end of the sides of containers to add extra access to the container.  The only place we do not recommend putting it is where the original doors are located.  Those doors are connected into the corner posts that support the container, so you do not want to mess with that.  You can have the door added on before it comes out to you, or use a kit to add the door on yourself.  You get the same access at usually half the price.

3)      Personnel –doors.  So you don’t need a full roll-up, or you just don’t want to deal with bigger doors.  Maybe a personnel door is the right option for you.  Like roll-up doors, these can be added on before you get it or by a kit where you add on the door yourself.  This is great option if you are going to be going in and out of the container often and want to have access just like you would to a building.

Man-door on container

4)      Open-side containers.  These great containers are only available in 20′ long, one-trip containers.  They feature doors that open on the 20′ side of the container.  These are a great option for retail containers, industrial applications and so much more.  But they also come with a pretty large price tag.

5)  Open-top containers.  These are a great option if you have to load the container from above.  They come with a tarp to function as the roof.  So these, are for those people who simply need to have this design, but it is not ideal for the person who wants a nice, basic container.

Containers are so flexible.  Even if they don’t come the way you want them, they can easily be changed to fit your needs.  We can help you add doors, windows, etc. so that it works for you, just the way you want, or we can help you to do it yourself.

20' Open side

Open-top 40' container

CargoBar - A container bar

According to Stuff.co.nz, storage containers have been used in the “Restart the Heart” program to reopen retail shops destroyed in the city’s earthquake.  Containers were used for various retail shops, including clothing, a wine store, a café and bar.

CaffeineLaboratory - a container cafe

Rather than plunking down containers, the group has used brought in Christchurch architects from the Australasian Buchan Group to create unique configurations to suit the needs of the shops.  In addition,

containers have been used to prop up buildings, including the cathedral and for various offices, homes, etc.

Also, a group is creating art on and over containers, seeing them at a large canvas new to the city.

TheVillageGrape - a cargo wine shop

For more information, check out the coverage from Stuff and 3 News.

Container artwork in Christchurch, New Zealand

Containers with a roof between them

1) Container Barn. For this barn, you get two different types of storage – indoor storage inside containers and a covered area between the containers.  You place two containers down with space between them.  Install a roof between the two containers.  You have wind and water tight, insect and rodent-proof storage inside the containers and a covered area for equipment that you want to keep snow and rain from damaging.  You can also use the area under the roof for doing work when the weather is not cooperating with you.

2) Hay/feed/manure storage. Store hay bales, feed or manure in storage containers.  Since they are wind and water tight as well as insect and rodent proof, they are a great way to keep what you want in inside the container and what you want out can’t get in there.

Great extra storage for equipment, feed, etc.

3) Equipment storage. Do you have some equipment that just doesn’t fit in your other buildings?  Put it in a container.  You can even add roll-up doors on the container for access from multiple sides of the container.

4) Lean-to. So your container isn’t so new looking any more.  You teenager ran some equipment into it and now it isn’t as water-tight as when you got it.  But you know there is still some life left in it.  Cut and finish off larger openings in the container and set it next to a pole barn or other building.  You may have to do a little reinforcing to make sure the roof is still sturdy, but the container can still provide some shaded storage area, without actually leaning into your exising building.

A cut up container provides additional storage attached to existing building

Containers can be moved around so you can keep changing how you use them to fit your changing needs.  The 20’s weight 5,000 pounds and the 40’s just under 10,000 pounds, so you can drag them around with your existing equipment if you have some chains to attach to the container.  They can easily be modified with extra doors for easier access as well.

Office interior

Here are 4 things to think about when planning your office container:
1.  How do you want to use the space?  Think about how many rooms you will need and what configuration will work best for your needs.

2.  What modifications will you need for your office?  Some typical modifications are: doors (service doors and roll-up doors), windows, partitions, HVAC, insulation/paneling.  Do you have any special modifications, such as specialty flooring, venting, etc?

AC Kit with cage

3.  Who do you want to do the modifications?  If you can weld, you can do a large amount of the modifications yourself.  If you don’t weld, think about having some of the modifications done for you.

4. What about electricity and plumbing?  You will probably need electricity to run office equipment.  Depending on your location, you may also need to provide plumbing.  Think about when will be the best time to add that into your modifications.  Sometimes it is easier to have the basic modifications done for you, then have an electrician and plumber come in before insulating and finishing the container.

Epoxy floor with drains and service door

Container offices can be as simple or as elaborate as you want or need them to be.  Check out our other postings on our blog for ideas on the kinds of modifications others have done either by clicking through the topics on the right side of this page or just scrolling through.  You might find a great solution to your office needs.

40' office and storage

La Boite cafe at sunset

Containers move.  Containers make great, green, building blocks.  But what about containers making great, gree building blocks that move?  Well, for those of you who want to take your container building on the road, we have some ideas for you!

La Boite's open design

Container Café

Austin, TX is known for doing things their own way and food trailers, enter a great combination of both – La Boite café.  It is a movable restaurant made from a 20’ container.  The café incorporates green practices, down to the spray insulation in the container.  Not only is it a fun, clean design, they have really maximized the space available to them to make an inviting café.  Check out these links for pictures of how they made the café, what it looks like now and more information on the spray insulation.  Spray insulation is a great option when using building with containers.  The insulation can get into the corrugation to provide extra insulation throughout and is also a great way to control the r-factor of the insulation without having to give up interior space in the container.

Micro-living

Cargotecture in Menlo Park

HyBrid Architecture’s Cargotecture series is a wonderful example of micro-living.  Bringing designs down to smaller sized structures idea for remote areas such as cabins, backyard retreats or offices or anywhere you want to have a temporary or permanent structure.  They were recently in the news for partnering up with Sunset to become Sunset’s Cargotecture^® home.  HyBrid is really doing things right with these efficient designs that can are mobile, easy to install and come in a range of sizes to fit various budgets and needs.

Mobile Wildlife Clinic

Dwyer Technical Services designed a wildlife heath care for Massey University.  The unit is made from a 40’ container and is a mobile unit that can move to where oil spills affect wildlife.  The mobility allows experts to reach wildlife quickly and onsite, making it that much easier to help animals in need.  Dwyer Technical Services announced  their first international export – to Maritime New Zealand, where a similar unit will help Australian wildlife.

Eco-Restaurant Greenhouse by Joost

Containers provide a secure, easy way to install a temporary building just about anywhere.  They are easy to modify to personalize to your needs.  Some uses include:

• Temporary, ground-level offices
• Cabin
• Hunting lodge
• Restaurant (see here)
• Portable retail space
• Temporary housing
  

  Quick, easy building

• Hotels
• Workshop
• Tool Crib
• Artist studio
• Any time you need a roof over your head – quickly.

Container buildings can be as fancy or as basic as you want.  Currently they are a popular, green building material in the architectural world.  But they can also be as basic is throwing a door and window on a container and calling it the office.

A couple of things to think about while you plan

Large shop made with containers stacked 2-high to accomodate trucks and containers

1)      Do you need an architect or engineer? If this is housing and you are removing large portions of the container or you are stacking modified containers, then YES.  Don’t risk it, make sure your plan will work once you pull that wall off the container and avoid disaster.  If you are living in the container, you will still need electricity, plumbing and all the other features you expect from a tradition building.  That takes some know-how.

2)      To insulate or buy insulated? As a general rule of thumb, only get an insulated container if you are using it to keep something at a steady temperature.  If you are modifying it, get a non-insulated container.  Insulated containers are expensive and very hard to modify.  Save your wallet and a headache by modifying a standard container and insulating once that is done.  Don’t forget to insulate the flooring and roof!

Inside the shop

3)      Modify yourself or have someone else do it? If you can weld, doing some easy modifications yourself is a great way to save money.  Use container modification kits to add doors, windows, skylights, AC/Heat or other basic additions.  If you have more complicated modifications – taking out container walls and adding in extra support, adding in industrial flooring, etc – bring in the pros.  These are headaches or possible structural problems you don’t want to handle on your own.  Have a container shop take care of doing that for you.

You are only limited by your imagination – and the laws of physics – in coming up with the container building of your dreams.

Storage in and near containers

• Provide insect- and rodent-proof storage for hay and grain
• Provide dry storage for equipment
• Offer extra storage space without the hassle of getting another building approved for your property
• Can be moved from location to location as your needs change
• Provide shade for livestock if you cut out holes or sections in the walls
• Provide the base for a root cellar or storm shelter
• Store flammables away from other items
• Provide temporary sow barn during farrowing.

Great, dry storage

Wind and water tight containers provide a unique solution to keep items free from pests and moisture and those larger nuisances – like trespassers, pesky teenagers, etc.  And they are fairly indestructible!

However, if you want to cut them up, they can be great options for outbuildings, hunting cabins, etc without all the fuss of getting permits.  Modify them with a kit to add in doors, windows, or pretty much anything else you would want to add to a container.