Working out of containers

Containers are becoming a more common office for more and more workers.  But we mostly think about those offices on jobsite or other places where the offices are mobile.  Here are 2 examples of some more unusual offices:

World Rally containers have many uses

1)       Mobile rally car shop and mobile team headquarters.  The teams for the World Rally Championship use shipping containers as their shops, as well as other items they need for their hospitality teams when they get to their location.  They transport their marketing materials so they can create their own unique space at the rallies.

Each team has their own area which can move with them throughout the season.

Character Project container theater

2)      Theaters.  We have not one, but two examples of using containers as theaters.

USA’s Character Project has traveling storage containers that are modified to be a full movie theaters that are customized to fit the films they are showing.  They are screening 8 original short films in various cities throughout the country.

Cardiff is getting its own 40’ storage container theater for the play The Container.  It is a play that explores the journey of Somali and Afganistani refugees coming to the UK for asylum.  The container-theater is one component in bringing the story home to theatergoers.

3)      Radio station studio.  Radio Free Libya in Masrata has outfitted a container as a studio for guests who cannot come to the radio station’s offices for security reasons.

Containers are a great option for any mobile space.  They can be modified easily, moved easily and are flexible enough to turn into whatever you can imagine.

High-end Architecture Meets the Lowly Container

ECOTECH Design Mohave Container Home

Container architecture is hot!  And with good reason – containers provide a great, green building block for a building.  Using cargo containers that have already spent years shipping goods around the world are repurposed as the foundation to cool architecture.  Check out these project for some fun ideas for your own container project.

Here is a hybrid home in the Mojave Desert from ECOTECH Design – part modular, part customized, with green features like a living roof, solar power and other great green options:

HOME Contained Glassberg Container Home

Here is a beautiful home in Kansas City, designed by HOME Contained and Debbie Glassberg that really shows what great planning and great design coming together can do.

Check out the slide show for more details and great pictures of the project from initial jobsite to beautifully decorated home: http://www.flickr.com/photos/homecontained/show

Just keep in mind that architects designed these projects.  If you are building a home, you will need an architect or engineer the same way you would if you were building a traditional building.  The last thing you want is for your cool new home to collapse on you!

Fire Training Grounds

Fire Training Grounds

Fire departments around the country look for useful, safe, cost-effective ways to practice fire training.  One good, reusable option – containers.  The containers provide a steel structure that can easily be modified to recreate real life situations and the containers can be burned over and over again.  Fire departments can add on more containers over time to expand their training grounds.

Fire Training Building

One department that has been working on creating a safe way to practice is the Sylva Fire Department in Sylva, NC.  Sylva FD purchased two 20’s and two 40’ containers last summer and have created a training ground.  They have plans to expand these training grounds as funds and time permits, but in the meantime, they are off to a great start.  They shared these pictures with me so I could share them with other fire departments thinking of doing the same thing.

Fire training containers

Getting ready for another phase of fire training grounds

Containers – the perfect temporary building

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.

Farmers – What’s in your container?

As we have mentioned on this blog before, containers have an endless list of uses for farmers and land-owners.  If you haven’t thought it before, do you have any of these needs?  Spring is coming and no doubt you’ll be busier than ever.  Containers:

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.

Necessity – The Mother of Container Architecture

Containers are becoming the “it” thing in architecture these days, but sometimes it helps to take a step back to get a fresh perspective.  Sometimes that step back actually looking in an unlikely direction – Sudan.

Container Hotel Room

The Economist featured container architecture in a piece about Sudanese architecture this week.  As foreign correspondents have been flocking to the country for their vote for splitting the country in two, journalists naturally needed a place to sleep.  Enter storage containers.  In a country that has very difficult  roads, transporting building materials can be nearly impossible.  But the container provides a ready-made box to modify and make your own.  Perhaps instead of walking a mile in someone’s shoes, journalists just needed a couple of nights in a container hotel.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/baobab/2011/01/houses_sudan

These hotels, homes, stores and other structures may not have the “industrial-chic” look of fancy architecture, but they do perform a wide variety of functions at a reasonable cost for many people.  But is it comfortable? According to the author of the blog, he “spent New Year in his container and slept rather well.”

The Latest Celebrity – Containers

Disney's TRON home

Containers are making a splash in movies lately.  Sure, they have always been a great backdrop for dangerous encounters “down at the docks” for that renegade cop who is solving the latest mystery.  But lately, containers are coming more into their own.  The latest cameo is in TRON: Legacy.

Interior of Disney's TRON home

In TRON: Legacy, Sam Flynn, son of the creator of TRON, lives in a home made from containers.  Disney went with a distressed-industrial look for the home which opens up for a spectacular view of Vancouver for a critical conversation in the movie.  According to Jetson Green :

“The shipping container house style was chosen because [director Joseph Kosinski] and our production designer, Darren Gilford, couldn’t find a house for Sam Flynn in Vancouver with suitable architecture and as designers both were interested in retro-fitted shipping containers as living spaces”

20th Century Fox's A Team

It is nice to see container architecture getting a nod.  They are a great green option for unique building materials.

Containers were almost extras in 20^th Century Fox’s A-Team. After hijacking a container delivery, the team has to prove their innocence.  The finale is at the LA Port where the A Team uses containers in order to prove their innocence, but not before many containers are destroyed.

20th Century Fox's A Team

Even the small screen is getting in on the action.  On TNT’s Leverage, one episode was centered on tracking a container full of cash. (See link below)  Despite being safe storage options, particularly with the lockbox on the containers in this clip, Super Cubes does not recommend storing large quantities of cash in containers.

TNTs Leverage The Homecoming Job

Containers long have been a backdrop for movies, but it is nice to see they are finally getting their close-up.  I wonder how they would show up in a fluffy romantic comedy–maybe a couple on the run from the law will hide in a container used for farm storage or spend a weekend in a container home on the beach. When that happens, you’ll be sure to read about it here.

Farmers – Do you have a container yet?

Great year-round storage

Farmers, as a group, have some of the largest storage needs of everyone.  Equipment, livestock, feed, grain, not to mention all the other stuff and toys that seems to accumulate on a farm!  Containers are a great addition to a farm because they can grow with your needs.  Containers can:

• 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
• Be moved from location to location as your needs change
• Have holes sections out and put out in pastures as shade for livestock
• Provide the base for a root cellar or storm shelter

Can you ever have enough storage space?

The sky is the limit!  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.

Even storage for those out of the way places

Whether you have a large farm or just a hobby farm, we’re asking – What are you using containers for? How would you like to use one?  If you have one, did you modify yours?   Here’s a great chance to share with others.

Shrimp Farm in the Desert

Super Cubes is excited to be assisting with a prototype of a shrimp farm in Las Vegas.  While the brand name of the company is still being figured out, Super Cubes has provided specially modified containers to the farm location.  After 8 years of engineering, the farm is close to becoming a reality.

This week we went to see what a shrimp farm in the desert looks like!  Enjoy the pictures.

If you have a large project that involves modifications, we can help you too!

Containers make up the tanks

Getting the tanks ready

The great team that is making the farm happen!

Hunting Containers – For the hunter who has everything!

Camouflage your container

The weather is starting to change and hunters’ thoughts turn to opening day.  But what does the hunter who has everything really need?  More storage!  From basic storage for hunting gear and ATV’s to complete cabins, containers offer a wide variety of solutions.

A lockbox and tab are welded to the doors of your container for additional security.

Containers all-steel construction makes them a wind- and water-tight, insect- and rodent-proof, secure solution for storage.  Your ATV’s, boats, snowmobiles, hunting gear and other supplies will be dry and safe in a container.  Your stuff will be safe from pests large and small since insects, rodents, menacing teenagers and potential thieves can’t get past the steel, water-tight construction.  For additional security from potential intruders, add a lockbox for additional protection.  They protect your padlock from being cut off.

Make your container into a cabin

Take things one step further by modifying your container to act as a cabin.  Doors, windows, skylights, AC/heating units can all be added either before it is delivered or by you.  You can turn your container into your perfect hunting getaway.  You can go rustic with just the basics, or frame it in with electricity to make a snug retreat for all weather.  If you keep adding containers and/or kits, your container cabin can grow over time as well.

Skip over building or assembling a shed or cabin.  Have a container delivered right to your property and start using it right away.