New respect for shipping containers. Have you ever stopped to think where old shipping containers go when they are retired from service? From humble utilitarian beginnings fifty years ago, the modern day shipping container is now evolving into a housing solution in dense urban environments where space and affordability are at a premium. They're also finding their way out to the countryside as cottages, and onto architect's desks where especially creative minds are finding new ways to improve on the simple "box". It's an idea that's been gaining momentum 
as a development alternative since 2000 when Container City was constructed in London England. According to the project's designers, Urban Space Management, "containers are an extremely flexible method of construction, being both modular in shape, extremely strong structurally and readily available. Container Cities offer an alternative solution to traditional space provision. " They are also environmentally friendly in the sense that most of the material used is recycled.
To date, shipping containers have been stacked into multi-level buildings, reconfigured as student housing, emergency housing, prisons, cottages, office space, temporary housing, and converted into modernist luxury homes such as De Maria Design's Redondo Beach Container House. According to The Daily Green, "Shipping containers can be readily modified with a range of creature comforts, and can be connected and stacked to create modular, efficient spaces for a fraction of the cost, labour, and resources of more conventional materials". You'll find some truly amazing examples of what can be done by visiting The Daily Green and The Fab Files.
While I haven't seen any similar homes around Orangeville, the backroads of Dufferin County, or 
stacked amongst the gleaming condo towers of Mississauga, as architects and municipal planners become more adventurous - perhaps there may soon come a day when I'll be listing my first shipping container and asking potential buyers to "think outside the box" so to speak. Thanks to Point2 Technologies for the idea. Photos courtesy of Wikipedia.
Check out the You Tube video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65C9OLvmjpI
Gary O'Brien
Sales Representative,
RE/MAX Real Estate Centre Inc., Brokerage
1-800-461-2686
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