Container stuff

Containers have long fascinated me in their function, standardization and strength. For the last 25 yrs I've been intrigued about using them in different ways, some obvious, some not-so, I've drawn dozens of house, apartment, shelter and dormitory/hotel type dwellings.

The standard 20' or 40' sea container is one of the most ubiquitous objects seen daily all around the world and is responsible for revolutionizing global trade of everything we use in home and work.

Capacities of 14,000 containers on one ship are now common making the turnaround speed, efficiency and cargo safety using containers improved by orders of magnitude from the old crane and net style of loading and unloading ships. The nature of the container shipping business has meant that usually in a given year, more containers come into the US than leave, it isn't always financially viable for a ship to carry empty containers back to Asia leaving a glut of empty boxes here in the US.

Once they reach their useful life of about 8-10 years on the high seas they can be bought cheaply. For a life after shipping when you look at the gross capacity of a 40ft box including cargo of 62,000 lb (28,000 kg) they can be stacked 8 high on ships, that means the bottom container in a stack can have up to 434,000 lb , almost 200 tons, stacked on top of it. This gives you some example of the enormous strength of sea containers and even when they have had 10 yrs on the high seas, they can still be stronger as a unit than most houses. They are termite proof, inherently fire resistant, have greater shear levels in earthquakes than most houses and are 100% recyclable made from high quality carbon steel and hardwood insect and mould resistant flooring.