Published on July 17th, 2009 | by veronicapeterson

Container Living: This Ain’t Your Grandma’s Mobile Home

Move over mobile homes, container living is here to stay.

Once confined to scrap metal yards or landfills, shipping containers are quickly becoming the darlings of the modern architectural world. Easily transportable, widely available and practically indestructible, these metal boxes just may be an answer to the worldwide housing crisis.

Container living isn't what you would expect

Oh, and they’re cheeeaaaap. A used container can be bought for around $2,000. Not bad, considering the average price of a house in California has just surpassed $400k. With such affordable pricing, architects and designers have had ample room to experiment, resulting in much nicer and more forward-thinking designs than the dissected mobile homes once traveling the US highways.

Container homes may be the answer to the worldwide housing crisis

Architect Adam Kalkin has received much notoriety for the high design of his Quick Houses. Based around the construction of five shipping containers and coming in at a cost of just $100 per square foot, multiple floor plans are available for customization boasting many of today’s modern appetencies; stainless steel kitchens, wood floors, and walk-in closets.

Even big business is jumping on the bandwagon. Hospitality giant Travel Lodge has recently finished construction on a 100 room hotel made by cleverly fitting 88 recycled shipping containers together. The Uxbridge, England building cost much less and was finished more quickly than new construction.

A container can be purchased for about $2000

Although in truth there are a finite number of containers available for recycling, that number is in the millions, making container construction a viable alternative in worldwide building. Looks like we may all be sleeping in a box sooner than we thought.