Cargotecture – Shipping (Cargo) Containers Repurposed
Filed Under: Susatainable Living on June 28, 2009
You’ve undoubtedly seen or heard about shipping cargo containers being made into homes and cabins. The phenomenon is called “cargotecture” and it’s becoming quite popular. It’s one great purpose that abandoned cargo containers can be used for.
Several companies are popping up around the globe, especially in the U.S. on the west coast, to offer custom transformation services, converting these cargo containers into homes and getaway cabins. Many people are going do-it-yourself and repurposing them on their own.
The containers are infinitely useful and modular and extremely strong. They’re weather-proof, require no permanent foundation to keep them sturdy, and have built-in connectors that can be used to attach one to another. They’re made to be moved, so transportation from one point to another for use is also not difficult.
In the United States, there are over 700,000 cargo containers abandoned each year, according to Department of Transportation estimates. Mostly in shipping ports on the coasts. These need to be used for something.
Most often, once the port authority has seized control of the container, it is sold or auctioned off. Once it has cleared Customs inspections or been returned to the port from the receiver, a cargo container is held for a specified number of days (depending on the port) and then is considered abandoned if not claimed within that time.
Most of these containers are sold to other shipping companies, who will use them for shipping, of course. Often, however, a growing number enter the new cottage industry of cargo container re-sales to the public. Here they will be sold, leased, or rented to consumers and small businesses as temporary garages, portable sheds, and transportable cargo containers for private use.
When looking at cargo containers, there are usually 3 sizes: 1200, 480, and 320. These numbers refer to the cubic feet of space inside the container. A 1200, for instance, will be about ten feet wide, eleven and a half feet high, and 48 feet long on the outside. A 480 is roughly half that in length and a 320 (which are uncommon) will be slightly smaller than that.
Probably the easiest repurpose of a used cargo container is as a portable or semi-permanent storage locker. They are extremely secure and hard to break into, making them relatively safe storage vaults for tools and small machinery. This is undoubtedly the most common repurpose for a shipping container.
More exotic uses, of course, are full-on cargotecture where a shipping container is transformed into a home or cabin. Holes are cut into the container to accommodate windows, fixtures, etc. and the doors are modified to make for easier entrance or are fixed in the open position to be used as side walls for a porch.
Numerous creative uses in this regard have been done and many of the final products are hardly recognizable as a cargo container to start with.
If anyone can get me a cargo container for use here at my home in Wyoming, I’ve been dreaming of transforming one into a workshop and would love to do a DIY series on the transform. I live near the railroad and can drive a big truck to deliver it myself, if that helps. Let me know!
Funny, I was just looking into the same thing. Here are a few sites that might be of interest to you or not…
http://www.barkbark.ca/projects_atc_photos.html
http://www.shipping-container-housing.com/
http://home.comcast.net/~plutarch/
I plan on welding two 20′s together and burying them underground. One reason is of course security, other reason is long as there is three feet of dirt on top of your house it stays between 67-73 degrees all year round. One 20 up above for a “log cabin” of sorts, much like the one above but I’d have to paint it brown; that orange is just not doing it for me. Of course this would all be silly if I didn’t have land to put in on first, so that’s first on my agenda.
Awesome, thanks! My first plan is to put one out as a shop, as I said. I have a friend in northern Wyoming who’s got a farm and plans to put several containers out there, including one as you’ve described (underground). Someday in the future, I will also be burying a large refrigerator or similar insulated box-like unit as a root cellar. I read a DIY once where the guy tore the engine, axles, etc. off of an old ice cream truck and buried it nose-first and installed an entry way into the back of it.
Anyway, thanks for the info and good luck with your plans! Let me know how it goes. One final note: you don’t need much land to do all this stuff. If you do want land, though, it’s pretty cheap here in Wyoming. ;)
…glad I could help. I’m looking for at least 5 acres somewhere in eastern/southern Missouri or northern Arkansas. 7 acres would be better, 10 being the best. This site is the most legitimate I’ve found concerning the matter; some of them even come with a well… http://ozarkland.com/ I’ve been to Wyoming once at a Rainbow gathering, beautiful country up there, but I’m not sure about crop growing conditions or the need to be close to lakes/streams for fishing. I wish you well.
Thanks. I chose Wyoming because it’s not very populated, has good politics, isn’t in debt or likely to become so, and has abundant natural resources. The soil is not bad, actually, and with a little care will grow most useful plants. Especially on the eastern and northern ends of the state. There are a lot of rivers, small reservoirs, and streams around if you look for them. In addition, the water aquifers are fairly high and thus easily access via wells.
All of that said, though, Wyoming isn’t for everyone. If you don’t do well in harsh winters, can’t stand high winds, and need cities or population centers and all their amenities, then this is not the place for you. Cheyenne is the largest city in the state and it’s only got 57,000 people in it.
Good luck in your area. It’s beautiful down there if you can stand the mugginess and the heat. haha :)
Hi Aaron,
While I appreciate you informing so many people about these projects, please give photo and design credit to the images you have used from our website.
The upper image is from our website but is actually our wood modular apartment, and is not cargotecture.
The orange studio 320 in one of your other photos was designed and built by our firm in 2004 and is a popular model.
Cargotecture by the way is a registered trademark by HyBrid since 2004 when I registered it. I coined it a year before, in 2003.
Thanks,
Joel
Those pictures ARE links to your site.