Shipping Containers Blog

Archive for the ‘Shipping Container Conversions’ Category

A shipping container made into a helicopter?   Surely that has to be one of the most amazing shipping container conversions ever?   If it is true?   We are currently arguing within the office whether this is a spoof or not and if any of you have any ideas after watching the You Tube video embedded here we would grateful for your input.   Is this really a genuine use of a used shipping container or not?

Whatever your thoughts, it is certainly a great video to watch.   Long live shipping containers!!

SHIPPING CONTAINERS ARE USED AS CLASSROOMS IN AFRICA
CS Shipping Containers are supplying Computers 4 Africa with shipping containers that can be converted into classrooms equipped with computers to give IT skills to people in Africa.  Sharon Roberts from Computers 4 Africa said “We are delighted to have this opportunity to be working with CS Shipping Containers”.

CLASSROOM IN A CONTAINER
A major fund-raising campaign has seen over 18 shipping containers being delivered in the last fortnight to the Computers 4 Africa bases in Sheffield and Scotland where they will be converted into classrooms. The second hand shipping containers are a mixture of 20ft and 40ft sizes and will have desks fitted with donated computers, laptops and IT equipment.   The corten steel construction of a shipping container means that they are ideal for classrooms as they are strong and secure as well as weatherproof – and, of course, shipping containers can be cheaply shipped and easily transported on by road.

Shippng Containers Housing Computers 4 Africa

Shipping Container Conversions are extremely varied and in this case unusual as a 20ft shipping container was converted to train people how to deal with crawling through dark and confined spaces.   Catalis are running a course to train individuals working for institutions such as the Water Board to deal with the conditions that they would experience in say, entering the sewage system or large water pipes in cases of emergency or maintenance.

Contained Space Container

The converted container made from a new/once used container is sited at Wandsworth near to the railway where Catalis holds its training sessions.   As the course progresses, the trainees are lowered, via a winch, from the roof  into the tunnel system within the container.  The dark and confined space gives realistic training and can accommodate the use of additional aids such as breathing apparatus.

Winch to lower down trainees into the 20ft container

Shipping Containers with their strong corten steel construction lend themselves to many different - and often bespoke - conversions.   Contained, or as they are sometimes known, Confined Space Containers have multiple applications and are often utilised by the fire brigade, oil companies, submariners and even bomb disposal teams as part of their training regime.   The system of tunnels within the container can replicate or be designed individually for the customer’s needs.

Schools often have  a tight budget and shipping containers can prove to be an economic solution.  The fact that shipping containers are made from strong, weather resistant corten steel make them ideal for a number of purposes.   Add to this that they are by their very construction extremely strong and secure, as well as easily transportable they are ideally suited for the school environment.

The eight most popular uses for shipping containers in Schools are:-

1. Providing additional storage for items such as chairs, sports equipment etc in all sizes from 10ft to 40ft
2. Shipping Container Conversions can make great classrooms at about a third of the cost of traditional buiding methods
3. Changing rooms can be made from 20ft containers and sited next to the sports field
4. Cycle stores made from used containers
5. Insulated shipping containers are often used to house musical instruments and additional computer equipment
6. Recycling/rubbish collection areas
7. After school clubs/common rooms can be made as a shipping container conversion and are frequently sited in the school car parking area
8. Chemical stores made from 10ft shipping containers

There are, of course, special considerations to be taken into account when buying and siting a shipping container in school grounds.   Not least of these is the need for health and safety which is why it is often worth asking the supplier of the container to deliver it at a time to suit the school timetable.   Most will be able to offer time slots early in the morning before the students arrive or whilst lessons are going on.  

20ft shipping container conversion

There has been a rise in the number of people that use shipping containers to make houses and other community buildings.   Architects have started designing more projects that rely on shipping container conversions for prestigious sites.

But why should you choose a shipping container as the basis for your building?

1. Shipping Containers are readily available with over a million being released by shipping lines each year
2. They are ecologically friendly - you would be giving something that is essentially an industrial waste product a new lease of life
3. Shipping containers are weather resistant being made out of corten steel and having water resistant seams and 27mm marine plywood floors
4. They can be quickly assembled on site
5. 20ft and 40ft shipping containers can be combined to make larger units quickly and easily
6. They are structurally very strong - shipping containers are used to support concrete bridges in states such as Utah
7. Shipping Container conversions can used other recycled materials such as windows and doors
8. The containers have a good fire resistance rating
9. The fact that containers are designed for transportation means that they are easy to get onto most sites
10. On average a shipping container home is 20-50% cheaper than a conventional construction project

In our next post we will look at some shipping container building projects to see just how well containers can be converted and how visually appealing they can be.

Last September an exhibition made using shipping containers called “The Journey” was opened in Trafalgar Square.   This month this same exhibition opens in the US.  

Co-curated by actress Emma Thompson brings the reality of sex-trafficking to public attention.   Each of the seven shipping containers shows a different aspect of the life of Elena, a moldovan girl, sold into the sex trade when she was 19.

Shipping Containers are used to house the installation called "The Journey"

 The first shipping container is called Hopes, Dreams and Aspirations and shows the naivity of Elena and how she believed the promises of a good job as a receptionist in the UK.   From there a dark container filled with repetitive sounds speaks about the monotony and the violence of the journey to England.   A third container is called “Uniform” and projects the viewers face onto the bodies of prostitutes to show the lack of identity of sex workers.   The bedroom or workplace is featured in the fourth shipping container and the main focal bed is a filthy bed which pulses up and down.   The next container is a clean, neutral space with photographs of  people and represents “the customer”.  A sculpture is in the sixth container which is entitled the void that leads on the seventh and final container called “Language” in which Elena’s voice is played telling her story and that of other trafficked victims. 

Emma Thompson met Elena through the Helen Bamber charity of which she is Chairman.  “The Journey”  says Emma Thompson,  contains a message of hope. “It reveals — as I have learned from Elena and other survivors — the extraordinary resilience of the human spirit. It shows how, with support and care, these courageous women can rebuild their lives”.

This shipping container conversion project was to consist of 7 second hand 20ft containers joined together to make a large “community centre” in Chiswick.

It is perhaps easiest to think of shipping containers as pieces of lego that can have sides removed and be welded together in order to make a larger building.   When planning this there are several points to bear in mind, not least of which is to balance up using new shipping containers over used containers.   Whilst second hand containers have the advantage of being more ecologically friendly, it is often more difficult and therefore more expensive, to find a large number have the same specifcation.  Essentially what this actually means is that they are built so that the top rails and floor bearers match and so can be married up successfully so that there are no obvious joins.  In new containers, this is not a problem because they tend to be all shipped together in a batch and therefore have identical build specification.

multi-container-build

There are many types of shipping container conversions.   Shipping Containers themselves, whether new or second hand containers, lend themselves to many projects large or small.  Their shape, and the fact that they are made of weather resistant corten steel, mean that they are very versatile and can be built up in blocks to many different configurations.    But how do you start planning such a project?

At the beginning of this year CS Shipping Containers were contacted by Chiswick Horticultural Association to quote - and then to build - a community centre which would be made out of seven second hand 20ft shipping containers.   It was to consist of a large open plan space with seperate areas for a kitchen and toilets.

But how do you go from a bare site, then groundworks as pictured above to having a completed project?

This series of posts will follow the progress of the project from when we received the order, the conversion of the individual units at the fabrication plant where the insulation, lighting and heating, toilets and kitchen were put into the shipping containers, the delivery and craning of the units onto the site, and the assembly itself.

For those planning multi-container conversions, this should give a better idea of what is involved.  They will compare the merits of using new shipping containers to used shipping containers, the ways in which containers can be got onto a site with restricted access, as well as general points to consider when planning a conversion.

Depending on what is to be stored in the containers the shipping container can be adapted specifically for purpose.   For example, should the chemicals be in easily handled, the chemical store can have the cheaper option of a bunded floor.  However, should the chemicals/hazardous goods be in large barrels then a sub floor sump can be put in.   There is the option of metal shelving, additonal insulation and ventilation - all of which can be put in according to the specific requirements.  Sizes range from 8ft to 40ft.

The addition of a lock cowl or lock box, together with a heavy duty, high security padlock makes the chemical store/agricultural store extremely safe from non-authorised access.   This gives flexibility as to where the store is to be sited.

chemical store with sump

chemical store with bund

How on earth can a shipping container be of use at any of the many festivals going on in the UK this Summer?  Perhaps unsurprisingly, it is the fact that shipping containers are so easily transportable and adaptable, which has meant that they have been used in a variety of different ways from Glastonbury to the Game Fair.

Perhaps the most obvious way in which they are used is in the form of refrigerated shipping containers.   The fact that goods, such as drinks or food can be kept in the temperature controlled environment of a refrigerated container which can be run either from a generator or connected to an electricity supply means that they are in great demand.   They are available for hire or for purchase.

Shipping Container Conversions such as those use to house cashpoints are also extremely popular.  As well as containers converted into stands or bars.  The coffee shop here is taken round the various festivals in Italy, although there are plans to build some in the UK.

Shipping container coffee shop closed

But of course, the most common use is as storage containers.   Keeping stock secure yet easily accessible  is vital both when travelling or when the stand at the festival is set up when the container becomes a store room.

These are just some of the ways in which you might see a shipping container used should you visit a Festival this year.   Let us know if you see any more - and send us a photograph!