Shipping Containers Blog

Yesterday we talked about shipping containers being used to provide accommodation for the Olympics – and by this I mean housing for either the athletes or the influx of tourists that 2012 is bound to bring.

I have been asked just how shipping containers could provide an answer when they are effectively just boxes!?

The fact that the containers themselves are made for industrial use means that they are extremely strong structurally and are in building block size being typically 20ft or 40ft long, 8ft wide and 8ft 6inches high.

If you imagine them as rather like a child’s building set then you can start to see them either joined to one another to create a series of rooms or stacked on top of each other to create lofts and multi storied buildings.

Put these within a rigid framework like the Travelodge in Uxbridge and you have an extremely flexible system that, with the addition of electricity, plumbing and heating mean that all of our modern day needs can be catered for.

If the industrial look of shipping containers does not appeal, then they can be clad in a huge variety of materials ranging from wood to render to suit the location of the elements.  Add windows, doors and maybe even balconies and the shipping containers are totally transformed.

There are examples of completed projects throughout the world.  From Container City in London – right in the centre of London’s Docklands which might be of special interest to our Olympic organizers – to housing projects in Australia.

Given the speed with which they can be set up, the relatively low impact on the surrounding environment – not to mention the green credentials of re-using an industrial product, there is a lot going for shipping containers that have been converted for use as accommodation.