Shipping Container Living

Shipping container living has long been popular for its affordability, sustainability, and small impact. I've always liked the idea of minimalistic living, so with this tiny home, I offered my own take on a shipping container home.

One of my priorities with this home was rapid construction, which I hope will make the design applicable in scenarios like disaster response or homeless crises, providing a quick home for displaced families.

The house itself was designed as to utilize the standard 20 x 8 x 9 ft shipping container, and can comfortably house up to 4 people in any condition. Inspired by the sustainable nature of recycling shipping containers, some of the design's most notable features include a rainwater collection system that feeds a planter, and renewable solar energy source.

Build Materials:

1. 3D Printer
2. Toothpicks
3. Popsicle Sticks
4. Tinfoil
5. Optional Home Depot Tile Sample Pamphlet

Build Tools

1. Precision Knife
2. Dremel (for Popsicle Sticks)
3. Hot Glue
4. Tape
5. Ruler
6. Cutting Mat
7. Sharpie and Acrylic Paint

The floorplan was largely constrained by the shipping container's dimensions in relation to the furniture I wanted to include.

When I started designing, I knew I wanted a separate wet-room bathroom, with a toilet, sink, and shower. The only practical placement of this room would be at the end of the container, opposite of the front door, so that was placed first. I added a thin wall to separate this wet-room from the rest of the living space. The bathroom ended up roughly 5 x 6.5 ft., leaving me with roughly 92 square feet to place the other essentials.

After making a list of all of the other amenities I wanted the home to have, I found the average dimension of each appliance/furnishing, and roughly modeled them in CAD to experiment with different layouts.

Inspired by the floorplans of RVs, I ended up with the final draft, starting with a small kitchen in the corner bordering the bathroom, an open living space with a couch, a lofted bunk bed, and finally, finishing details like a cabinet and shelf. I chose to create a sunken entry step as a substitute for the mud room in larger houses, creating a space to leave shoes and other dirty items from the outside.

The corner shelf serves a double purpose as the ladder to access the lofted bed, and if the family has a pet, the expanded lower shelf is the perfect place to place a dog bed.

After placing the furniture, I also wanted the house to have some natural light, so I added two windows; one smaller above the kitchen sink, and another larger one in the living area. Their dimensions (width) were determined by the slots in the exterior wall of the shipping container, making their addition easier as the container comes with guidelines for their cutting.

The physical model was constructed as a 1- 42 replica of the actual design. After modelling and 3D printing the shipping container, I painted the model blue. Next, I cut and glued down popsicle sticks to create the floorboards. Finally, I took my Home Depot tile sample pamphlets, cutting out and securing "wallpapers" of the materials I wanted to line the walls of the home.

After the shipping container shell was prepared, I printed my furniture models to the same scale, and used hot glue to secure the down according to the floor plan established in CAD. For certain pieces like the cabinet, which I wanted to have wood accents, or the bed frame, which I couldn't make with good quality on the printer, I used toothpicks and hot glue to frame the furniture. In hindsight, I probably should've picked a different adhesive, as the process of removing the hot glue strings was tedious, and probably the most frustrating part of the build.

Next, I printed the roof files and wrapped in tinfoil to give the impression of a sheet-metal roof. I didn't use any adhesive, simply friction fitting in place, as I wanted to be able to remove the roof to get an interior view of the build. For finishing touches, I made the planter out of popsicle sticks, added some piping to simulate a rainwater collection system I'd planned for, and added a placeholder for a solar panel.

To finish the architectural model, I printed the base that everything would sit on.

Like I mentioned in the introduction, I envision this home being able to be built quickly, in almost any terrain, providing emergency housing for any scenario - short to long term.

This is an idealized sample construction calender I came up with:

Day 1:

1. Prepare the land, and pour the concrete base/foundation.
2. At the same time, the container insulation can be prepared with expanding spray foam.
3. (Optionally, if container is intended for longer-term residency, holes for windows and/or AC would be cut out on this day; this step may be omitted in emergency situations requiring urgent housing)

Day 2:

1. Lower the container into place on the concrete base and secure.
2. Connect the structure to water and electricity; If unavailable, the container may function independently off rainwater collection with some filtration system and solar panels with a generator. (Full plumbing with sewage capabilities may take extra time to install)
3. Optionally, install shower and toilet systems; if none, sinks are sufficient.
4. At the same time, begin laying wall cover and floor paneling.

Day 3:

1. Finish interior prep: wall cover, floor paneling plastic/tile installation for thee wet bathroom.
2. Set the roof bracket and butterfly roof.
3. If adding windows, they'd be installed on this day.
4. (The house is livable by the end of this day!)

Day 4:

1. Move in essential furniture pieces; ie. stove, cabinets, bed.

Day 5:

1. Finishing touches: planter installation, piping for rainwater collection, solar panels, and painting.

Overall, this relatively small house would take around 5 days to build in ideal conditions, and would be livable after 3. Obviously, in disaster-response scenarios, conditions are far from ideal, but I'd hope that this design could be functional within a week, comfortably housing 3-4 people and a pet.

Alongside the estimated timeframe of construction, I also wanted to calculate approximate costs, hoping to keep price per unit below 5,000$.

1. 20ft. Used Shipping Container ~1,300 $
2. 50 ft.^3 Concrete ~ 500$
3. 150 ft.^3 Insulation ~500$
4. 200 ft.^2 Wooden Flooring ~750-1,250$
5. 200 ft.^2 Metal Roofing ~750-1,000$
6. 40 ft. PVC Pipe ~ 20$
7. 20 ft.^2 Glass (Optional Windows) ~200$
8. Essential Furniture (Bed, Shower, 2 Sinks, Couch, etc.) ~ 300$

In total, essentials for the build total to ~5,070 $, not including labor or machinery costs. These numbers were found based on averages for the cheapest materials I could find.

Overall, I was extremely happy with these numbers, and achieving the affordable, rapid housing I'd envisioned when I first decided to use shipping containers as the foundation of this project.

Optional extras that might increase comfortability, but would also increase time or financial costs were ignored for these purposes, as I wanted to explore the extremes in construction.

This is the section I wanted to spend talking about some of the considerations I made in plumbing, electricity, and HVAC, that I didn't have a good space to explore anywhere else.

Plumbing

When I started this design, one of my main sustainability focuses was on the preservation of water. This is one of the main reasons I ended up with a unique "butterfly roof", which is intended to funnel rainwater either into a collection tank, or, as in the architectural model, a planter.

Also when brainstorming, I was inspired by the Japanese toilet designs where hand-washing water is reused for the next flush. I wanted to use this wherever possible, which is how I ended up with a similar concept, connecting the bathroom sink to the toilet, and a portion of the kitchen sink to the planter. One consideration I had to make was the possibility of harsh cleaning chemicals or soap contaminating a reusable water supply, which unfortunately prevented me from taking this idea further.

HVAC and Electricity Use

From my research, I learned that one of the main drawbacks of shipping container living is the lack of climate control. While I'm hoping the implementation of a thick layer of spray-foam insulation could help combat this, but I think the installation of a window-mounted AC unit could help alleviate this, again as an extra luxury.

If the environment allows for it, this design also includes space for the installation of solar panels, which could benefit from increased efficiency with the angled metal roof bouncing some extra rays towards the panels. This would help make units more self-sufficient and clean, in terms of energy usage.

Overall, this project was extremely fun. This was my first time making a "proper" architectural model, and I learned a lot about designing and modeling plans to create a scaled build. For me, the process of modeling and building was definitely most enjoyable, but figured I should probably put some extra thought and research into real-world feasibility after spending all that time building.

Thanks for reading!