By Xin Lu
At any port you can probably see hundreds to thousands of empty shipping containers just sitting around waiting to be loaded. In recent times these containers have not only transported goods across oceans but have also been transformed into energy efficient dwellings with some great design and ingenuity.
In the past decade many habitable container projects have been completed around the world. At fabprefab there is a selection of these projects for shipping container enthusiasts. The picture used here on this article comes from a funky development called Container City I in at Trinity Buoy Wharf in London, England. The Container City site explains that shipping containers can be linked together to create strong steel modules that can be used to create many different types of accomodations. This type of construction takes very little time to build and the cost is low because 80% of the materials used is recycled. The shipping containers can be painted with insulating paint and use energy efficient appliances. Additional earth-friendly features could include water harvesting, solar panels, and green roofs.
In America at least two shipping container complexes recently made the news. One is called the City Center Lofts in Salt Lake City, Utah. The plan is to erect a seven floor residential building that includes an art gallery. Another project is slated in Detroit and the plan is to create a 17 unit condominium project at a cost of 1.8 million dollars. The condos will range from 960 square feet to 1920 square feet and will be priced at $100000 to $190000 each. That might be a little expensive for Detroit since homes were selling for less than cars there .
I think it is awesome that people are creating new homes from recycled industrial products. However, another recent news report states that the United States is having a shortage of shipping containers since the weak dollar is pushing up the demand of exports from the United States. Perhaps the next commodity bubble is in shipping containers?
译文:
欢迎来到集装箱城市——海运集装箱是怎样回收成为绿色住宅的？
在任何港口，你都可能看到成百上千的空的海运集装箱停靠在岸上等待装载。在最近时期，这些集装箱不仅被用作在海上运输货物，而且也被改造成设计精妙的有效的能源住宅。
在过去的十年里，世界各地建造了许多适合居住的集装箱住宅。对海运集装箱爱好者来说，有一些很好的预制装配房屋的精选品。这篇文章在这里用到的图片来自于英国伦敦的Trinity Buoy Wharf 的一个被称作集装箱城市I的顶呱呱的发展城市。这座集装箱城市点向我们展示出，海运集装箱可以连接在一起形成坚固的钢构模距，而这些模距可以用来产生许多不同种类的房屋。这种类型的建筑只需花费极少的建造时间，而且因为所用材料的80%能够循环利用，因此成本很低。这些海运集装箱能涂上隔离油漆并使用能源设备。另外的环保特征还包括水的获取，太阳能通道以及绿色屋顶。
在美国，最近至少有两家海运集装箱集团暴出这样的消息。一个称为城市阁楼，坐落在犹他州盐湖城。计划是建造一座七层楼的可供居住的建筑，其中包括一道艺术走廊。另一项工程坐落在底特律，计划是用180万美元的成本建造出一栋17个单元的连栋多层公寓。该公寓将包括的面积范围从960平方英尺到1920平方英尺不等，它们每个单元将会售价10万美元到19万美元之间。这价格对底特律来说有些贵，因为在那儿房子比汽车卖得便宜。
我认为人们用回收循环的工业产品建造新家是非常可怕的。然而，另一篇最近的新闻报导称，由于美元疲软正在使得从美国出口的要求与日上升，美国正处于海运集装箱的短缺状态。也许下一个商品泡沫会发生在海运集装箱？