Thinking Inside the Box
Shipping Container Architecture and its Role for a Sustainable Future
A research proposal submitted to the Urban Studies & Planning Program
University of California, San Diego
Calvin Chan
USP 186
calvinhchan@gmail.com
October 19, 2010
Abstract
Existing research suggests that prefabricated building has historically maintained
an integral role in providing innovative solutions to socioeconomic issues of
housing scarcity and lifestyle transformation. As discourse pertaining to the
significance of sustainable living proliferates in communities worldwide, this
proposal assesses the potential role that shipping containers have in extending the
frontier for prefabricated building in a sustainable manner and as a building mode
that engenders alternative land-use and development. The research design focuses
on a case study of The Periscope Project located in downtown San Diego.
Through archival research, interviews, observation, and spatial analysis, the
research aims to provide expository insight into the economic, environmental, and
equity issues relevant to container architecture. The study will contribute to the
literature on prefabricated building and sustainability in the hopes of improving
the consideration of shipping containers as an alternative building component.
Key Terms: container architecture, sustainable development, urban infill,
adaptive reuse
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Introduction
The American urban landscape owes its widespread development in no small part to the
idea of prefabricated building. Jill Herbers identifies in her book Prefab Modern that “Wherever
people have wandered, migration has created a need for cost-effective housing that can be
constructed quickly and is also, ideally, portable enough to salvage when it’s time to move on”
(Herbers 2004). North America’s rapid colonization would not have been achieved had it not
been for quick and inexpensive housing solutions in the form of prefabricated building. In 1624,
the first prefabricated house arrived in North America, a house shipped from England to be
constructed on American grounds to provide shelter for a fishing fleet (Herbers 2004).
Throughout the 19th century, the business of providing building components that could be placed
together to achieve a building became known as prefab. Realizing itself in the form of hospitals,
homes, factories, schools, and much more, prefab greatly enhanced the American urban
landscape. Herbers comments, “With housing scarce and new housing labor costs soaring,
prefabricated homes offered a relatively inexpensive option” (Herbers 2004). By the 20th
century, prefab was an unstoppable force that expedited the movement of Americans away from
the city centers and into the suburban areas. Today, prefab continues to be extensively utilized
and with considerable resourcefulness, creativity, and technical knowledge, shipping containers
have become the latest frontier for prefabricated building. In this project, the potential role that
shipping containers have in extending the frontier for prefabricated building in a sustainable
manner and as a building mode that engenders alternative land-use and development models will
be researched. My intention is not to propose shipping containers as finite solution to urban
planning issues. It is my desire, however, to facilitate dialog that may arise regarding the fact that
shipping containers are a sustainable medium for high-quality rehabilitation of our urban
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landscapes. The limitations of this study reside within the fact that this topic will be focused in
on one singular case study of shipping container architecture. While each project and
corresponding locale has its particular strengths and weaknesses, it is my hope that the lessons
learned from this research will promote critically creative thinking about container architecture
and its application for urban areas in general.
Conceptual Framework
Home ownership is an integral part of the American Dream. More often than not,
however, owning a home is realistically outside the reach of many individuals’ grasps. Homes
that are affordable, sadly, are not always conducive to quality living. On the other hand, homes
that offer quality living solutions are almost always aligned with exorbitant pricing. This should
not be the case and as architectural history has shown, “affordable homes with great design seem
miraculous” (Herbers 2004). Sustainability is requisite of thoughtful concern for the economy,
environment, and equity, as Stephen M. Wheeler identifies in his book Planning for
Sustainability: Creating Livable, Equitable and Ecological Communities. In order for a home to
be sustainable, it must first be affordable. As discourse pertaining to the significance of
sustainable living proliferates in communities worldwide, this proposal assesses the potential role
that shipping containers have in extending the frontier for prefabricated building in a sustainable
manner and as a building mode that engenders alternative land-use and development. The
ultimate goal is to improve the consideration of shipping containers as an alternative building
component and to incite the exchange of ideas promoting advancements in the utilization of
container architecture in dealing with the critical urban planning issues we face today.
Literature Review
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The use of shipping containers as a building component is not a novel idea. In Intermodal
Shipping Container Small Steel Buildings, author Paul Sawyers explores the ways in which
shipping containers have been utilized in recent architectural history. The shipping container
conversions he details are mostly units designed to accommodate temporary shelter needs.
Examples of shipping container storage units, emergency shelters, office buildings, and health
clinics are amongst some of the many container structures that Sawyers investigates.
Additionally, Sawyers attributes the advent of the shipping container as a building component to
“farmers and rural folks” who have historically utilized the containers as cost-effective,
permanent structures enabling increased efficiency of daily tasks. Ultimately, Sawyers attests
that one can save over 40 percent of construction costs by using shipping containers instead of
traditional lumber or steel structures and encourages individuals to consider its benefits when
building their own establishments (Sawyers 2008).
In the world of shipping container architecture, Adam Kalkin is one of the foremost
authorities on its design and implementation. In Quik Build: Adam Kalkin's ABC of Container
Architecture, editor Will McLean and Kalkin write about the foundations of container
architecture, focusing on the case of the Quik House. Designed by Kalkin, the Quik House is a
2000 square foot single-family dwelling that is constructed from five recycled shipping
containers. The Quik House’s structure can be erected in a day and from order to completion of
assembly, the process takes less than five months. At a price of $76,000 plus minimal shipping
costs, the Quik House is a revolutionary approach to standard, domestic architecture. In his work,
Kalkin is anything but a traditionalist. Kalkin constantly pushes the envelope for what is
“appropriate” and in his designs, creates innovative spaces that utilize nontraditional building
components in manners that strike up conversation and adjust ideologies of what is normal. In
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reaction to the immensely positive response the Quik House garnered, Kalkin established The
Quik Build Ecosystem. Kalkin elaborates,
The Quik Build Ecosystem is an attempt to utilize the benefits of off-site
construction and modification with the useful transportability of the shipping
container, while simultaneously investing intellectual energy into the software of
the larger social, economic and environmental project (Kalkin and McLean 2008).
For Adam Kalkin and numerous other shipping container architects, the choice of the shipping
container as a building component stems from economic and environmental concerns. Economy
and environment are key issues to sustainability and Kalkin’s work bolsters the notion that
shipping containers are an efficient, highly sustainable form of architecture for many of the
urban issues we face today (Kalkin and McLean 2008).
When one thinks of shipping container architecture, images of cold steel and gloomy
enclosures come to mind. In Container office shipping to a site near you? by James Murdock,
the author explores a groundbreaking project called Box Office. Box Office, a shipping container
office building located in the gentrifying location of Providence, Rhode Island has been
considered by many to be the pinnacle of what shipping containers can achieve in a setting
outside of the residential market. Murdock’s article highlights the innovative design of the site,
stacked and cantilevered containers producing a variety of shapes and views, and offers much
description into the significant economic and environmental savings brought about by such
alternative building. Using 25 percent less energy than office buildings of traditional
composition and construction costing 20 to 40 percent less, Box Office elevates the standard for
shipping container architecture to exceeding, or at least meeting, the incentives of traditional
commercial office-type building (Murdock 2009, 34).
Sustainability is high on the order for shipping container architecture and although many
published works have reviewed past projects and their respective successes and shortcomings,
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limited research has been conducted to actually showcase the comparisons of a shipping
container building versus a building built from traditional building materials. In March 2010, J.
Vijayalaxmi writes in Local Environment an article entitled Towards Sustainable Architecture –
a case with Greentainer. In the article, Vijayalaxmi details his case study research on
Greentainer, a recycled shipping container building located in Chennai, India. The building’s
response to its tropical environment is the focus of Vijayalaxmi’s study. In his article,
Vijayalaxmi writes, “The steady depletion of non-renewable resources of energy has forced the
search for energy efficient building alternatives as it is the single largest consumer of energyintensive materials” (Vijayalaxmi 2010, 245). Vijayalaxmi’s research concludes with the fact
that a “building made of primarily reused material is not inferior to a conventional building in
terms of its embodied energy as well as indoor thermal performance” (Vijayalaxmi 2010, 245).
The findings of Vijayalaxmi’s research support the usage of shipping container architecture in
more mainstream uses, otherwise not considered appropriate due to uncertainties of
environmental adaptability.
The literature on the feasibility of shipping container architecture is abundant but few, if
any, discuss the ways in which shipping containers as a mode of building engender alternative
land-use and development. This research proposal aims to not only provide explanation of the
ways in which shipping containers are a sustainable building component but also discover more
qualitatively the impact and potential container architecture may be used to spur alternative landuse and development models.
Methodology
The research design focuses on a case study of The Periscope Project located in
downtown San Diego. The organization’s statement of purpose is as follows:
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The Periscope Project is intended for art, architecture, fellowship and community
exchange in the form of work, project and common space. Additionally, it is a
representational project working to visualize alternative land-use and
development models within the city (Anonymous).
The Periscope Project offers a unique way to research the potential role that shipping
containers have in extending the frontier for prefabricated building in a sustainable
manner and as a building mode that engenders alternative land-use and development.
Composed of five shipping containers resting on a 2,500 square foot lot in the heart of
downtown San Diego, The Periscope Project “is being deployed with a concurrently
innovative use of space, material, and social programming” (Anonymous). Not only
concerned with the feasibility of using shipping containers as a building component, The
Periscope Project enables connectivity between “individual agencies and skill sets,
working toward their sustainability despite the absence of market-based demand”
(Anonymous). Ultimately, the Project aims to foster structural change within the
institutions of everyday life to envision an improved environment where inclusion,
support, and community connectivity are treated with utmost concern.
Research for this project will be conducted from October 2010 to early March 2011.
Through archival research, interviews, observation, and spatial analysis, the research aims to
provide expository insight into the economic, environmental, and equity issues relevant to
container architecture. Looking at the larger picture, the spatial dimension of this research
project outside of The Periscope Project will focus on San Diego County, specifically vacant lots
where infill development in the form of shipping container architecture may become a reality.
The study will contribute to the literature on prefabricated building and sustainability in the
hopes of improving the consideration of shipping containers as an alternative building
component.
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From October 2010 to mid-December 2010, research and analysis of literature and
multimedia concerning the value of shipping containers and its feasibility and sustainability will
be conducted. Establishing the cause and effects of shipping container architecture, the research
that will be conducted during this period will serve as a basic foundation and framework for the
remainder of the research process.
From mid-December to early January, in-depth interviews with The Periscope Project
personnel and professionals from the field of urban planning will be conducted. In these
interviews, professional opinion on the feasibility and sustainability of shipping container
architecture will be explored as well as providing a more human connection to this type of
building. Furthermore, observation of The Periscope Project and its surroundings will be
conducted in hopes of gaining some knowledge on how the space is realistically utilized and the
impacts the Project has on its surroundings and participants.
Finally, from late January to mid-March, all research materials will be consolidated and
further analyzed in order to synthesize the information into a final product appropriate for the
senior research project. It can be generally anticipated that unknown questions and interests that
may have arisen during the last five months may require additional research.
This research project will garner minimal monetary cost as sources will be found at the
University and online and the majority of expenses be acquired through transportation costs from
my home in City Heights, San Diego to the downtown area where The Periscope Project is
located.
Conclusion
This research expects to provide expository insight into the economic,
environmental, and equity issues relevant to container architecture. Additionally, the
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potential role that shipping containers have in extending the frontier for prefabricated
building in a sustainable manner and as a building mode that engenders alternative landuse and development models will also be demonstrated. While it is not my intention to
propose shipping containers as an ultimate end-all solution to urban planning issues, it is
my contention that shipping containers are a sustainable medium for high-quality
rehabilitation of our urban landscapes. The study will be shared with public sector
officials in the hope that the findings may encourage new applications of urban planning
through the utilization of shipping container architecture to create more sustainable,
livable communities for all.
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