GreenTech Media: Startup Converts Old Shipping Containers Into Homes
Here's a home that's been on the high seas, reports Senior Analyst Michael Kanellos from the floor of the West Coast Green show in San Jose.
by Michael Kanellos - 9.26.08
Here's a home that's been on the high seas.
South Carolina's SG Block is retrofitting those 40-feet steel boxes you see on cargo ships emblazoned with brand names like Maersk into building units for homes. The home you see in the picture, on display this week at West Coast Green taking place in San Jose, is made up of five of them. Three reformed containers form the bottom floor and two make up the top floor.
The company has already erected a few homes and is now working on a development of several homes in Oceanside, California. Because the frame is made of steel, the homes also should stand up well in earthquakes. Ultimately, SG wants to become a component supplier to the construction industry – i.e., it will supply brand-name blocks to builders, architects and developers who will then turn them into dwellings.