Conventional housing construction is too costly and inflexible to meet many of our most urgent housing needs. Using shipping containers as the basis of housing design and construction has many advantages, but the most important benefits to communities come from the opportunity to produce housing units and housing elements at scale. Manufacturing housing units, rather than fabricating them on site, offers significant advantages in terms of per-unit cost, quality of construction, and code compliance, while allowing units to receive any architectural treatments desired to fit the fabric of the community.
Presenters explore the benefits of cargotecture design and fabrication for residents, homeowners, planning and housing agencies, and communities, as well as the preconditions necessary to use this approach successfully at scale. They share how cargo containers affect the provision of economical, disaster-resilient housing to reinforce community vitality, particularly in communities of color.
NPC Peer Reviewers assigned this presentation a learning level of Intermediate. For more on learning-level descriptions, visit our General Information Page.
Learning Objectives:
Identify specific challenges to conventional construction that are addressed by container-based construction, including environmental resilience, cost efficiencies, and flexibility in changing life circumstances.
Consider specific challenges associated with container construction, including fabrication cost factors and misperceptions about zoning and building-code impacts.
Evaluate potential uses of and strategies for container-based construction and potential barriers to its use in a specific context.
