Unusual Building Material - Shipping Containers!

Shipping Containers Used as a Building Material

People believe that like many things sold in the United States, shipping containers were made in China, however, this is not true. Malcolm McLean, an American man, created and patented the very first shipping container in 1956 (All About Shipping Containers, 2010).

Before McLean all cargo was boxed in wooden crates made of odd sizes, making the process of loading and unloading very slow and inconsistent. After 20 years of observing this slow and unorganized process, McLean decided he would create a better system to transport cargo to ships and warehouses. After purchasing the Pan Atlantic Tanker Company and renaming it the Sea-Land Shipping Company, McLean was able to experiment and create a better transportation and delivery container than the crate. His final design is now known as the Shipping Container. The Shipping Container is strong, durable, left resistant, stackable, and easy to load, unload, ship, transport, and store (All About Shipping Containers, 2010)

On November 23, 1987, Phillip C. Clark became the first man to file for a United States patent for a “Method for converting one or more steel shipping containers into a habitable building at a building site and the product thereof”.  The patent was granted on August 8, 1989.  Then, in 2006, Southern California architect Peter Maria designed the first two-story shipping container home to exist in the United States. (Pagnotta, 2011).

Shipping Container architecture is widely approved and encouraged as a trendy green alternative to traditional building materials. Shipping container homes are considered a fast, green, and sustainable approach to building. Due to the fact that the Intermodal Steel Building Unit’s (ISBU) are manufactured in a factory-controlled environment, they are considered to be standardized and reliable. Home builders save time, money, and wood by using a product that is manufactured, pre-fitted for installation, and structurally complete. Shipping containers, or building units, also have outstanding fire and safety ratings and tremendous sustainability and strength (Pagnotta, 2011).