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The ukranian refugee containers are not repurposed shipping containers. They are specifically made for this purpose. They were used in europe also as vaccination and covid test centers. You just lay them somewhere on the parking lot and voila you have a covid center. That said, they are accually affordable because from day one they are made for their purpose intead of renovated and adjusted which makes the shipping container houses less affordable.

I dont think anyone expected to buy a used container for 4k and not have to do a bunch more work.. even if you end up paying 15k for everything, that's a LOT cheaper than a house. Even with how small it is, it's a functional home they own, and for a lot of people that's amazing.

I thought it was generally accepted that shipping containers are really only effective as the frame of a house or room. You aren’t just dumping one in a backyard and moving into it without major modifications.

As a mechanical engineering undergraduate. It’s not really that impractical. They really aren’t that problematic just because you need to reinforce it if it’s modified. Literally every structure needs specific reinforcements when it’s changed due to the change in force application. Spending 4K per shipping container and a 2k welder you could get a lot done compared to standard housing costs. Architects aren’t engineers, so don’t rely on them so much for engineering specific questions. Usually architects are more into the form than function of a structure, while they still keep function in mind it’s not as pedantic as engineering analysis.

It would have been interesting / useful to see some price comparisons to other methods of building small homes.

As architecture professional, I would say that *anything* that gets converted from non-habitation into habitation will take a lot of extra work - hence will then be classified as “overrated” when ubiquitously hyped by the senselessness of mass media.

Every house needs "reinforcements, a foundation, plumbing, & electric". If these are considered drawbacks then every modern house ever built is considered a "drawback".

Putting 400 grand into a house and then paying mortgage for years after isnt as easy as it seems either right?

I'll admit, after living in a studio apartment, these shipping container houses don't look so bad!

i really like how the owner of the airbnb admits that shipping containers take a lot of money to turn into a “home”

This video just proved everything I already knew and was ready for I’m absolutely all in for shipping container home

There is something skeezy about a landlord who is running an air bnb behind an abandoned house in an overgrown lot and they drive up in a BMW.

Shipping containers as homes are just a reaction to the slow building of affordable homes. So people look for alternatives.

I would've liked to see the per unit area price comparison between building a shipping container house and a traditional one. I'm not convinced by this video that it's more expensive, just that it's less inexpensive than people who haven't done enough research thought.

I lived in a container for 3 months because of renovations. I liked it, it has enough space and honestly, if this was permanent I could decodate it nicely. If there is no alternative for me in the future, I would absolutely choose this as a place to stay.

These are still cheaper than regular houses? I don’t think most people think you can just move into a shipping container without doing any modification, and if they do, they simply haven’t done any research. This argument did not prove its point.

Turning an intermodal container into housing is impractical, but building emergency housing in the footprint of a container is a good idea. Makes transport and deployment much easier and cheaper.

I lived in one for a good few years back in the Netherlands and honestly it was great. The insulation was top tier, it had a heat pump, and it was extremely affordable. If I'd had to live by myself again, I'd happily move back into one

In the right hands, with a good architect, a shipping container home can be quite nice.

You have to frame a home so I don’t see why you can’t do that to a shipping container.

You know what’s wild, and people basically never mention this, is that homes like these are considered ADUs. In other words they are an accessory dwelling unit. In order to have one you can’t just buy a plot of land and dump one on there, you have to buy a primary residence. The guy renting these out bought a trashed out house and land just to he could legally put those there. The big misconception for people trying to save a buck is that they can just buy some land and do that, which is really not the case.

My wife and I stayed in that exact unit in April! It was a lot of fun and the bathroom is even nicer than he described (the heated floors and big shower was so incredibly nice). The town of Warrenton, while small, was fun with a brewery, distillery, and a few restaurants within walking distance from the unit. I would certainly recommend staying there!

In denmark we build around 200 shipping container homes (as a test bed) For cheap quick student homes for students that come from all over the country to Copenhagen to study and we have a critical lack of homes from them. The general consensus is that the studens are happy in them at the start but quickly gets annoyed specially in the summer is it MADE from steel and with insulation which in sunlight and summer heat makes a REALLY warm situation.

It's a decent upcycle idea if you happen to have an old shipping container and don't know what to do with it but pinterest got a hold of it and everyone went nuts over the trend but didn't put much thought into past that.

Also of note NEVER bury a shipping container, I know it seems logical, root cellar or tornado bunker or what ever, but the soil is to heavy on the sides that are not intended to be load bearing, and by the time you maybe reinforced and water sealed and what ever enough, you've built a whole other building in or around the container anyways, skip the container and just build that building!!!

I thought the title would be “underrated” lol, cause I never saw anyone actually living in them

I stayed in a shipping container in Flagstaff for a week and loved it. Plenty of room and a nice size shower. The only thing missing was laundry.

Two architects oppose a system of housing that doesn’t require architectural involvement 😮 no way

We used them for storage units/moveable warehouses/workshops. They had little modification, maybe a vent. They worked very well. I can see how turning one into a living unit would require much much more work.

I bought a container to remodel into a compact home for the farm (during the 2020 break XD), turns out its loud when it rains, bakes everythin in it during summer and not really easy to modify! (without compromising the structure and Stackability) So i eneded up using it as a storage shed.

I think they do work for Caribbean islands. Insulation would only be for sound or to insulate against hot weather (in case you decide to paint outside in a dark color) and it’s not mandatory. Apart from that, just make it structurally safe and apply rust-proof paint or coat. Where I live houses are fully made of concrete and concrete blocks with metal rods and mesh. We tackle hurricanes, earthquakes and floods. That’s why I think they are not such a bad solution.

I've built things out of shipping containers and would absolutely do so again. But you have to understand those strengths and limitations and design accordingly. Admittedly, many movies don't understand those trade-offs. No different than tiny homes, van life etc

Why is the shipping container in front of a dilapidated old house? That was never addressed in the video

WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT AFFORDABLE HOUSING?! I dunno, build up, build mid-price apartments instead of MORE luxury condos. Make zoning more friendly to smaller property plots, duplexes, and townhouses? It's not hard 😭

So you couldn’t find one person that loves living in a RENOVATED shopping container?!?!

If shipping containers were more cost effective, practical, or efficient then you wouldn't be able to get one because everyone in the home construction industry would be buying them up and using them. They aren't. Shipping containers can be cost effect and useful for storage.

Shipping container houses - when you want something like a manufactured home, but don't want the stigma of one.

The thing about modular buildings is also: Nakagin Capsule Tower was built with that idea in mind. The plan was to take the individual boxes out and replace them for renovation when necessary, or if someone wanted a different module. That never happened, because you would have had to disassemble the entire tower. Permanently modular buildings just don't work, modular construction is only good for quickly planning standardised housing that can be adjusted to the locality.

I used to build my homes out of these when working in rural Alaska, I'm a welder. I found them easy and affordable, also comfy. Being able to do the welding and other work yourself makes them all of the things they are made out to be

Would love to have seen the other side of the debate. In this video its basically just 2 architects that have the same vision and it becomes quite one-sided. If you compare this to a house, yes you'll prob pay more per m2 but still end up spending less because youre only building a 30 m2 house (when using 1 container) in that sense i dont think it is more expensive than a normal tiny house or chalet of sorts. Those need the same engineering requirements.

I lived in one for years as a student. It was a true luxury compared to sharing an apartment. A nice spacious studio with your own kitchen and bathroom. It was really well insulated and I never had any problems with noise or temperature. There were over 300 in the complex and all stacked, so I'm sure that really reduced the cost. Sure, it might not be efficient to build them individually and make modular family homes out of them. But when it's hard to build permanent low-cost housing, it's really great. I honestly believe they should be built by the tens of thousands on vacant lots and that they could go a long way to addressing the homelessness crisis and provide cheap and decent housing to students and single low-income workers. The complex was demolished to make way for gentrified luxury apartments that I could never afford if anyone's wondering 😔

The problem with a lot of these "affordable" solutions such as shipping containers and 3D printed houses is the only thing they really address from normal house construction is a portion of the framing step, which in the grand scheme of things is not even that expensive when it comes to house construction. (Edited for clarity)

Interesting video. As a Facilities director for Hilton Hotels in the UK, I am very supportive of the shipping containers modular builds. We have dozens throughout the UK, with locations such as Hamilton in Scotland with a 118 bedroom Hotel, comprising of 128 shipping containers (Disabled rooms & gym areas use double containers) Each of of our rooms have a 90 minute fire protection rating and A++ energy ratings with the tripple glazed windows Personally greatly support modular construction. Build costs for the owners area greatly reduced, build speed is 3 times quicker and the product for the guest is 5 stars for quality & safety standards

I lived in a container home for almost a uear. It wasn't a shipping container, but one of those big, insulated, refrigerated shipping truck containers for, like, produce shipping and stuff. It was converted into a studio and it was honestly perfect for me.

In architecture school they told us that they were going to be the future of housing, I agree with this video, although they are not a completely bad idea, they are nonetheless very overrated. UPDATE: again, I mean that it's very underrated when considered as "the future of housing", other than that the view on them can be very subjective and can be differently useful/viable to different people.

Tiny houses have a potential, but the problem with a shipping container is that it adds nothing to the project. You can build a shed / cabin / box of that size out of wood or bricks, and it would be better, possibly even cheaper. That's not what makes houses expensive, it's all the other stuff, like electricity, plumbing, insulation, foundation, labor, land... So, what's the point of making your walls out of sheet metal that gets hot in the summer and cold in the winter? Just to pay for more expensive insulation? To constantly worry about condensation / mold, because of the temperature differences?

I think the biggest issue with shipping containers is that so many people are not informed about the fact that most recycled shipping containers were used to ship super toxic chemicals! Sprayed with tons pesticides inside and the paint they have to coat them with to prevent rust is horribly toxic. For these reasons I would never buy one.

*Metal is HIGHLY conductive, for electricity, lightning, in winter is TOO cold and summer TOO hot*

Because staying in a shipping container behind an abandoned house has always been a dream of mine 😒

not saying this video is wrong per se in the arguments, but I feel like there are probably use cases and scenarios not being discussed. I don't have any knowledge of this field, but my feeling coming out of this video is that you started with a conclusion and worked toward it.

I have been passionate about this idea for years. IMO I think the main problem is that people want a solution that is affordable, but looks luxurious. People have to understand that they have to make sacrifices and not try to turn a container house into a mansion; that's where the money drains away, when they abandon practicality to try to recreate totally impractical (from a financial point of view) projects they see on the internet. For example; in the selection of materials. Or when they want to install huge, made-to-measure windows, instead of putting two standard windows together, the kind you buy in the shop, already assembled, at a much lower price... I think you can find a sweet spot where the initial concept works and is affordable, but you can't get carried away trying to imitate vanity concepts that were done by people who had plenty of money to make a normal house in the first place.

Shipping container housing is very possible, and can make quite nice housing, while being CONSIDERABLY CHEAPER. 120-150k, vs 350-400k is some VERY NICE SAVINGS!

Protip : get mobile offices and convert them instead. They come with insulation and electrics pre installed.

The problem is many use them wrong. My father build himself a house made with them, but he use them for the skeleton of the house, he added insulation, inside and outside walls. You use them to take the place for blocks and bricks.

BTW I saw several videos of different homes where they placed 2 side by side a short distance apart. Then they built connecting walls to create a 40x40 square home. It looked nice. And they had immediate storage to put building material out of the weather while they worked as a bonus.

You mentioned how the structure is weakened when you cut into it....That's true with any structure regardless what the material is. Regardless what type of home you build, your gonna have to put time and money into it period.

I was deployed in the Army, I spent 7 months in a tent, with 13 other people. Showers were about 1/4 mile walk. On my way out, I got to stay at an intermediate base, where they had barracks rooms made from shipping containers. They had 2 bunks in them and their own bathrooms/showers, but I was alone. It was heaven.

Another common problem is with condensation and mold because of the metal. I can really recommend actuallx watching Belinda Carr's videos on this as they include much more factors and get to the point much quicker.

its easy to call it overrated impractical garbage when you come from money or have support/big income, but to a lot of normal average people who are usually amazingly humble, they can modify these containers the way they want and make them very comfortable

Expecting an architect to give a fair and honest opinion on a shipping container house is like asking a hospitality industry worker about Robot/Ai technology working at front desks, and serving meals.. it’s a direct threat to them, they’re never going to give you an objective opinion.

After seeing the modular pre-built homes in Japan, I thought a shipping container would be a cheap alternative. As the architect said in the video, the corrugation of the skin is part of the container's structural strength. Cut into it for doors or windows, you loose that. The Japanese custom-built containerized home won't have that problem.

I wish this video tackled the possible solutions to overpriced housing, housing shortage and the actual desperation faced by people who are trying to do this or that keep going back to it as a solution. This isn't a trend- it's a desperate attempt at affordable housing because infrastructure failures keep normal people out of finding safe places to sleep at night.

I thought about building a container home myself some years ago, but decided to go for a mixture of wood (and some concrete plate) framing. I ended up spending a little less than 3000 bucks more than with my former "container calculation". A small price to pay for a more flexible room layout, a nicer look overall and - most of all - superior insulation. The latter alone made up for the extra costs already over the years, if I come to think about it. No third party involved, except for the statics check, which would have been mandatory for a container home, too.

Which one/set is better? A shipping container / multiple shipping containers.... or a Home Depot refurbished shed / Multiple Home Depot sheds all connected together?

One thing that i hate about these experts is they discard the practice without giving any alternative suggestions. Container house are sustainable and affordable if you use them for utility not vanity. If you've multiple containers stack them in grid section don't try to be experimental. Don't cut out doors and windows from wider sides, instead use the opposite ends which are practically the real doors to access a shipping container. It saves the use of reinforcement.

Feel like this video failed to go into the detail necessary to make the claims they did. How expensive is it actually compared to alternative options? What’s the upkeep cost compared to traditional homes? How long do they last? Are there parts of the world where this makes more/less sense because of differing supply and labor costs? What’s the environmental impact compared to traditional methods? What would happen to these containers if not used in this way? I don’t expect answers to everything in a 10 minute video but surely more could be covered instead of talking about graham crackers

I am a retired Architect and have absolutely no desire whatsoever to ever stay in one. They do serve well as emergency housing, i.e., Ukraine but I suspect most people would quickly tire of them one they were confronted with any long term prospect of actually living in them!

If you were to put the same amount of work and money people put into shipping container homes..... into other methods of building a home. You would have a home superior to a shipping container home. I'm a general contractor and used to design and build new homes from bare ground to turn key and shipping container homes make no sense.

In Britain we are super lucky that our post-WW2 "oh no we need loads of extra houses NOW" builds are actually good houses.

I think the idea of module homes isn't terrible. Just using shipping containers as a base is a bad idea.

No prices mentioned except the cost of plain container. Pointless.

For about the same price (or perhaps even less expensive), one could just purchase a similar sized mobile home; and for much less, a motor home. Bottom line, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.

We should also watch "Living Big in a Tiny House" youtube channel and that shows what people have built with shipping containers. For some, home is a luxury and for others home is a necessity.

When I was on exchange in France, I had a few friends who lived in repurposed container homes. Their units were absolutely horrible. They said that there was basically no soundproofing so they could hear everything and it got very cold in winter. Worst of all, when there were heavy winds, their units would sway in the wind. They moved out as soon as they could and I don't blame them at all.

This is a hysterically one sided piece of media, you interviewed 2 people who you pointed out were both on the same side of a debate and magically came to the same conclusion they did, incredible journalism.

We have several apartment buildings built in Vancouver from these. I don't think they're a great idea for houses, but they seem to do well used for apartment buildings. You have to knock down a bunch of walls, but it also means you have to pour a lot less concrete.

"Once you offset them, the structure is no longer strong enough to support". *proceeds to show pictures of perfectly stable structures stacked in an offset pattern".

You came to the conclusion that it's "impractical to live in them" yet your piece didn't really explore or justify that idea, most of it was related to cost. There are companies making these to live in which have already considered the problems addressed here and they work out much more affordable.

Really .... this is perfect . More people need to think like this. As a builder I love it when the wrong approach is thrown out there for everyone to absorb . You have just lowered the price for me, when I build mine .

This was an interesting video, but I personally would have really valued a conversation into the alternatives, rather than just criticising shipping container homes (well justified criticism though). People are increasingly more interested in smaller, modular dwellings such as shipping containers because the standard home is becoming increasingly out of reach financially for more and more people, yet there has been no drop in the demand for shelter. If dwellings are smaller, they use less materials and are typically cheaper. If they are modular, a home you can afford at one stage in your life can be modified to accommodate a later stage in your life, such as starting a family, without having to uproot and move into a much more expensive property. I'm not saying shipping containers effectively address issues with modern housing or the desires of affordability and modularity, but I do think their rise in popularity shows just how important said issues and desires are to so many people.

"I wanted to demonstrate that this is bad so I took two people who think the same thing." Thanks for teaching nothing.

When I was in the military, stationed in some remote areas, we used containerized housing to live in. However, these were designed from the ground up for this purpose, as the ability to transport and get up and running quickly was more important than cost. There were seperate units for living quarters, shower units, and restrooms. The sleeping units could be stacked and there were pre-fab stair and walkway units to make second and third story walkways. Good for what we needed, better than a tent, but not anywhere close to what I would call home.

Gosh. I would totally love a container home.

I've never seen anything on these in colder climates during the winter. I'd love go see a comparison done in winter in Canada, it can get to -50 Celsius for days at a time, and I'd love to see how they hold up under those temps and with the massive snowfall that some areas get.

I had a home designer custom design a shipping container home for me, complete with roof solar panels and charred cedar-wood siding. Additionally, it was going to be on stilts, so I could park my car underneath. It was still $100,000 cheaper to build than any prebuilt house that was on the market in Maryland. Unfortunately, shortly after finishing up the designs, I had to move out of Maryland for a new job and I couldn't go through with the build itself. And yes, these containers are designed to be stack on their corners. --- The thing is, you shouldn't look at a shipping container home as a pre-built house that only needs a little bit of work. If you look at them as a pre-built *steel frame* for a house, then everything becomes a lot more clear.

Shipping container houses: far from ideal, probably better than sleeping under a bridges. Newsflash, everyone: plenty of people sleeping under overpasses and bridges in this country.

The vertical long patterns are adding strength to vertical loads. in hot countries, it will feel like a boiler inside. video presentation is very good.

A lot of these "cons" like not portable, small square footage, etc.. are only actually cons if you have other options..

A company I worked for used unmodified shipping containers to store tools in. They are incredibly hot in the summer and freezing cold in the winter, they accentuate ambient temperature A LOT. We would stand outside rather than be in them. I'm sure modifications would make some difference but steel is inherently excellent at conducting heat.

As someone that has built a few shipping container homes for Airbnb's it can be a great investment if you're willing to do a lot of the work yourself. I really wouldn't say they are affordable if you're going to have to pay someone to do everything for you. We were able to to finish all three of our container homes for around 25k each. That includes, power, water, sewer etc. A lot of times when you look to buy a container home your main utilities aren't even included in the price. However, we done majority of the work ourselves other than the things we actually had to get a licensed tradesmen to pull permits for. In today's market I would say it would cost you close to 80k to finish one completely if you weren't doing any of the work yourself. That's a lot of money for 320sqft.

I actually run a production plant that turns connex into modular stand alone offices. The benefit is to have a modular building that you can take to multiple sites for a “soft set”. To live in one of these the codes imply setting it up in permanent way. The trick is to make your design in a way that they can add more features down the road when they want to set it in a permanent place. All of the things we build are meant to be stand alone offices with the only utility being electricity. Everything is built to move and be adaptable for later use or changes. Doesnt always work out haha like in the video “mostly everybody that does this says they wont do it again”. We have had lots of those moments

If there was a company that pre-wired, pre-plumbed with a functional window and door systems that allowed each unit to connect together it would be feasible to have modular system housing where you could add by simply plugging in and stacking a new unit specifically designed for that function. Kitchen living room bedroom ect (with integrated bathrooms) The key would be achieving that and keeping it still affordable to the consumer.

You basically have to build an entire house inside the container for it to be up to code. It ends up just limiting your design to the shape of the box. You might as well just build it from scratch for all the good it would do you. The only case where it works is if you simply don’t modify it at all. No windows, no additional doors, just drill a few holes for ventilation, plumbing and electricity.

The main advantage of a shipping container home is that you can drop in the containers and weld/seal them to be waterproof as the first building task you do, then live inside them while you build the rest of the home from the inside out. You can’t live in a standard home while it’s under construction as they are typically not even weather/waterproof until 50% of the build is complete. I’ve seen this shipping container advantage first hand and a friend of mine built a 10 shipping container home, over 3 years while living inside of it. First they did foundations for 4 x 40 foot containers, sealed in, and moved in within 2 months. They then spent the next year fitting out those containers while living in them, saving 2 years of rent payments. They then added another 6 x 20 foot shipping containers to the 4 already in place, and had them waterproofed in a 2 week period, while still living in the 4 containers they built earlier. The ability the get out of the rent trap and live inside the waterproofed containers while under construction for years was a huge advantage for them, saving $60k of rent, being onsite all the time and not having to waste time in travel, and to be able to supervise all trades all the time because they were always there was substantial. This is the PRIMARY benefit of building with shipping containers, not cost savings in materials (eg. they still had to build a sloping roof on the waterproofed containers to comply with the building code) or modularity, rather the ability to live inside them while completing the first fix, second fix, all the trades work and the compliance inspections, provided you’re prepared to live in an unfinished construction environment for the times it takes to complete.

I was paying $75k a year to maintain a house in Plano, Texas. I sold it and moved to something smaller and was paying around $40k a year. I know live 40 miles from Home Depot in a small trailer that is paid for. I walk my land and worry how I'm gonna pay my $320 taxes lol...

Shipping containers are a great idea. Not overated.

I’d like to see more on what these architects think about the prebuilt container homes. My partner and I have been looking into those because there is no BIG work on our side (plumbing, electric, etc.) and in this market right now if you want a new home that is under 300k (which good luck), it is a much more affordable option. We found excellent models that fit our needs for under $200k. Building them from scratch does seem like a time and cash dump, but when it’s made by professionals, I’m more into it.

I remember looking for a house last year and we saw a shipping container home that was 4 containers stacked on top of each other. It was nice but you could see that there were "choices" made to the layout that made it awkward. And in the end it cost more than a new house of the same size. I was curiously interested in the beginning but the fact that it was in a REALLY bad neighborhood ment I passed on it.

The reason they're still a thing is because many of the downsides presented here are either overstated themselves, or they're being presented by architects who make well into the six figures by designing more of the same old, same old (or worse, are starchitects who design outlandish and highly impractical garbage for deep-pocketed clients who have more money than sense or taste to make a name for themselves). 1. Yes, they do lose structural integrity if you cut them or offset them. So...don't offset them. Easy fix; it's not rocket science. 2. Those window and door openings in traditional site-built houses have to be reinforced, too. Container houses are no different in that regard. 3. As for cost, well there's two components to that. a) Cost per square foot: shipping container houses (and tiny houses) can be as high as or higher than site-built housing. But depending on where you're at, they can also be cheaper. I recently designed two shipping container houses for construction in the Houston area. Cost per square foot was $125 - compare that to $160 per square foot for the average new stick-built house in the same area. Don't tell me they're more expensive - or at least don't pretend that's an absolute everywhere. And, the houses I designed were large - three 8x40x9 tall boxes and one 8x20x9 tall box. If you build a smaller house, like the single 8x40 depicted in the video, yeah materials will run you a bit more because of economics of scale. However, where I grew up (small town rural Texas), cost per square foot is lower, and a container house wouldn't save anything at all. It really depends on the region. b) Overall cost. Even if a container house costs more per square foot, if you're okay with living in a small area then that doesn't matter. So what if your 640 square foot container house cost $200 per square foot to build? If you don't need the extra space, then why would you want to take out a $250,000 mortgage for a 2200 square foot tract house? That more-expensive-per-square-foot container house or tiny house won't saddle you with a 20-year mortgage (which is of course why banks and builders really don't like tiny houses - they don't make much money). I'm calling out Vox for only focusing on the negatives, and through the lens of (st)architects who are likely just protecting their industry by insisting that this isn't a viable option and it's just bad, bad, bad.