Container Housing for $10-$30 / sq ft.

So I heard somewhere I long time ago that you could get Sea Land Containers (weather proof modular shipping containers that can be easily transported by ship, rail and truck, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Containerization) for almost nothing.  I looked into it about 2 years ago and discovered that in port cities a 40′ x 8′ x 8′ used container is available for about $1000 delivered.  Do some quick math, figure you are going to loose 1′ on each dimension and you get about 273 sq ft per 40′ container.  Or about $4 / sq ft.  Cheaper than quailty hard wood flooring…

So how do you make one look nice?  Here is a “well duh” answer:  Get some prefessional help. No no, not a phsycologist…  An artist or designer.  My wife sat down and in 2 minutes schetched out an amazing design for a 4,000 sq ft container home (about 14 containers) that looks amazing.  It also seems that container housing (while still not exactly “main stream”) has had a few successful implementations.  Check out these videos:

A very very nice looking community built from containers.

A CNN Report on Shipping Containers for Homes

Modern Marvels -- Container City, (those colors, only in London).

How not to make it look good -- “The Atrocity”

This designer loves using them.

Unfortunately, there are no cheap lots availble in Tempe, so Katrina’s fabulous design will have to wait till after school before we consider building it ourselves.