Green Building : Jetson Green

Adam Kalkin Maine Container House

This Brooklin, Maine home, designed by architect Adam Kalkin, may not be brand new to the green scene (it was built in 2003), but its unique design still looks so fresh today that I had to write about it.  The beautiful home stretches the boundaries of modern design and is truly a work of art.  It was created by stacking a dozen orange "reclaimed" shipping containers in a T-shape while replacing some of the steel pannels with large windows looking out over the rocky peninsula to Blue Hill Bay. 

LOT-EK Puma City Illustrates Flexible Container Retail

Realizing this site might be a little overweight in the container architecture department, I'm going to blog this and try to abstain in the next few weeks.  But Puma City, like the Freitag Flagship Store in Zurich (only less banged up looking), is another illustration of industrial design and adaptive reuse combined. The 11,000 sf retail installation was designed by LOT-EK and uses three levels of forty-foot containers stacked four units wide to create an incredibly dynamic design. 

Envision Prefab Ships e-House to Florida

[Sponsor article from Envision Prefab]

UPDATE 3/16/09 - Envision Prefab has gone dark.  The website was shut down.  Apparently, the company was sold to some company in Panama -- Aaron Newman says the terms of the sale are confidential.  If you have any concerns, feel free to contact us. 

Container architecture has taken on various forms over the last few years. We’ve seen many building types constructed with creativity as architects and developers experimented with cargo containers, from office buildings to apartments, and single-family homes. South Florida based company, Envision Prefab, is bringing container architecture to a new level by creating complete modular housing out of these frames. Envision has tracked the progress of a model home from its initial cutting and through the factory process, ready to be shipped. If you've ever thought about using containers in home design, make sure to read below:

Greentainer Project in Gandino Italy

The Greentainer Project in Gandino, Italy is yet another expression of container architecture, albeit this time it's for a more whimsical application.  The project used one, standard-sized, 40-foot container and transformed it into a structure that's mobile, flexible, and self-sufficient.  In its current form, Greentainer is perfect for multiple uses and almost infinite locations, plus the rooftop solar panels provide all the energy necessary to run the heating and cooling system, lights, and other devices.  So you could potentially use it for a party, event, grand opening, art show, or any other scheme you can come up with. 

Live The Box Multifamily Container Proposal Winners Announced!

A combination of various groups, including AIA Newark, Skanska, and Young Architects Forum, put together the Live The BOX competition to find innovative, visionary, and compelling proposals for container constructed, multifamily, mixed- use projects.  The competition received tons of interesting container design entries, but only three won (with three more Honorable Mentions).  Designs had to use standard shipping containers of 8'-6" height and either 20' or 40' length as main building blocks for the structure.  Make sure to check out the winners below ... Also, I'll update this article as I find better images. 

13 Innovative Green Building Designs, Lifecycle Building Challenge Winners!

Yesterday the EPA announced winners of the second annual green building competition known as the Lifecycle Building Challenge, or LBC2.  The challege issued a proposal for designs and ideas that support cost-effective disassembly and that anticipate future use of building materials.  It was open to architects, reuse experts, engineers, designers, planners, contractors, builders, educators, environmental advocates, and students in three main categories: (1) Building, (2) Innovation, and (3) Outstanding Achievement Awards.  The winners have been selected and listed below with a quick image.  There's seriously some excellent thinking at work here, so congratulations to everyone ...

WCG 2008 Shipping Container Home

So here's the deal.  The Harbinger SG Blocks Showhouse was bad out.  Everyone I talked to loved it.  You might think that a shipping container home would feel closed-in and constrictive, but this home certainly wasn't.  At 1700 sf, everything felt just right to me.  I was able to sneak into the Exhibit Hall early enough to get some killer images (in case you couldn't be there), so let's talk a walk through the Harbinger House below. 

Entrepreneurs to Sell Shipping Container Homes Below $10k

Okay, I'll admit it, I have a slight interest in container housing and am intrigued by the possibility of reusing containers for, among other things, affordable housing.  This weekend, I'll be bringing you news of a pretty high-end container home, but these homes are equally important at the opposite end of the economic spectrum.  Here's the story: A handful of entrepreneurs nurtured a graduate school business plan into an actual company called PFNC Global Communities.  The acronym stands for "por fin, nuestra casa," which is translated as "finally, a home of our own."  PFNC's purpose is to convert shipping containers into affordable housing for those who most desperately need it around the globe.

An Innovative Application of Containers

METALAB and Ttweak have, I think, taken a novel approach to marketing the first proposed LEED certified condo building in Houston.  If you're interested in marketing, or have ever read a Seth Godin book, then you'll know that word of mouth can go a long way towards generating sales for your product.  And I think that's what's going to happen here.  METALAB and Ttweak designed a sales center for MirabeauB using two 20-foot containers.  They've attached solar panels to the roof that generate ~180 kwH per month and can fold up during bad weather. 

E-House Prefab Gets Green, Affordable

UPDATE 3/16/09 - Envision Prefab has gone dark.  The website was shut down.  Apparently, the company was sold to some company in Panama -- Aaron Newman says the terms of the sale are confidential.  If you have any concerns, feel free to contact us. 

Aaron Newman shot me a link to an article in the South Florida Business Journal about his company, Envision Prefab.  Unfortunately, the article is behind a $$ wall, but this jpeg isn't.  Envision Prefab has a simple concept that involves containers.  I know we've been talking a lot about containers in the past week, but the idea here is to convert cargo containers into affordable housing.  Envision has models in the works in West Palm Beach and in Miami, with their first model expected in early September 2008.  Envision models range in size from 740 sf to 1300 sf and are expected to price out at ~$150 psf.