Container Living.

[Targer]

A novel idea in housing using shipping containers has been outlined in an article -"Living in a Box" in the property section of The Telegraph (31.03.04). A container city (a small grouping of containers) has been created nr. Docklands, London. Initially made available as studio space, small work shops, craft business etc but now also as living space. See under http://www.containercity.com and http://www.urbanspace.com. In their use of this idea I see a bit of plagiarism as I noted the concept a few years ago on http://www.escapeartist.com ( in their on-line magazine) who have been toying with the idea for a while. They saw the use of shipping containers as Global Nomadic Housing units for use by adventurous souls who trans-shipped the containers to remote parts of the world. Details of their conversions for such use at http://www.escapeartist.com/efam17/nomadic_housing.html
Containers have also been used by terrorists and asylum seekers for transportation and short term living quarters.
Certainly an inovative use of containers and also as living quarters on certain brownfield sites as a temporary short term residence.workshop,studio etc?

[kn0wledge]

Not long ago, I looked into buying a 30' container to use as a garage (I would have painted it to blend in with the surroundings, and covered it in plants etc) but the best I came up with was £700. You can get a bona fide garage for less, so I didn't continue with my plans.

[duncan]

have you seen the film "Man Without A Past", by Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki? the main character ends up homeless, and manages to get a container to live in, rented out by a corruptable security guard who has a small village of tenants living in shipping containers:
http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0311519/
http://www.sonyclassics.com/manwithoutapast/main.html

[pramsay13]

as stables for horses. I know it's not particularly exciting, but the horses seemed to like it.

[Kirsty]

The way house prices are going in Glasgow I wouldn't be too surprised!!