Shipping containers are wonderful things- for shipping. They are part
of an elaborate and extensive infrastructure for moving goods cheaply
and efficiently that has revolutionized world trade. They are also all
the rage among designers and architects who have been converting them
into housing, with varying degrees of success.
Then there is Meka.
They do not build shipping container housing; they build what I will
call housing containers- modules of houses that are built to shipping
container dimensions to take advantage of the shipping container
infrastructure, without most of the problems that actually arise from
working with shipping containers.
Where a shipping container is designed with enough steel to stack
nine high completely filled with stuff, Meka designs their boxes with
just enough steel to do the structural job that is required, while
filling in the rest with conventional building materials that cost a lot
less, that are easier to work with, and provide some insulation. As
Jason Halter of MEKA explained:
What we're working with is a more livable structure. A shipping container isn't really an effective building. The envelope itself is a bit tough to deal with if you are going to apply cladding to the exterior, you have to do considerable structural modification if you are going to put in doors and windows and if you compromise the corrugated walls you have to do a lot of restructuring.
Where conventional modular housing has a range of about 500 miles
from the factory because of the cost of shipping, these things can go
anywhere. Design director Jason continues:
We were fascinated with and wanted to continue to pursue the ease of shipping and trucking and rail. We also started with the idea of trans-ocean shipping, but now are working with a company that builds prefabricated housing for FEMA and others.
So what we are doing is taking a good, practical well insulated building
envelope and then we apply our patent-pending framing system to it in
order to achieve something that is both structurally very durable and
can be picked up from its corner castings and be delivered to a site,
and yet functions well with a timber frame that can be finished on the
interior and clad on the exterior.
Shipping containers are engineered with really remarkable componentry,
but it's the beams and corner posts and the corrugated steel that all
goes together to make it wonderfully rigid and strong. But I am working
with my engineer to reduce and refine that cage to focus on what is
absolutely necessary. But when you apply the timberframe, it becomes
remarkably strong, we have been able to meet hurricane requirements for
Louisiana.
When I first wrote about MEKA, there was some concern that they had
figured out how to offshore housing production to China. In fact, they
have found that it is more efficient and easier to control if they build
in Indiana, so now it has the additional advantage of being American
made. This also solves the certification problems, as the factory in
which they are built is certified as a prefab manufacturer.
In normal shipping container housing, one has to either leave a lot of
wall between the two modules or put in some very big beams to support
the roof. here the load is taken by the bathroom wall and a single
column at the end of the dining room table. It is a lot more efficient
and cost-effective if you add what you need instead of trying to cut
away what you don't.
Paul Rudolph once said "The Mobile Home is the 20th Century Brick."* After spending most of my life looking at shipping containers
and thinking about how they can be used for housing, I really do
believe that the ISO shipping container form is the 21st century brick,
and that MEKA has turned that brick into a building at last.
Via Treehugger
Fuente Original
http://www.treehugger.com/modular-design/meka-world-reinvents-shipping-container-housing.html
No es soló lo que hacemos sino como lo hacemos.
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