You will find 300 million unused transport containers just sitting down in landfills. Terri Crittenden and her team with Fredman Design Group noticed the potential.
"We were thinking the type of new proven fact that we could produce that could change the facial skin to do cottages, visitor homes," said Crittenden, CEO, Fredman Design Group. "Imagine someone will buy something from China and it results in on the drinking water and it stays on here because it's very costly to send it back again, so it continues to be here & most wrap up in landfills, unused."
Now, she actually is giving them another life as homes and cottages in Michigan.
Shipping container homes
�We�ve built three so far and we�re going to start another one this Spring,� she said. �It�s amazing the response we�ve gotten from this.�
Crittenden said a shipping container and its parts can easily be turned into a living space.
�There were no guidelines on how to build with shipping containers. So we did some research, about building in the Midwest. We wanted to make sure five years from now, the shipping containers hold up. They are like leggos. They are like building blocks so it makes stacking them and joining them fairly simple.�
Living space inside shipping container home (Credit: Fredman Design Group)
Crittenden said shipping containers are eco-friendly and affordable and gaining popularity as a legitimate green option for the consumer.
�The first one was four containers, the containers are eight-feet wide, nine-feet-six-inches tall, 40 feet long. We like to create a taller space like in the hallway. This one has three bedrooms, three bathrooms. The second one was 11 containers. This was our test tube baby. It had a guest house, a screened in porch and a pool. We also salvaged pieces and used it for the back of the cook top and the back of the fireplace. It was about 2400 square feet, plus the guest house which was about 1200,� she said.
Living room space inside shipping container home (Credit: Fredman Design Group)
Building with shipping containers isn�t exactly new, but until recently it hasn�t been exactly mainstream either. Now, though, it is becoming a lot more popular, as eco-friendly practices begin to influence the market.
�When you go into the house, you can see the containers, the doors and the numbers, they have numbers on the side. We leave those on so they look pretty authentic looking,� said Crittenden.
Crittenden said shipping container building is great for reducing waste and recycling material.
�It really could be the future of homebuilding. It�s much more green,� she said
