In Canada, shipping containers as housing win converts

QUEBEC-based Maison Idekit is promoting homes built from shipping containers at a cost of C$175,000 (US$160,800) for a 9,144 square metre house.

Bernard Morin and his wife Jocelyne Labelle's house in the St Adele ski resort area in the Laurentian Mountains north of Montreal, was inspired by a project as an architectural student which involved the transportation containers that eventually led to arctic living space on Baffin Island.

"People are surprised because they think the space is only the size of a single container, but really the amount of space to play with is infinite," Mr Morin told The Canadian Press.

He believes that the ability to make luxury homes like those produced by his company Maison Idekitis is possible by providing a traditional sloping, but agreed that is still a way off from making it mainstream housing in Canada.

 

The US and Jamaica has seen a uptake in container housing perceived as a cheap and sturdy solution during a time of a housing slump and attractive for those states prone to hurricanes and severe weather.

Victoria, BC-based Zigloo company owner also boasts a home made of eight containers into a three-storey home of 6,096 square metre which were previously destined for India to be recycled into other steel products.

Growing interest in eco-housing by containers is strongest in California, said the owner of Toronto-based Ecopods, Dwight Doersken who builds single and multiple space units, but believes government committal to amending building codes would be a win-win scenario for housing and would take off worldwide.

Mr Dewey believes reticence of consumers is as much to do with making a leap of faith that the metal boxes units can become a living space, adding "it's just unfamiliarity but I think people, and the world in general, are looking in that direction."

(Source: www.schednet.com)