Low Income Housing Using Shipping Containers.

Hi, I'm Derek Scoville, a freshman at WT Woodson High School.

Recently I was challenged to think of a way to take an object about the size of a 20 x 8 x 9'6 shipping container and use principles of a circular economy to address a civil issue.

I chose to address and think up a curious solution to affordable housing.

Now, of course, I could not build an entire complex of these buildings because that would be nearly impossible for just one person to do, so I instead have made models, both digital and physical, to see if it is possible.

Because the shipping containers themselves are already built and recycled, little money would be used on the actual construction of the room, but things such as insulation and facilities, restoration, and maybe even scaffolding would be considered separate from this sum. Regardless, the purpose of this shipping container housing is to create a lot of affordable low-income housing while using the stackable nature of the shipping containers to the advantage of the complex.

In this instructable, I'll walk you through my thought process and show why I think that a low shipping container 'ziggurat' could be an effective solution to low-income housing.

Considering that this is not an actual building project; I could not make a full-scale replica, so no, I can not give instructions on how to build an entire apartment complex. However, I was able to make a 1 to 308.4 scale replica, which I then printed out on a 3d printer. With this replica, I did some experiments to test its durability with things like wind resistance, earthquakes, and rain. (Flooding and fires are out of the question for now as plastic has different molecular properties than metal; also burning plastic smells.)

So to make a small list for the experiments,

1: Computer

2: Some Cad software (your choice)

3: A 3D printer (again, your choice)

4: A medium-sized bowl

5: Jelo mix

6: Water

7: A fan

8: Adhesive *when necessary*

9: A Freezer

(Toothpicks were used in the making of this project, however, they were not intended to be, so I can not list them as a necessary material, but I do have to mention them).

Recently I watched the movie "Ready Player One" based on the book series by Ernest Cline, and the beginning setting of the movie is this place called The Stacks which were trailer houses stacked on top of each other loosely and with little to no scaffolding. These stacks could range from 10 to 22 trailers high and were often times cobbled together just enough that they can sometimes not fall to pieces or explode.

Obviously, my idea was not exactly the same, but after visiting a construction site near my house, a site that used to house low-income housing apartments, I had the idea to take what was either interesting or safe about them and remove what was too dangerous, and then replace it with a safer idea. That may be a long way to say it, but it's truthful. Regardless, I had the idea to create a low-income housing structure that could house a lot of people in a relatively small space. I also wanted to be able to add on (to some degree) to the stacking prospect of the near modular housing, I will go into detail about this later.

With all that in mind, I hunkered down and got to work.

To begin I started to research studio apartments, and I soon discovered that most were too big, however, there was a newer style of small living space I had found called a micro flat which is essentially a studio apartment that can sometimes be as small as 150 square feet and having an individual structure of 160 square feet I knew that I could work with it. Yes, for the most part, many micro flats are indeed up to code.

One image shown is of an actual micro flat, two are of what I imagine the inside of one of the shipping container micro flats would look like and what a double-wide could be, and the other is a public laundromat; made because there is only so much space to be used in the container. For the same reasons, electricity, HVAC, and plumbing will be run through a similar process, such as a boiler room. The actual apartment itself is intended to function the same way that a regular studio apartment functions, in that it will keep tenants alive and comfortable enough.

The apartments, for the most part, will be suited for most needs, such as being insulated to protect tenants from the outside temperatures; while this would slightly decrease the space available it would also slightly reinforce the container. Inside the insulation is where the rest of the facilities are located such as electricity, HVAC, and plumbing. The caps placed on the ends of the pipes, wires, vents, etc are to keep everything safely circulated, but also to anticipate the future placement of shipping containers.

After considering all of the important facilities and where they will go, it's time to work on the recreation of the tenants; placing things like beds, tables, windows, seats, doors, etc. Now because the interior design is (for the most part) up to the tenant, I can't force how they may want their home to look, but I can make a prediction of what I think some may look like, such as the models of the single room and double room shown above.

The model of the single container apartment starts off with a person who is roughly 6ft tall to show the scale. in the back is the bathroom section consisting of necessities such as a sink, toilet, and shower, and obviously, it holds more than just that. The bathroom section is separated from the main portion of the room by a sliding door. Near the sliding door is the lofted bed above the desk and chair, the bed itself can be accessed by the ladder on the side, and while it may seem that the space between the bed and the ceiling may seem small, it is not nearly as small as the gap between bunks on the USS Intrepid, a famous submarine. Under the bed are the desk and a chair with a nearby microwave and oven-stove combo for cooking food. Adjacent to that there is a fridge and some cabinets for storage. Across the room is the location of the window, the non-bathroom sink, and a picture/image to keep you sane. That concludes the tour of the single container apartment.

The double container apartment is much like its single counterpart, except now that it has two container shells instead of one, so I won't be going over every little thing in it, namely the repeated items. Because of the expansion, the apartment now has enough volume to accommodate two tenants (also roughly 6 ft tall for scale) and their furniture. To start the new additions to the double container apartment, a giant hole has been cut into the sides of the walls to allow for the double to actually be double the space, and with that new additions can be added, such as a bed on the ground and a bookshelf, there is also the introduction of the living room table, a couch, a second window, a carpet, and even a TV in this case. Aside from what was carried over from the single container apartment, that about concludes the tou8r of the double container apartment.

Even though we have the inside of the shipping containers modeled, what was made will not matter if the pieces of the larger complex do not fit together, so for my physical model, I decided to do the hard thing and make and test the scale model complex.

The scale is 1 foot equals 1 mm, there is a better way to say that, but I'm blanking on it.

To start I decided to make the complex as if it were to be the most complete that it could possibly be, and to start I found that the maximum height of full shipping container stacks is roughly 9 containers high, so I adjusted for the live loads of the people in the complex and made a 7 containers tall structure (However the structure would still be functional with less than 7 stories and/or wit a somewhat incomplete top story) that progressively gets wider as you go lower. Each layer of apartments is separated by differing widths of concrete slabs, used to allow for movement outside the apartments and between stories. The bottom layer is the thickest of all the slabs (3 feet thick when scaled) as it needs to support the most weight and to help, the slabs above get progressively thinner so as to not add on to the weight exerted onto the bottom slab. Beneath the bottom slab is the foundation of the complex, an 18 x 1 x 1 mm thick spike dug deep into the ground which keeps the building in place. As shown above, holes have been cut in the slabs, the circular one is for a pillar placed for the support, and the two square holes are for separate elevator shafts, both 7 x 5.66 mm, and finally, the large hole is for the stairwell, the yellow zig-zag shown above.

Each and every layer of the ziggurat-like complex was modeled individually and printed layer by layer so as to not overload any computer. The bumps and holes found on the model are to allow for proper placement of the containers on the slabs; if they were not there then everything would slide all over the place; think of them as the bolts, and think of any adhesive to be the nuts. All of this was to ensure the complex could be assembled like a puzzle in the real world and then be used in a small unspecified number of experiments. Those are on the next page.

As stated before, the physical model is of the shipping container apartment complex scaled down to be 3d printed out and tested for structural stability; the mentality behind the tests is that if the model can survive simulations of select natural events, then so too could a full-scale complex. The tests consist of simulating an earthquake, strong winds, flooding, and freezing temperatures. Before testing can begin, however, certain edits must be done to the parts of the model in order for them to fit together; this needs to happen because often times the 3d printer will add on to the piece via build plate or supports, and more often than not, residue will find its way into the holes and need to be removed. One such fix is using a power drill to widen the holes that were not the correct size, another may be to cut the connections between the studs, and sometimes the studs themselves are oversized due to the printer, so trimming excess parts of the circumference may be necessary.

Aside from that, the model is shown above along with evidence of the experiments.

THAT IS HOW IT SHOULD HAPPEN. Due to a multitude of malfunctions in tools used and confusing schedules that did not align properly, I was not able to create a fully completed model, however, when things go awry you improvise, and so I did. I was able to use the top 3 layers of the model I had so far and construct them together. Then for the foundation, I found that the diameter of the average toothpick was about the same size as the diameter of the pre-drilled holes, so using the holes I was able to cut the toothpicks into 1 cm long pieces and stick them in as makeshift foundations. The tests still worked with the smaller model, maybe even better than they would have with the 7-story structure, regardless, I was still able to make the bowl full of jello and use it in the tests (Flavor does not matter, I just grabbed a pack of instant jello and followed the instructions on the package, and I can not divulge into the process of that as each different brand and type of jello or jello-like substitutes have different instructions). I then placed the small model in the bowl of jello and began the testing.

The earthquake test consisted of taking the bowl the model was in and tapping the edge of the jello lightly, once done with that I took it up a notch and violently shook the bowl with two hands across one foot of distance for 20 seconds, any longer and the jello would have flown clean out of the bowl. For the wind test, I blew a fan at the model to see if it would fall apart, it didn't, and I don't have a photo of that because I was too busy holding the fan. During the flooding test, I filled the bowl with water while the model was still in the bowl, this was to test the waterproofing of the model which I soon realized was rather foolish due to the fact that the model is plastic, regardless, no water ended up on the inside of the containers. The final test was the one that tested the freezing capacity of the model, in which I placed the entire bowl of gelatin in the freezer for several hours until about half of the gelatin was frozen solid. Then I proceeded to test the brittleness of the model by first tapping it lightly and soon hitting it with a hammer, needless to say, it did not break, and even on inspection, no new blemishes were found afterward.

First of all, I would like to say that when starting this project I had almost no idea how to approach the instructable portion of it, and honestly, I still don't fully understand, but about halfway through I realized several things I could have been doing better, but it was too much of a time sink by then and too much of a risk to the project if I were to change anything, so I didn't, and for this, I sincerely apologize. Aside from that, I would like to say that while my idea for modular housing may seem either lazy or wildly too convoluted, I truly do believe that, at the very least, something similar to my idea would be both physically possible and an effective solution to affordable housing while recycling the pre-owned shipping containers. Again I sincerely apologize for the mishap regarding the physical model, sometimes things just don't go your way and you have to deal with them however you can. I thank you for sitting through my rambling and hope that even if you may not have found this presentation informative or persuasive, you at least found it somewhat entertaining. I am content with the final product and I am glad I did this project, have a lovely day.

PS. I did not realize there was an extension to the due date until after I had to improvise, obviously, if I had then I wouldn't be writing this part and I would probably have a full physical model, but I do not regret my choices and I'm rather glad to be done. I also realize that there are no images of the fully assembled model, either physically or digitally, but that is because of the whole improvising thing, and that if I had tried to make a digital image of it, then my computer would crash before I would be able to hit the print screen key, that is why I focused more on the inside when it came to the digital aspect of this project.