Shipping containers as housing

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050925/news_1h25contain.html

Jeff Amy
Newhouse News Service
September 2005

MOBILE, Ala. – Shipping containers could be one solution to the problem of housing people displaced by Hurricane Katrina, researchers at Auburn University say.

Professors and students are experimenting with three of the steel boxes, trying to figure out the easiest and best ways to turn them into temporary living units.

"You can give somebody a warm, dry room to stay in while they're trying to get their house fixed up," said D.K. Ruth, a professor in Auburn's College of Architecture, Design and Construction.

The idea is to cut an opening in the side and install walls making three rooms inside a container, which is typically 8 feet wide, 40 feet long and 9 feet high. The units would have lights and air conditioning, but not bathrooms or kitchens.

The boxes would have to be serviced by communal kitchens, toilets and shower facilities, in the same way a tent city would, but people would have private spaces protected from the weather, project team members said.

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