Innovative architects turn used shipping containers into homes

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2006/06/16/carollloyd.DTL

Carol Lloyd
SFGate.com
June 2006

Rammed earth, sod, yak wool, reclaimed wood, oriented-strand board, straw ... nowadays, the smorgasbord of offerings in alternative building methods and materials is staggeringly abundant, if not a little confusing.

On the one hand, you've got architectural innovators advocating prefabrication to make a better "housetrap." With high-tech products and cutting-edge mass production, they are trying to develop a new housing methodology: designerly, affordable, energy-efficient houses built to withstand anything, come hell or high water. On the other hand, there are the ecological purists who have turned to older methods of shelter building. They embrace sustainable resources like straw and dirt, making homes as natural as a footprint in the sand.

The problem with the prefab movement is that it, like most new construction, typically uses less-than-sustainable resources, like steel and wood. (True factory production could indeed reduce our ecological footprint by eliminating the waste typical of construction, but that's still quite far from reality.) And the problem with environmentally sound but old-fashioned building techniques is that they require too much time and skilled labor to solve our society's need for affordable green housing on a grand scale.

So where is an eco-friendly homeowner or builder to turn?

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