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  • Welcome to my crib!

  • Do you want a tour?

  • This is my bedroom.

  • This is my living room.

  • This is my kitchen.

  • And this is my bathroom.

  • Because I...

  • am in this.

  • There's a whole AirBnB category  just for shipping containers.

  • And behind that is a couple of things.

  • There's this fantasy that you buy  a shipping container for $4,000

  • bring it to a mountain, and you're happy.

  • You're happy now.

  • And the other is that if  you want affordable housing

  • containers homes are the answer according  to this, and this, and this, and this...

  • So is it true?

  • No.

  • About a week ago I drove throughton of fog Warrenton, North Carolina

  • to stay in a shipping container.

  • I brought some food props to make some elaborate shipping container models out of graham crackers

  • which my editor was skeptical that I could pull off

  • but I told her that I used to  have a graham cracker addiction.

  • So...

  • full proof.

  • And then I got to my house.

  • No, the one behind that one.

  • After I bonded with other  guests, owner Michael pulled up

  • who built this development with a tiny house, another shipping container, and my house.

  • It's your home for tonight.

  • Were you nervous cutting such a big hole?

  • I really believe in my team, you know, and they  will tell me if they believe they can't do it.

  • To really re-emphasize, this  is considered a real house.

  • Later on, propped up agains the house, I found  the cut out pieces of my actual container.

  • That is very cool.

  • You can actually see some of  the printing of the container.

  • That creativity is the promise  of shipping containers,

  • which I was gonna demo with my graham  crackers, and it started out great...

  • Look! I did it!

  • But...

  • No! No, no. No.

  • You were right.

  • Here are the supposed pros behind  the shipping container home.

  • It's standardized.

  • This one's 40 by 8. 320 square feet.

  • That means they're stackable.

  • They can be modified withsimple cut through the steel.

  • And you can just crane them... anywhere.

  • They're also super strong because  these things are made to carry stuff

  • in big stacks across the ocean.

  • And best of all, you can get them super  cheap because containers are everywhere.

  • It's still raining a bit and I'm  totally hopped up on sugar now.

  • So I thought I'd give you some reflections  on my first night in the shipping container.

  • It's pretty interesting.

  • I definitely don't notice the size element.

  • I don't feel constrained by that at all.

  • And the way that Michael made the bathroom  large makes it pretty easy to get comfortable.

  • There's this lock on the garage door that you kind of... click shut.

  • Makes it feel like a panic room.

  • Which I actually like.

  • Because it makes me feel like I'm important.

  • It's like a good hotel room with  a real creative touch to it.

  • I'm going to go to sleep now.

  • But something cool isn't necessarily practical.

  • Or easy.

  • Before I partied all night long  in Warrenton, North Carolina.

  • Just gonna eat this bad boy...

  • I talked to two people about  whether shipping containers 

  • are practical affordable housing

  • or if they're kinda of overrated.

  • One is Belinda Carr, an architect  who has a Youtube channel

  • that racks up huge views for videos about stuff like insulation

  • and actually went viral with a video that wasn't super positive about shipping containers.

  • And I talked to Mark Hogan, an  architect who wrote an article  

  • 7 years ago about shipping containers  and is still part of the big debate.

  • There's no debate. I mean... they're garbage.

  • It was a very old argument  when I wrote the article and  

  • someone keeps recycling it every six months.

  • It comes from me in architecture school.

  • Almost every year they were  pushing this idea of modularity...

  • the idea that a home, each part  of a home could be a different box

  • and you could just switch out the  box if you wanted to expand the home.

  • And and we were kind of brainwashed in that sense.

  • Everyone. I'm talking about  everyone in architecture school.

  • And then I got to the real world andstarted like diving into building science

  • how things are constructed, not just  how things look, but how they function.

  • Slowly, this argument about modular  shipping container construction fell apart.

  • It's an interesting look. And it appeals to people because it seems logical.

  • As long as you don't think about  it for more than 5 minutes.

  • One of the first thing you see  with these houses is stacking.

  • The way containers work is  they have these four major  

  • structural points in the ends of the container.

  • They're supposed to bear most of  the weight on those four footings.

  • So when you see them on a ship out in the  ocean, they're all stacked vertically.

  • Once you start offsetting  it or turning it at an angle

  • no other part of the container is truly structural  or can bear the weight of the container.

  • So you have the reinforce it.

  • The same goes for cool windowsand doors, and garages.

  • When you cut a hole, you need to reinforce.

  • The container itself has made  it a very thin, flimsy metal.

  • But because of the geometry  and the corrugations...

  • it basically functions as a box  beam that that makes it stronger

  • which is why you can lift it up with a crane

  • and put it on to a ship.

  • As soon as you start cutting holes in it, it no  longer functions structurally as a beam anymore.

  • If you are able to get labor for  all that to a remote location,

  • you'll still need to buildfoundation for your container 

  • to clear building codes and be stable.

  • That could be a slab, or piersand then it's stuck there.

  • And you need utilities too.

  • So this is actually with a real  foundation, and it's concrete piers.

  • And then we welded the shipping  container onto the piers itself

  • So this is actually considered  a house on a very small scale.

  • Modular design is great, but to make it livable,  

  • you have to add expensive, and  pretty permanent, insulation.

  • So we took a shipping containerwe did spray in insulation...

  • and then we put the tin over that insulation.

  • And then it met the code requirements.

  • The thing that I responded to in the article

  • is the idea that it was a solution  to building low cost housing

  • which is usually what it's presented as.

  • And it's clearly not that.

  • The overall project's not  very expensive for a house

  • but per square footage it adds up.

  • Okay, so shipping containers are  so bad, why are they still a trend?

  • I came to the conclusion that as affordable  modular housing they're wildly overrated.

  • But as cool, fun things to stay  in and to design... they work.

  • Also, I went on Getty images and, yea...

  • shipping container housing for  Ukrainian refugees is a thing.

  • It definitely makes sense for  temporary, really fast housing.

  • But as an environmental or  affordable housing solution?

  • The next morning, I had breakfast.

  • I slept well, I mean, I felt very safe

  • because I've literally seen all the entrances and exits hanging against a wall.

  • It was, go to sleep and take a really nice shower.

  • They had a double shower and heated floor.

  • Let's get some jam on here.

  • I finished my graham cracker nachos and packed up.

  • Later, at home, I went on  Vox Media's music service 

  • and searched for a song that was bittersweet.

  • I don't think I've ever met anyone  who built something

  • out of shipping containers who said they would do it again.

  • The obsession I think is that people  think they've come up with a workaround.

  • And then they don't want to be proven wrong.

  • And so they just dig deeper  and deeper into this hole.

  • I think humans have this  obsession with modularity.

  • It's this vision people have in their head of

  • "oh, if I want to grow my home  or if I want a larger bathroom,

  • I can switch out this container  and bring in another container."

  • And the idea that if my home wants to grow,  

  • I can add in two more containers  and it can grow that way.

  • How did you feel when you  first saw them on the site.

  • There was a sense of excitementbut then I looked at my bank account

  • and was immediately disappointed.

  • Because I realized it was  really going to be a challenge.

  • You have to be a little naive and  arrogant to do something like this 

  • because it is a lot more work and  money than you initially expect.

  • Warrenton, North Carolina is a tiny town but it's  

  • known for the revival Greek and  Roman architecture they built.

  • It's kind of artificial.

  • Car.

  • In the same way that shipping containers are  

  • a form but they aren't  necessarily practical to live in

  • all these columns don't make it easier or more functional

  • but they did connect the people of  Warrenton to a cultural legacy that existed.

  • And that's kinda what we do  with shipping containers too.

  • I mean, we live with stuff that is moved  around in these things, all the time.

  • So why not occasionally expose  them to our daily lives.

  • It might not be practical to live  in them, but it might be meaningful.

  • Even if it's not as easy as it seems.

Welcome to my crib!

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