Adam Kalkin isn't the only architect to make homes out of shipping containers. A handful of architects, including Jennifer Siegal and Lot-Ek, began using them ten years ago as a gritty reaction against the tidy white surfaces of modernism. But nobody has employed shipping containers more inventively than Kalkin, a New Jersey architect and artist who has used them to design luxurious homes, museum additions, and refugee housing.
In architectural circles, Kalkin is regarded as something of an oddball. He began his talk at the Urban Center in New York Tuesday night by playing the first five minutes of a Jerry Lewis movie, followed by the actor's acceptance speech at the Academy Awards last month. His website includes lessons on hitting a tennis forehand and a selection of songs to sing after taking antidepressants. Years ago Kalkin shaved while delivering a lecture at the Whitney Museum.
His talk this week was tied to the publication of Quik Build: Adam Kalkin's ABC of Container Architecture ($49.95), which shows 32 of his projects in all their odd ingenuity, including Bunny Lane, a home he built for himself with a 19th century clapboard cottage inside an industrial hanger, and the Push Button House, a furnished room that unfolds from a container with hydraulic walls.
"Adam continues to be subversive, and subvert what architecture is supposed to be," design historian Alastair Gordon said by way of introduction in the panel discussion that followed Kalkin's presentation.
For all his artsy provocations, Kalkin's strategy makes some practical sense. After all, shipping containers are cheap, mobile and highly recyclable. The Kalkin project that puts these qualities to best use is the Quik House, a prefab home ($150 a square foot) made from six shipping containers that can be completed in three months. A smaller version, called the A Pod ($50,000), will be available later this year.
"Quik Build" arrives as modernist prefab has begun to lose its bargain appeal after years of hype. The most popular cost from $250 to $400 a square foot including installation, which is more than a thrifty consumer would pay for a home built by an architect and contractor. Last summer the Museum of Modern Art in New York opened Home Delivery, a show that celebrated prefab's design innovations but cast doubt on its current economics. Barry Bergdoll, curator of the show, suggested on Tuesday that Kalkin's containers could be used to provide low-cost housing in places like the Ninth Ward of New Orleans.
Can Kalkin provide a viable alternative to conventional housing? On Tuesday he said that he had never even considered himself a prefab architect until Bunny Lane showed up on the cover of a book about prefab. He's one of architecture's more unorthodox practitioners, but original thinking may be what's called for as architecture works its way through what Kalkin calls "a crisis of relevance."
Browse the gallery of shipping container architecture
Related: Would You Live in a Concert Hall?
Related: Would You Live in a Hemp House?
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Recent Comments | 21 Total
March 5, 2009 at 6:50pm by Keri Miksza
Kalkin IS an odd ball. But repurposing shipping containers (born in 1956) is not. This idea can be found in "How Buildings Learn" by Stewart Brand (better known for the Whole Earth Catalog). Dick York of Sausalito CA bought up old Land Sea containers in 1975 and started to rent them out. Most used them for storage, but Brand used his as a library in 1990. Granted, it is not as sleek (nor made out of 12 containers) as the ones feature here, but it's not a new idea. These guys are all taking it a step further...and clearly blurring the order of function and form that modern architecture is built upon. Nice article. ;-)
March 5, 2009 at 10:31pm by Richard Poole
Interesting albeit impractical idea. I would be impressed if they could build a home that actually cost less than the norm. It really annoys me when people apply the money is no object principle. If I wanted to spend 300 to 400 per square foot I could build a house out of damn near anything! And I wouldn't have to open a hanger door to change my clothes!
March 5, 2009 at 11:35pm by Emily L
I think Kalkin's designs are fantastic, and I have been following them for a few years now. I'm also intrigued by the importance of color in the structures, many of them wouldn't be the same without that orange!
March 6, 2009 at 8:00am by Noah Robischon
What's the air circulation like in these? I'm imagining it's too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter. Still, I wouldn't mind planting one of these at a secluded spot in the mountains.
March 6, 2009 at 10:30pm by Robert Siegal
The architectural creativity is very innovative. I became very interested in this several months ago and found the best resource for this information is at the ISBU Association. I believe you will see the technology and use is far more practical than demonstrated by Kalkin or the other above mentioned architects. They have their place but... http://www.isbu-info.org
March 7, 2009 at 7:39pm by Warren Hunsberger
So, tell us if YOU would live in a shipping container!
March 8, 2009 at 9:01am by Russell Turnage
Earthquake proof housing is not oddball. My car withstands all sorts of vibrations that my house wouldn't shelter me from. They can be used as a sealed pontoon like foundation in flood prone areas. It's stick and stone construction that's oddball and old fashioned, keep mine mobile and I'll defragment your city with them.
March 9, 2009 at 2:05pm by Ivars Ulinskis
Unless the container is actually shipped somewhere...
March 9, 2009 at 9:49pm by Thomas Harris
Might be fun and you can't call me trailer trash: no wheels
March 10, 2009 at 11:37am by Eric Laub
For my Deck and Engine colleagues in the maritime industry...with a little ingenuity you'll never have to leave your ship (or jobsite) again!
March 11, 2009 at 3:05pm by John Gleichweit
There's a company out of Florida that has been repurposing containers into homes for years. The containers are storm and earthquake resistant, and are a relatively low-cost alternative to conventional construction or traditional manufactured homes. They were even featured on an episode of Bob Vila's Home Again, with a 4-container home built in South Carolina. http://www.bobvila.com/HowTo_Library/Building_a_Container_House-Subject_...
April 6, 2009 at 10:50pm by Joel Dechant
No way. While I enjoy reading about his beat-of-a-different-drummer take on, well, everything, I highly doubt that living in a corrugated metal box could be that comfortable, especially in a humid place like Japan (where I live now).
April 16, 2009 at 10:09pm by Jazzy Jeff
These all look like metal barns. Does Kalkin live in the country somewhere?? No chance I would live in one of these. I've seen the DeMaria container projects from LA and they aren't barns, they're real modern and sleek cribs.
June 1, 2009 at 3:46pm by Travis Price
We hipster architects used them extensively in the early 1970's in New Mexico with pizzaz as well as superinsulation green machine thinking. Nothing new here. Most of this pre-fab wash ends up like all 3 year waves of pre-fab hype, they are reinvented, then always die and reappear as the real facts unfold and the cost/sf is always the same as normal arch/builder on site design. Rarely if ever is the real cost less, it only appears that way as the next sweat equity project is published. Stick to a well versed modernist architect and you'll be just fine. Travis Price
June 1, 2009 at 8:25pm by David Arthur
Some of the building designs using intermodal shipping containers have been truly beautiful. The designs illustrated in this article are not the best of the lot. Although the image that immediately comes to mind is that of a dank metal trailer, buildings made from these inexpensive and readily available materials can be comfortable, energy efficient, and resource responsible. Think of the often written about modular homes by Michelle Kaufman. Containers essentially occupy the same space as the building modules utilized in Kaufman's designs. It is only a matter of architectural creativity to make container buildings something desirable. A container home might not be for everyone, but neither is a resource intensive drywall palace McMansion. www.GreenBusinessOwner.com
July 16, 2009 at 6:48pm by Austin Strickland
Oh my goodness.. I never thought that a container would be more luxurious than my own room.. its amazing..
I do agree with the comment that these houses are cheap than usual and it can even withstand natural calamities like earthquake due to its flexibility in movement.
But I would disagree with the comment that this idea is impractical. I would love to reside in a container house like the ones in the pics above. I mean, in this era of economic constraints, one can think of a lot of similar options to minimize one's expense.
Well, its a whole debate that whether they are useful or not but one thing is for sure that the containers in the pics are awesome and one can think of living in it easily.
I'll look for more similar houses so that I can think of one of my own.. ;)
Austin
http://www.allegrofreight.com
July 22, 2009 at 5:16pm by Kell Bill
OK a bit patronizing here..but i guess its alright:
Soon the recession will cut into peoples lives. They will be living inside containers, get their online nursing degree ( because medical is too expensive ) - will lead a taboo life and go prehistoric. :D
October 18, 2009 at 12:01pm by Cesc Tottle
Fantastic design, Cool
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November 1, 2009 at 1:25pm by Andrew Snowball
I know people who have converted shipping containers into offices but never a home. Fascinating to see what can be done with one.. Amazing. Tempting to run my company from one.
November 13, 2009 at 10:15am by Sam a
No doubt that the design is excellent but no one can live in container or we may consider how big is this contain which can transfer anything from place to anther.
http://www.whatsinsidethecontainer.com/