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Container Cottage taken from Wikipedia entry

In downtown Vancouver’s east side there’s a social housing project that’s gathering acclaim: why? The houses are built from shipping containers.

Now, this concept isn’t new, in fact one could argue that it’s all the rage, but here’s an example of social housing and forward thinking at work.

In Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside , a housing project at 502 Alexander St. has used 12 recycled shipping containers to form the base structure for a three-level, 12-unit development for women. It’s got the look you’d find in a Dwell or Azure spread featuring an eco-project in Denmark or Holland, with its corrugated steel walls, painted navy blue and burnt orange.

From the article:

And, they’re very inexpensive, a good thing for organizations funding social housing. First-time homeowners looking to build an infill home in a downtown laneway or a tight city lot might take note, too. According to Ms. Abbott, the hard construction costs were $82,500 per unit, compared with about $220,000 a unit for a conventional concrete project Atira recently completed nearby, which features 320-sq.-ft. homes, a little larger than this project’s 280- to 290-sq.-ft. units. This project keeps units to a small size, but these containers, like modular components, are able to be combined for those wanting larger spaces.

Want to read more about this project? The full article and a lot of great photos of the buildings and their courtyard-type spaces are all here: National Post / Life.

More stories about architecture.

Photo credit: Wiki Commons image verified by FlickreviewR