They shall beat their swords into plowshares, spears into pruning hooks, [and shipping containers into homes] – Book of Isaiah (paraphrased).
According to shipping analytics firm Windward, 20% of the world’s roughly 9,000 active container ships are currently sitting in traffic jams outside congested ports. Close to 30% of that backlog alone is in China—double the domestic congestion rate in February—where a virulent Omicron wave is snarling supply lines. – Forbes
Global Macro Monitor 
hmm…really bad idea and here is why…https://youtu.be/i7yEDz6bCfU
Thanks, Joe. As Voltaire once said, “Don’t let the prefect ruin the good.”
Yeah, can be made to work well sometimes on a budget if brief anxconditikns suit. This one is from your beloved Cork – it an Architect’s own office. The shipping container is hidden behind the logs.
https://aobarchitects.ie/portfolio-items/oba-offices/
Sorry that should read if ‘brief and conditions suit’…
And a full house in Dublin by somd very good architects…https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/homes-and-property/interiors/seven-shipping-containers-become-a-family-home-1.2983804
The shipping container idea is a dangerous one to mis-apply to mass housing. Shipping containers are mass fabricated, but the alterations to turn them into homes are bespoke and conducted in-situ. They tend to retain an image of being predominantly prefabricated but actually aren’t. So, much conflation like in the TV segment above occurs in the mind of the general public. Importantly using in-situ contractors means you have to pay the going local rate for labour on a one-off basis. Contractors won’t be expecting more work from you as Joe public and will be usually incentivised to max their profit. This is quite different to the senario for prefabricated modular structures and procedures for erecting them which can be systemised start to finish and economies of scale can kick in. It is a factory system. A lot of labour can be paid for the going rate in another location where ever it happens to be factory is. Of course competition & no monoply is required for cost savings to be passed on where factory production and large firms are concerned.
The estimator in his video at ghd end alludes to labour cost element as being more significant probably than materials. Of course, he excluded a lot of significant costs – land, site prep. and exterior finishes were three. Profit was another. As mentioned in the video that I passed on first as soon as the dwelling changes from one ( at just 272 ft sq net) to more containers many extra structural, site, and external envelope costs kick in too.
I mean most families need about 1300 sq ft or so for a modest 3 bed house. So, about five 40 ft containers each or so? A modest studio apartment is still about 400ft so you would need two.
So, that is enough from me on that!
I think my grandmother was born in that house!
Ha ha…might have been around that size alright…
Globalized commerce only works as long as petroleum products are cost effective. That or entire shipping fleets go nuclear. Not likely. Given climate change, and the fact that oil is not a renewable resource, I hate to say it but, its entirely possible buggy whips will be making a huge come back sooner than later.