Building Sustainable Homes

Today, we live in a world of concrete, steel, and glass. Resources that exist everywhere in abundance and provide us with safety and stability, but at what cost? It is not all about sheer statistics and numbers. Sometimes you need to look further into the future and ask yourself if is this really the best and the most natural way for the human race to exist. The finiteness of some of the most invaluable resources for our survival in a way foretells this horrible truth and leaves us in wonder if is there a solution to our persistent problem.

Like anything else, we as a species should try and do our best to take the best from the situation we are in currently. For example, when it comes to resources, we should most definitely look for an alternative, more renewable ways of obtaining energy and when talking about the construction material for our homes, we should definitely work towards a common goal of making them more sustainable. As simple as that. Take a look at some of the ideas for more cost and time-efficient and sustainable housing solutions.

An unexpected eco-friendly material

When it comes to a solution to this problem that is effective, ingenious, and eco-friendly at the same time the idea of building homes from shipping containers is second to none. What is so brilliant and eco-friendly about them is the fact that as we speak, there are over 17 million shipping containers out there. This means that you don’t need to exploit some new resources in order to create a construction material when you can simply make a home out of the already existing shipping container; a true win-win scenario if I ever saw one.

Advantages of shipping containers in the construction

For years and decades now, these shipping containers are used for shipping goods and as a storage units if the need dictates it. They were also used as temporary housing solutions and field headquarters and hospitals in moments of crisis. From this point to the idea of them being used as a construction material there was only one step. The first advantage of shipping a container over a traditional brick-and-mortar solution is that it is cheap and easy to set up. You can use it as a prebuilt home or simply add it to an already existing home as a new section if you happen to need extra space. They are highly versatile like that.

Durability, security, modifiability

Another advantage of these shipping containers is their security and durability. Because they were built to withstand even the harshest of climate conditions their isolation is nearly perfect and their heat loss during winter is minimal. This reduces your heating bill significantly. The second thing is the fact that they were built to keep what is stored inside safe as well as to be completely flood and fire-proof, which is a great trait for any home to have. Finally, they are highly modifiable with anything from air ducts, and AC units to their own solar panels. This means that when it comes to their utility as a real home their only limitations are their creativity and imagination.

Look towards the world of tomorrow and it is not unlikely that there you will see shipping containers as one of the chief construction materials. Why wouldn’t you be a visionary and embrace this trend, this necessity of the human race, first? A small step for a man but a giant leap for the future of construction and architecture.