Modular Shelters, An Amazing New Concept (Patent Pending)

Introduction: Shelter is one of the basic needs for civilization (Figure 1). With increasing population, surge of migration to places with greater job opportunities, increasing price of real estate and environmental concerns, alternative housing must be considered with great importance. While there are hundreds of designers and manufacturers of modular homes, they are hard to be nested for expansion for family or community living. With only a little modification (we call it “cutting the corners”) to shipping containers, unlimited nesting options can be achieved and the affordability can be brought to everyone who wants to have their own shelter, called home. This new concept will offer spacious livable rooms instead of pigeonholes like that of the existing 8ft wide container cabins. Even when standard containers are connected to form bigger boxes without modifying the boundary of it, the shape of it still looks ugly and nesting is virtually next to impossible.

As this new concept will produce cabins for multi-use, switching for a different usage will be very easy and cost-effective. Aesthetic appearance, transportability, ease of fabrication, environment friendliness, durability, multiple usage, unlimited nesting option, expandability and many other advantageous features will make these cabins widely acceptable to a wide range of market.

These cabins will mostly be used as temporary accommodations and thus regularity issues will be quite relaxed and not play a big role in it. And even if it does, the structure and the modification will be easy to be certified. It may be noted that countries like Australia, England, USA and many other developed countries already has building codes for container shelters and housings.

Figure 1: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Motivation: With the rapid development in the Western Provinces of Canada in Oil Sand, Gas and Mining industries, migration to certain location of these provinces is creating enormous housing issues. Many of the ones, who moved into places like the province of Alberta and British Columbia, are now living in tents with no toilet facilities and basic needs. Winter will bring additional problems for these people.

Homelessness and the social concerns created by the homeless people is a big issue even in a developed country like Canada. Canada’s government takes significant responsibility of providing support for the basic needs like food, shelter and health. Providing low-cost housing and temporary shelters, especially during winter season will be most economically done with this concept. In addition to that, natural disasters like flooding, landslide, and cyclone etc. calls for emergency shelters for the affected people.

Olympic2008 will need accommodations for thousands of visitors from around the world. Temporary shelters closer to the event area in Whistler on suitable sites or even at the backyards may bring in lot of revenue. After the event these may still be used as cheaper accommodations for the visitors, may be used for other purpose or be sold.

In places like Fort McMurray in Northern Alberta and other Northern interior areas where oil sand, mining and gas exploration and/or distribution boom has created lot of job opportunities, housing hasn’t grown at the same pace. As some of these projects and jobs are of temporary nature, building permanent structure does not carry much economical sense. Temporary housing that are cheaper and quicker to manufacture and install and can be easily moved to different sites are more feasible for this kind of need. For community living and saving space, these modular housing with the option of expanding through nesting is the most feasible ones. In addition to being economic this will be a very environmental friendly system.

Building materials in under-developed countries are usually scarce. Great amount of destructions are caused to the forestry for building materials. Using this housing concept, old and rejected containers can be helpful in both environmental issues as well as economic.

Another big motivation is creating schools, cyclone shelters and urban dwellings (ref: http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/documents/Slumdwellers-complete.pdf) for low-income families in the under-developed countries. These cabins will be strong enough to face extremely rough weather and also will be virtually non-destructive in case of fire. For more economic construction of these cabins in under-developed countries like many Asian and African countries, doors and other fittings and equipment from the ship scrap yards or locally available materials may be used. In rural areas, these modules can be installed on pillars facilitating farming, storage or poultry farms underneath.

With global political situation, movement of defense/security forces is becoming a daily affair. Transportable shelter like these cabins will make it easy for the defense department and these being quite strong structures will be less vulnerable to explosives.

Environmental impact: As the used shipping containers will be recycled and all the fixtures and furnisher can be made from environmental friendly sources, this system will have positive impact on environment in addition to lessen the destruction of forestry for housing construction.

Market: As already mentioned there is huge market in the remote industrial sites for this type of housing. In Canada native reserves are one of the biggest potential market where many of the residents live in trailers and ill maintained shelters, as they are very expensive to maintain. These will be very attractive for vacation homes. This is a quick solution for housing where lot of migration is happening and the traditional housing cannot cope up with the demand. As this system can be installed on leased land, it will be extremely economical to own one and will be excellent attraction for rental properties where one may expect high return from small investment. There is no reason for this housing system not to be used in towns and cities, as the system can be made quite esthetically presentable. Appendix 2 is a nice article on housing from shipping containers. There is huge potential for the under-developed countries, especially for cyclone shelters in their coastal belt, schools and community centers etc. Actually the market for these modular homes will have no boundary. Non-boxed shape look of nested and individual cabins will be aesthetically more acceptable to all customers compared to that for conventional box-shaped ones.

House construction in remote locations: It is sometimes not very cost effective to construct houses from the scratch in remote location. This involves transportation of a number of facilities, resources, manpower etc. and takes way longer than the installation of modular cabins.

Facilities needed: It will not need any high technology, facilities, high tech manpower and experience for converting shipping containers into these modular cabins. A fairly big shed with overhead crane/s and/or forklift truck/s, capable of handling around 10tons along with some welding, flame cutting and joinery facilities may be sufficient. These may be constructed in any part of the world for local marketing.

Quality and affordability: The containers to be used in this modular housing are the used ones from shipping industries. These containers are built from high strength corrosion resistant steel (CorTen) plates and thus are very light but durable and require very little maintenance. They are easily transportable and are much secured. These used containers are sold at very cheap price (less than $2200) and are available in huge quantities. Cost of modification and transportation will be insignificant. Final cost will depend on the internal fixtures and furnishing.

Construction:

General: The cabins can be constructed in few different methods depending on customer need and transportation and handling facilities. Though 20ft cabins can be handled easily, 40ft cabins can be made into more or less a self-contained unit and will be more spacious. The 40ft wide diamond cabin shown in Drawing 1 can be made from two 20ft containers and a 40ft container. The corner sections needs to be fabricated. Customers can buy shipping containers from any sources if they choose to and the corner pieces may be supplied by a fabricator/supplier or their design may be supplied under license. Alternatively three 40ft containers as shown in Drawing 2, with two outer ones chopped at the corners to achieve 45degree for nesting can be assembled together to produce the diamond shape. This may be a cheaper alternative, as not much fabrication will be needed. The standard containers are 8½ft in high leaving internal height of 7ft 10inches compared to standard height of 8ft in average residential buildings in Canada. So height should not be an issue. In case of a need for greater height than 8ft, increasingly popular 9ft 6” high shipping containers may be used. Alternatively, adding spacer between each floor for multi-storied installations can extend the cabin height. In multi-storied installation spacer may be needed for running plumbing, HVAC and electrical systems etc.

Drawing 1: 40ft Wide Diamond Cabin construction with two 20ft and one 40ft containers

Drawing 2: A 40ft Wide Diamond Cabin with three 40ft containers

20ft cabin modules can be manufactured from two 20ft containers modified as shown in Figure 2 thru Figure 4 (B-Shaped Module) and Figure 6 (D-Shaped Module). Figure 5 shows an apartment complex with the B-shaped modules. Note that the front part of the module produces a corridor for both single row and face-to-face assemblies. In case of multi-tier assembly in a single row there will be no need of fabrication of additional corridor for accessing the cabins. In a face-to-face and multi-tier assembly the corridor will be doubled in width and at the wider section in the middle of each facing modules enough space will be created to install spiral stairs or small elevators. Also note that this would not be possible without the proposed concept of angular walls.

Figure 2: Twin Cabin module with common washroom and

4ft wide corridor from two 20ft shipping containers

Figure 3: 20ft B-Shaped Twin-Cabin Module

furnished with common washroom.

Figure 4: Two 20ft B-Shaped Twin-Cabin Module with

common washroom and corridor, assembled face to face

Figure 5: Dormitory Complex from the

Twin-Cabin B-Shaped modules

(Tiers can be added on top with spiral stairs or elevators

at the centre of corridor sections)

Figure 6: Design of a 20ft D-Shaped

Twin-Cabin Module with corridor

(Washroom modules etc. will be added on the sides)

Figure 6 and Figure 7 illustrates D-Shaped modules with and without corridor. Again, because of 45degree corners these modules can be easily nested to form family accommodation as shown in Figure 8 and Figure 9.

Figure 7: D-Shaped Modules without corridors

using one-and-half 20ft shipping containers

Figure 8: Nesting of three D-Shaped Modules into a housing

Figure 9: Nesting of three D-Shaped Modules

with washroom modules

Figure 10 is showing how three 40ft-shipping containers will be modified to form a Full-Diamond Shaped cabin (825sft floor space). These sections will be transported and assembled at site. The internal partitions will be custom designed as per requirement.

Figure 10: Typical three part container modification and assembly

Figure 11: Three 40ft containers modified into a D-Shaped apartment

Figure 11 shows how three 40ft containers can be modified and attached to form a D-Shaped cabin (800sft floor space) with corridor in the front. Note that the rear corners have not been cut to compensate part of the space lost in forming the corridor in the front. Figure 12 shows one of the possible internal arrangements for this module producing a 2-bedroom apartment while Figure 13 showing these modules can be nested on its sides with space in between for added light and ventilation. Option of adding a balcony at the rear is also shown in the arrangement. This will take away the box shape look from rear view.

Figure 12: Internal arrangement of a 2-Bedroom apartment

from a D-Shaped module

Figure 13: Nesting of three D-Shaped modules into a complex

Figure 14: Two 40ft containers can be modified to form a

twin-cabin module with a corridor

Figure 14 showing how two 40ft containers can be modified to form a twin-cabin module with a corridor with attached washroom for each cabin. While Figure 15 shows a possible internal arrangement for the 40ft twin-cabin module, Figure 16 shows possible arrangement of shelters for industry site.

Figure 15: One of the possible internal arrangements of the above module shown without corridor

Figure 16: Example of temporary shelters for industry sites

or Hotel room arrangement

Figure 17: Possible configuration of a three bedroom module

Figure 17 illustrates a possible internal arrangement of a 40ft full diamond shaped cabin and Figure 18 shows how 12 of the same modules can be nested into a housing complex. Figure 19 is showing the same modules in a row of three similar to that of Figure 13. Figure 20 shows how five of these modules can be nested in each floor for a housing complex. Again, note that these nesting are only possible because the corners of the modules are cut at 45degrees and not at any other angle.

Figure 18: Possible configuration of an apartment complex

Figure 19: Typical nesting of modular houses

Figure 20: Nesting of five 40ft wide diamond cabins

into an apartment complex

Figure 21: Apartment Complex with 40ft Modified Diamond Cabins

(Details not shown. Note: One corner not modified for money saving)

Figure 21 shows marquee shaped modules (one corner not cut) nested into an apartment complex. Note that though this shape results into increased floor space the box-look shape is note there for the whole configuration.

Figure 22: Possible configuration of a School/Cyclone Shelter

Figure 22 shows an school/cyclone shelter, shopping complex or hotel with the marquee shaped modules. D-Shaped modules shown in Figure 11 can also achieved this configuration.

Drawing 3: Multi-storied nesting of 20ft cabins

Drawing 3 is showing how the 20ft cabins can be nested into multi-storied housing complex. Drawing 4 shows some possible internal arrangements of 20ft container cabin modules. Drawing 5 showing few of the unlimited options for nesting with the 40ft standard diamond cabins.

Drawing 4: Some possible 20ft cabin design and nesting options

Drawing 5: Few of the unlimited nesting options with 40ft diamonds

The containers will be fitted with welded tabs to lock them together as shown in Drawing 6. These tabs can also be on the panels of the containers, suitably located on the corrugation as shown in Drawing 7.These can be manufactured in blocks for easy transportation and assembly needing low capacity rigging and handling equipment and can be designed to connect together by clamping, bolts or welding. The joints can be filled up with foam sealants and or sealed cover plates etc. for water/weather tightness. Please note that the basic difference between this concept and the existing cabins in the market which are not only narrow, they can not be nested with lot of freedom and produces ugly looking box shape structures.

The container at the middle can be purchased as open sided container if it is readily available and a cheaper option. For mass production, if enough supply of used containers is not available at any geographic location, the skeleton structure of these containers can be manufactured with ISO corners and appropriate sections and may be paneled as needed. Depending on the geographic location and the labour cost this may be a cheaper alternative than buying used containers.

Drawing 6: Connection between containers

Drawing 7: Container connection on top sill

Insulation: As the containers are steel structures, they will be affected by weather in both cold and hot climate. Proper insulation in the inside surface of the boundary of these cabins is needed. Clip-on type panels made of mineral wool or Styrofoam sheets encapsulated with plywood or veneer may be used for easy installation and removal. Alternatively, thin sheets of metal or plywood can be fitted on both side of the corrugated boundary wall and the annular space can be filled with foam type insulation materials. The other option is to fill up the corrugations with Styrofoam sheets of a thickness equal to the depth of corrugation and hold them in place by thin sheets or plywood or sidings on the outer face. Alternatively, the inner and outer side of the walls may be covered with lamination and foam insulation can be injected into the annular space through multiple holes from the bottom of the wall. Spray insulation can also be an option. For the bottom surface the space between the beams can be filled up with mineral wool or other kinds of insulations. The outer surface of the roof can be covered roofing insulation and coverings sealed properly as per building codes.

Partitions: For inside partitions, channels may be screwed on both floor and roof and panels made of light but strong laminations like honeycomb board may be slide in and tied with proper fasteners and moldings. This way the orientation inside the cabin can be easily modified as needed.

Concerns: There may be some specific concerns on the followings depending on the state/province, country and location

Local Regulatory issues
Paints and other chemicals used in the container (containers will be coated with new paint and the floor will be chemically cleaned, dried and sealed covered with thick plastic before any flooring will be done)
Structural integrity of the used containers
Insulation, Heating and Ventilation issues
Moisture, condensation and mould issues etc. (walls may be covered with spray insulation with moisture barrier coat to take care of these issues)
Floor height if constructed with standard containers (9½ft high containers may be used for additional height)
Sidings, foundation and roof
Water, electricity, sanitary and gas systems

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