Emergency Housing Designs for Shipping Containers
Monday, 18th January 2010
The recent earthquake and humanitarian disaster in Haiti has led to increased enquiries. Shipping containers make ideal temporary or emergency accommodation. Many relief organisations are looking to boxes as opposed to tents to house people. Tents offer little protection from the elements and are prone to damage just from the weather. A steel container is inherently strong and secure. Once lined and insulated with the addition of a window and even basic electrical installations, this simple modification can be ready and deployed quickly and easily.
The availability of equipment is not a problem either with both new and used containers for sale in large quantities in many countries.
The intermodal nature of ISO containers mean that they can be transported easily around the world by road, rail or sea. Additional cargo can be loaded inside and shipped with them, providing secure storage on site. Compounds too can be set up using the same boxes, medical units including field hospitals and toilet and shower blocks are also container conversions that have been carried out in the past.
Clean water can often be the most important thing for any disaster zone and one of the first priorities for any relief organisations. Shipping container conversions are again used here to house reverse osmosis machinery . These movable water treatment plants can be built in advance, stored and then deployed at a moments notice, drawing dirty water in one end and producing clean drinking water at the other.