Saturday, September 25, 2010

Lego for Big Boys: habitable shipping containers

Habitable shipping containers promise cheap, modular and comfortable housing.

Cars, washing machines, televisions: almost everything we can buy today is assembled on the conveyor belt of some factory. But our houses are still built on the spot by a team of workers. Accompanied by lots of noise for the neighbours, and hampered by the weather. That could change:

It is perfectly possible to build ready-made houses in a factory, but the problem is to get them to where you want them. A single-family dwelling, let alone an apartment building, can’t be loaded onto a truck. That’s why houses are still one of the few “handmade” products, and that makes them still very expensive. Not everybody can afford his of her own house or apartment.

But some architects are trying to change that. Shipping containers are the key. They can be furnished in the factory and then transported worldwide - by train, ship or truck. Because of their standardized dimensions, they are as manageable as Lego bricks. They can be easily stacked on top of and next to each other, as high as 7 rows. Furthermore, the walls can be taken out to create larger spaces, without losing structural integrity.

Please take your room with you

The combination of mobility and modularity offers interesting possibilities. A family can start small, and extend its living accommodation systematically. For example, they can put up an extra floor when there are children on the way. In contrast, when buying a traditional house you already have to take into account future additions to the family. Two people who want to go live together, attach their containers. If they get bored of each other, they take their part of the house with them. Children that leave the house, leave together with their rooms.

Dutch company Tempohousing sells habitable shipping containers measuring 30 square meters. They cost 20,000€, the price tag of a not so big car. The container houses are delivered on site, completely fitted out with bathroom, kitchen, heating, electricity, isolation, windows and doors. Via the local brand ‘Keetwonen’, the company last year finished a student village in Amsterdam. It consists of a thousand shipping containers, distributed among 6 apartment buildings.

The village also includes a supermarket, a launderette, a restaurant and a fitness centre, all built with shipping containers. Everything was finished in one year’s time. The containers are stacked 5 rows high. This aspect pushes the price up a bit, because foundations, galleries and stairs also have to be built. Every apartment has a balcony. (UPDATE : Tempohousing is now designing hotels in Nigeria and Holland).

Mass housing

“Living in a container has a negative image”, realizes Matthijs Resinck, one of the founders of the company. “But in fact this is steel architecture with glass, which is awfully trendy. When you are inside, you never realize that you are in a container. This kind of homes is interesting for local authorities who want to offer cheap housing. Another advantage is that you can make use of land that is temporarily available. Here in Amsterdam, we will be assigned a new piece of land in 5 years.”

The container houses of Tempohousing can be inhabited by themselves, but for the time being the company only aims for mass housing. Resinck: “We plan to offer individual homes, but they will be a bit bigger. At the moment, we are designing single-family dwellings with a surface area of 60 to 120 square metres, consisting of two to four containers. If desired, these houses can be completely self-sufficient. There are for instance machines on the market that filter water from air. Also small wind turbines are available now.”

Taboo

More and more architects try to break down the taboo on habitable shipping containers. The American designer Adam Kalkin constructed an impressive villa consisting of 12 shipping containers. It has three bedrooms, two bathrooms and an inner courtyard. By using scrapped containers, he was able to keep the price below 60,000€; a luxury villa for the price of a small apartment. Los Angeles and London already have stylish container houses, which give qualitative but cheap housing to artists or starting entrepreneurs
Last year, the Spanish architect Santiago Cirugeda erected a striking apartment building with 500 square metres of floor surface, completely constructed with used containers and other waste materials. It was built in one week time, for less than 23.000 euro. But even though Barcelona has to contend with an acute shortage of small and affordable housing, the city council decided last month that the building has to disappear.

Made in China

Cheap houses could exert pressure on real estate prices. That’s good news for people who want to get on the property ladder. But it’s bad news for people who already own a house – and especially for people who own more than one. Resinck: “Traditional building companies are not exactly happy with us. They need lots of man-hours to build a house. We can immediately start with the finishing touch, because the structure already exists. Furthermore, we finish the containers in

China, where labour is much cheaper. They don’t have that possibility.”

How to make your own low-tech vertical farm

The ingenious low-cost vertical farms of Willem Van Cotthem are within reach of everybody.

---------------------------------------------------------- Vertical farming has become a popular idea, but what is mostly forgotten is that the energy required for the operation and construction of vertical farms largely negates the ecological advantages. This also applies to small-scale systems, like those of Philips (a concept) or Inka Biospheric Solutions (a product).

A while ago two New York ladies made headlines with their "Window farms", described as a kind of low-tech indoor vertical farming system (illustration on the right). Upon a closer look, however, I found the method to be rather high-tech and cumbersome, in spite of the use of plastic bottles. A window farm is based on hydroponics, it makes use of lamps, pumps and electricity, it still requires you to buy quite a lot of new stuff, and the whole thing would surely come crashing down if I were to install it.
The Belgian professor Willem Van Cotthem seems to have designed a do-it-yourself vertical kitchen garden system that truly deserves the low-tech label. On his blog, "Container gardening", he explains how to transform normal plastic bottles into efficient containers (and a container rack) for growing all kinds of plants, even young trees (to be transplanted when reaching sufficient height). The beauty is that the water supply can be automated without the use of electricity, and that his way of installing a vertical garden looks much simpler and sturdier.
Willem Van Cotthem is a researcher specializing in combating desertification, an occupation he describes on his other blog, "Desertification". Here lies the origin of his low-cost, low-tech methods to grow plants and crops. Van Cotthem manages to grow vegetables and fruits in the middle of the desert with minimal water (pictures). Apart from the methods using plastic bottles described above, he also uses mini-greenhouses made of trash (yoghurt pots, plastic bags) to produce vegetable and (fruit) tree seedlings. All systems can be used both indoors and outdoors.

What all these methods have in common, is that they hardly use any water, basically by minimizing evaporation. Moreover, because of the low cost (using 100 percent trash), the systems can be used even by the poorest of people. Plastic rubbish is, unfortunately, everywhere. Van Cotthem's blogs can be a bit chaotic to navigate, but his work is definitely worth a look.
© Kris De Decker (edited by Matt Hill). Thanks to Theo Lalleman for the tip.

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Thursday, September 23, 2010

Resource Furniture: Italian-Designed Space Saving Furniture

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Building Stuff.

Learn How to build a fake cardboard security camera. For more Props & SFX How-To Videos & Articles, visit WonderHowTo.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

- Introduction to Color Theory

With colors you can set a mood, attract attention, or make a statement. You can use color to energize, or to cool down. By selecting the right color scheme, you can create an ambiance of elegance, warmth or tranquility, or you can convey an image of playful youthfulness. Color can be your most powerful design element if you learn to use it effectively.

Content
	The Color Wheel
	Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Colors
	Warm and cool colors
	Tints, Shades, and Tones
	Color Harmonies - basic techniques for creating color schemes - Complementary - Analogous - Triadic - Split-Complementary - Rectangle (tetradic) - Square

Colors affect us in numerous ways, both mentally and physically. A strong red color has been shown to raise the blood pressure, while a blue color has a calming effect.
Being able to use colors consciously and harmoniously can help you create spectacular results.

The Color Wheel

The color wheel or color circle is the basic tool for combining colors. The first circular color diagram was designed by Sir Isaac Newton in 1666.
The color wheel is designed so that virtually any colors you pick from it will look good together. Over the years, many variations of the basic design have been made, but the most common version is a wheel of 12 colors based on the RYB (or artistic) color model.
Traditionally, there are a number of color combinations that are considered especially pleasing. These are called color harmonies or color chords and they consist of two or more colors with a fixed relation in the color wheel.
ColorImpact is designed to dynamically create a color wheel to match your base color.

Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Colors

In the RYB (or subtractive) color model, the primary colors are red, yellow and blue.
The three secondary colors (green, orange and purple) are created by mixing two primary colors.
Another six tertiary colors are created by mixing primary and secondary colors.

The above illustration shows the color circle with the primary, secondary and tertiary colors. Click on the labels to turn the colors on / off.

Warm and cool colors

The color circle can be divided into warm and cool colors.
Warm colors are vivid and energetic, and tend to advance in space.
Cool colors give an impression of calm, and create a soothing impression.
White, black and gray are considered to be neutral.

Tints, Shades, and Tones

These terms are often used incorrectly, although they describe fairly simple color concepts. If a color is made lighter by adding white, the result is called a tint. If black is added, the darker version is called a shade. And if gray is added, the result is a different tone.

Tints - adding white to a pure hue:

Shades - adding black to a pure hue:

Tones - adding gray to a pure hue:

Color Harmonies
- basic techniques for creating color schemes

Below are shown the basic color chords based on the color wheel.


	Complementary color scheme Colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel are considered to be complementary colors (example: red and green). The high contrast of complementary colors creates a vibrant look especially when used at full saturation. This color scheme must be managed well so it is not jarring. Complementary color schemes are tricky to use in large doses, but work well when you want something to stand out. Complementary colors are really bad for text.

	Analogous color scheme Analogous color schemes use colors that are next to each other on the color wheel. They usually match well and create serene and comfortable designs. Analogous color schemes are often found in nature and are harmonious and pleasing to the eye. Make sure you have enough contrast when choosing an analogous color scheme. Choose one color to dominate, a second to support. The third color is used (along with black, white or gray) as an accent.

	Triadic color scheme A triadic color scheme uses colors that are evenly spaced around the color wheel. Triadic color schemes tend to be quite vibrant, even if you use pale or unsaturated versions of your hues. To use a triadic harmony successfully, the colors should be carefully balanced - let one color dominate and use the two others for accent.

	Split-Complementary color scheme The split-complementary color scheme is a variation of the complementary color scheme. In addition to the base color, it uses the two colors adjacent to its complement. This color scheme has the same strong visual contrast as the complementary color scheme, but has less tension. The split-complimentary color scheme is often a good choice for beginners, because it is difficult to mess up.

	Rectangle (tetradic) color scheme The rectangle or tetradic color scheme uses four colors arranged into two complementary pairs. This rich color scheme offers plenty of possibilities for variation. Tetradic color schemes works best if you let one color be dominant. You should also pay attention to the balance between warm and cool colors in your design.

	Square color scheme The square color scheme is similar to the rectangle, but with all four colors spaced evenly around the color circle. Square color schemes works best if you let one color be dominant. You should also pay attention to the balance between warm and cool colors in your design.