The challenges facing architecture today are extremely diverse, regardless of whether it’s the living or working sector. On a global scale, more and more people require more and more living space of a better standard, whereas with office and commercial space more flexibility and sustainability is demanded.
Converted freight containers are perfectly suited to reacting to the numerous new demands. In terms of sustainability, energy efficiency, flexibility and building cost security, the modular design based on a refined (freight) container presents a fascinating and architecturally exciting chance to create modern living and working areas.
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About Containerwerk
Sea freight containers make comfortable living space: the company Containerwerk has specialized in this unusual way of reuse, not least thanks to an innovative shipping container insulation process. The Stuttgart start-up buys used, discarded freight containers for this purpose and is expanding their shell and interior into functional, stylish living space. Several modules can be connected to entire residential shipping container buildings, and other types of use are conceivable.
The lifetime of a common freight container is on average 13 years. After that, the mass is just scrap metal. The start-up Containerwerk, which was founded in 2017, aims to meet a whole range of current challenges by converting used large-capacity shipping containers and processing them into inexpensive, ready-to-move-in residential shipping container homes. These challenges include housing shortages, lack of space, waste of resources or environmental pollution. The founding of the company was preceded by long development processes, which were developed, among others, in cooperation with the
German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) and the
Fraunhofer Institute. As a result, a fully automated, multi-patented process was developed, enabling monolithic, thermal bridge-free and slim high-performance insulation for the container shell.
Innovative shipping container insulation method
Even if the idea of conversion for freight containers is not entirely new, functionality and series maturity were preceded by decisive development steps. Over the course of many years, shipping container insulation processes had to be tested, which ultimately resulted in an innovation and the founding of the Stuttgart-based company. Ultimately, polyurethane foam is used, which is extremely difficult to process, as one of the founders Ivan Mallinowski explains. "The temperature of the wall must be exactly right. If it is too cold, the foam will retract and not foam enough. And if it is too warm, it foams too much and sticks. We made many attempts, including with BASF, and found that it must be applied at exactly 19.3 °C for everything to work. Plus, it has an extremely short second-by-second response time where it needs to be right where it should go."
This led to the task of processing a polyurethane foam three-dimensionally fully automatically and installing it as a monolithic shipping container insulation in a unit. With the help of the
Institute for Fuel Processing at RWTH Aachen University and a plant manufacturer, a corresponding polyurethane plant could be produced. Together with the second company founder Michael Haiser, the starting signal for container production and the serial production of residential shipping container homes on a large scale, which today takes place at the production site Wassenberg near Düsseldorf, followed.
Microarchitecture in many variants and diversity in shipping container homes design
Within a certain framework of their original morphology, there are no limits to the stylistic limits of the modules. On the occasion of the Milan Furniture Fair 2018, the company together with partners presented possible forms of their microarchitecture in several installations. Not only the diversity of the façade design or the degree of high-quality interior shipping container homes design became clear, but also the possibilities to configure modular ensembles to whole buildings. Since the individual cuboids can be variably connected in the horizontal and vertical, individual multi-room solutions can be created. Due to their low weight, the blocks can be stacked, but also integrated into existing building structures. The short construction time, transportability and cost-effective design seems to be a reasonable solution for temporary or permanent living space concepts. In addition, the manufacturer also promises other types of use. From the office room to the hotel, boarding house or dormitory, to the elderly facility or even rehabilitation clinic, shipping containers can be converted.
From upcycling to recycling product
The new concept of energy and raw material efficiency is also a long-term commitment: With its innovative insulation technology, the microarchitecture is above the
EnEV standard. All materials used can be sorted at the end of the life cycle of the container and 100% recycled. And since usually mobile point foundations are sufficient, the plot is spared and cleared without residue. A promising concept that has already won numerous awards in its early corporate history. Containerwerk emerged as the winner of the
Green Product Award 2018 in the category of architecture, was named one of the 100 most innovative companies in Germany by the initiative
"Germany - Land of Ideas" and was selected by the
GreenTec Awards, which are the world's best projects in the area Environmental and resource conservation, with two finalist titles honored: in the category "Construction & Living" and with the start-up special prize 2018.
Living boxes to take away
Two inventors convert discarded sea freight containers into living space - standard and with a patented design
Article from nationalgeographic.de
How often has the container been tipped over the equator? Did he transport smartphones across the oceans? Or furniture? Michael Haiser and Ivan Mallinowski do not know. But it does not matter. With their company Containerwerk, the entrepreneurs in Wassenberg near Mönchengladbach are converting discarded sea freight containers into resource-saving and energy-efficient apartments, hotels and offices. In their second life, the containers do not have to travel anymore - but they could, if their new owners wanted
Marketing expert Haiser, 47, and booth builder Mallinowski, 49, have also arrived in their second life. In the fast-paced advertising business, they set up elaborate presentations to rip them off hours later, tamping tons of wood, plastic and paper. "We live the opposite of what we used to do," says Mallinowski. "At that time we redeveloped everything for a job, then it came in the bin. Now we are doing it right and sustainable."
The idea of living and working in containers is not new. But the container workers are the first to produce in series. Thanks to Mallinowski's ingenuity. The Waldorf school breaker and barefooter came up with a now patented process that allows the containers to be insulated without any thermal bridges and with much less space than the other supplier does. From a high cube, which is slightly higher than a normal container and 40 feet long, you will gain as much as 26 square meters of floor space.
This looks surprisingly homely, as the two show in the showroom in Stuttgart. Haiser unlocks first an unchanged container, from whose steel walls every word echoes. Then he opens the glass front door of the refined version next door. Everything is there: a mini-wardrobe, a small bathroom, a kitchenette dinette and, separated by slats, a 1.60 meter wide bed. Through a diamond-shaped window and the glazed back surface falls daylight. Heating is by a heat pump. An outside staircase leads up one floor. There two containers were put together. 50 square meters with Wohlfühlextras such as terrace and stargazer window over a double bed. For 2000 to 3000 euros each, Haiser and Mallinowski buy old containers. After the conversion customers pay depending on the equipment from 30000 euros.
At first, Haiser, who does the distribution, was skeptical. He had a lot to explain: that the Corten steel from which the containers are made, only on, but not rusted through; that although water and electricity connections are needed, but only point foundations; that you can easily stack five containers. A few sustainability awards later, the startup faces a luxury problem: "Two years after its founding, we have more orders than we can deliver." The first 35 residential containers from Wassenberger Produktion are part of a social housing project for young people in Hamburg. Four containers were shipped to Costa Rica, the cocoa plantation of a Berlin chocolatier. In August follows a boarding house in Villach with 70 containers. Haiser and Mallinowski expect that the demand for mobile and low-cost space concepts will continue to increase. In Germany alone, 400,000 new homes are needed each year. And the life models become more flexible. "A home in a fixed place is no longer attractive," says Haiser. "In the future, people will simply take their home with them if they move on."
