Recycle Tech is using large storage containers for building everything from emergency shelters to upscale homes.  Today the company opened up its “green container showroom” in Miami.  The showroom will give interested parties a glimpse of the “emergency multiple people shelter” as well as models of other projects.

The company is showing prototypes of container dwellings that will include:

Life sized walk-through container home models, complete with kitchen, full bath, and living room; renderings and models; emergency shelter walk-through models illustrating the prototype of container homes that can be immediately prepared and shipped; wide-screen TV monitors featuring virtual walk-throughs of every model; and a café, catering to the growing number of people who work in or visit Miami’s ever-expanding Design District.

All of the dwellings that Recycle Tech plans to build will be “eco-friendly Container Homes".  These buildings will include a variety of green features like full insulation, sound proofed floors, insulated and tempered windows, and fireproof walls.  Like many prefabricated homes, the container homes will have the plumbing and wiring already finished within the walls and floors. 

The homes and emergency shelters can be built quickly (2 months for a small home) and shipped anywhere in the world.  Units can be stacked for multi level housing or easy movement.  The emergency shelters are built to house 12 people with showers, sinks, lighting and plumbing for areas where utility hookups are still available.  When the need for the emergency shelters has ended, the shelters can be modified for permanent single or multi-family housing.

 

Recycling storage containers into housing and office space is not new.  Storage container buildings can be found around the world.  Old storage containers have become offices, homes, apartment buildings, dorms, and schools.  There are cities constructed from storage containers.  Even emergency housing using containers has previously been proposed for Haiti.

 

North American storage container builders and prefabricators are located in California, Texas, Washington State, Georgia. Pennsylvania and various parts of Canada.  Recycle Tech calls South Florida home and builds its prefab storage container buildings to meet the stringent building codes in Miami, where the buildings have to be able to sustain hurricane force winds.

 

Storage Container building is not new, but it has gained in popularity as eco-housing within the past decade.  Shipping containers are plentiful the world over and recycling them into buildings puts them to good use.