Home Sweet Shipping Container?

From the Mobile to the Local

Adam Kalkin, a New Jersey-based artist and architect, was one of the first people to experiment with shipping container homes more than 10 years ago.

This shipping container-based home in Redondo Beach, Calif. was completed in 2007.

(Photo of the home courtesy of DeMaria Design Associates)

Now, he has about 12 container-based homes under his belt, in addition to a new crop of prefabricated Quik Homes. But, when he started, building homes from the steel shells -- 40 feet by 9.5 feet by 8 feet -- was more performance art than practical enterprise.

"For me, it was an intriguing idea. I like their very sculpture in nature. [They're] beaten up. They've had this history," he said. "God knows where they've gone, what they've done and what they've seen."

"I loved the idea that you've taken something that has been all around the world and you localize it," he said.

When Kalkin first started, builders were so reluctant to join his experiments in construction that he had to take hammer to nail himself and recruit his friends.

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But now, he said, two forces are contributing to the growing acceptance of container-based homes: a slumping economy and increasing environmental awareness.

Converting the Containers

Founded two years ago, SG Blocks (for Safe Green blocks) is one of the companies at the front of the field working to source and convert shipping containers for construction.

"We take instruments of trade -- cargo containers -- and turn them into instruments of construction," David Cross, the company's business development director, told ABCNews.com.

Through a partnership with ConGlobal Industries, a leading retailer of shipping containers, SG Blocks has access to a network of 17 depots in North America that house used containers.

But sourcing containers close to their destination sites, the company can significantly cut down on energy costs.

At these depots, metal workers torch, weld and remove rust to transform the battered steel boxes into large building trusses, he said.

Depending on the container's condition, one container costs between $1,500 to $4,500 and needs about 100 hours of labor to prepare it for construction, Cross said.