Sometimes good things come in big packages. That's great — but what do you do with the box? If you're Jerry Hartness, you use it.
Hartness, a Houston native, is planning a 42-unit housing development in Houston's 5th Ward built out of repurposed shipping containers, according to a report in the Houston Chronicle (see: "Shipping container housing complex to be developed in Houston's Fifth Ward," by Darla Guillen). Hartness came up with the idea when he was working overseas providing phone and internet service to military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Chronicle reports. "Network materials from China were delivered to him in shipping containers that were too expensive to ship back," the paper reports. "Instead he converted them into makeshift offices for himself and his staff." Back in the States, Hartness spun the idea into a new business: Build-a-Box Homes.
Build-a-Box Shipping Container Fit-Out
Shipping container housing isn't a new story. But the Build-a-Box website's extensive photo collection and job-site time-lapse video (below) are interesting for anyone who has ever considered what it might take to turn a container into a dwelling. Take a look.
