Containers tested as housing
'I tried to put myself in the place of someone coming out of the Katrina disaster,' a project participant says
By T.S. Mills-Faraudo, STAFF WRITER
Inside Bay Area
Article Last Updated:12/06/2006 07:28:24 AM PST
REDWOOD CITY — A group of Cañada College students just learned how to think inside the box.
Interior design instructor Annie Cronin asked her students this fall semester to create a livable space inside an 8-feet-wide-by-20-feet-long shipping container, with the idea that the containers could be used as temporary housing for people who lose their homes in a disaster.
"After Katrina and the anniversary of our earthquake this year, I thought, let's do something small and compact that people could live in after a disaster," said Cronin, who focuses on ecologically friendly interior-design concepts in her classes.
Cronin's class is part of the college's "green design" certificate program, which allows students to complete a set of courses that focus on using recycled material, less lumber and solar power in designs.
Many products sold in America, Cronin said, come from Asia and are shipped here in these metal structures. They can be purchased for $900 and are strong enough to resist winds of up to 170 miles per hour, she said.
"If you lose your home in an earthquake, flood, hurricane or some other natural disaster, you begin to look at a well-designed shipping container in a different light," Cronin said.
Some companies that sell portable structures use these containers to create such things as medical mobile units and storage facilities. They even have been used to build contemporary homes by connecting a collection of the containers.
The challenge for many students in Cronin's class was creatively making everything fit in the small space. To compensate for this, they used fold-out beds or space underneath the bed for storage in their designs. But some of the students' creativity went beyond designing a livable space, Cronin said.
One student included computerized sun-tracking solar panels on top of the container that would require almost no maintenance.
Kit Golson of Redwood City incorporated an entire community with her container's design. She did this with the idea that people who have been through a disaster need the support of a community. Her design includes, among other things, a clinic, support services, a garden, a kitchen and even a dog run.
"I think it could provide an incredible sense of security for those who have just lost their homes," Golson said. "This would give people structure in their lives."
After she completes her Associate of Science degree in interior design, Golson is planning to open her own interior-design business that would focus on using recycled materials, such as antiques, whenever possible.
Her design for the shipping container also includes a bed that can be converted into a couch with storage drawers underneath, a small kitchenette, a bathroom and a desk with a laptop computer so the disaster victim can spend time searching for resources that can help them through the crisis.
"I tried to put myself in the place of someone coming out of the Katrina disaster, " Golson said.
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Staff writer T.S. Mills-Faraudo covers education. She can be reached at (650)348-4338 or [email protected].
