Early last month, Canada got its first recycled shipping container housing development. It is located in the Downtown Eastside area of Vancouver, at 502 Alexander St. The housing project was developed by a Women’s Resource Society, which wanted to create affordable and quality non-market housing units to be rented out to older women.
The housing development is comprised of 12 studio units, each with a net living area of 280 – 290 square feet. All of the units are entirely self-contained, complete with bathrooms, kitchens and an in-suite laundry. With its colorful navy blue and burnt orange exterior walls, the housing blends in perfectly with the other building in the neighborhood.
The base structure of this three-story housing development was constructed from 12 recycled shipping containers. The walls of the units are spray-foam insulated and finished with drywall. The development meets all the national building codes, while it even exceeds the code requirements for insulation and sound transference.
The construction took approximately 8 months, with the first shipping container being transported to the building site on November 30th, 2012 and the project being finished in July 2013. The hard construction costs were $82,500 per unit.
Out of the 12 recycled container units, four were donated. The remaining eight containers were purchased through a broker. The containers contain steel and are worth about $5,000 each, which would typically be too expensive for such an affordable housing development, according to the project development manager.
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