Designing with used Shipping Containers
Their standardized size and modular nature give shipping containers a design flexibility that makes them nearly irresistible to anyone with an eye for design.
If you have found this web site, and have read this far, it's very probable that you see a certain design sensibility in the simplicity of this method of building and want to know more about it. That's what got me going, once I became aware of the concept, I couldn't stop visualizing great looking shipping container structures.
If you have a design of your own in mind wouldn't it be great to take it to the next level?
Typically your design process begins with an idea, a pencil, some paper and a few rough sketches of a concepts; this approach allows you to try various layout variations quickly and easily.
The next level means moving from the pencil and paper sandbox to a place where new and different ideas can easily and quickly be tried & analyzed, validated or rejected.
With only a pencil and paper to express yourself, your may feel your design options are limited to just some rough sketches.
That's why I included a top rated 3D CAD program with the CONSTRUCTURE GUIDE.
Don't confuse this with some souped up gaming software, this 3D CAD allows you to
- Design and build in 3D
- Design in 2D / 1 click converts to 3D
- Show true perspective
- Real time rendering
- Adjust lighting and texture
- Draw directly in 3D space
- Edit in 3D view
And you won't need 15 CDs to learn how it works either, I chose this particular software because it is user friendly and cross platform compatible. I learned to operate it in a matter of a couple of hours and love it.
It is urged that you read the DESIGN GUIDE in its entirety before going beyond this preliminary design stage, thereby avoiding the risk of wasted work. I also urge you to read the Engineering Section so that you can become familiar with the basic design limitations of shipping containers, this will help you have confidence that your design is viable before you build.
With the help of the CONSTRUCTURE GUIDE your analysis of the strength and weakness of each design will be an educated one, based on sound structural and aesthetic design principals as well as the construction code guidelines of the 2006 IRC. This educated analytical process will quickly allow you to narrow your options to the 1 or 2 designs that are most worthy of further development based on:
- Ease of engineering
- Adherence to IRC code
- Ease of assembly
Once a preliminary design is decided upon you can begin to develop your rough plans into a more developed series of scale drawings or 3D models.
Each step of the drawing or modeling process will give you a more thorough understanding of the structure. It is inevitable that as the elements are draw or modeled problems will emerge. A large part of the design process is involved in uncovering these problems and developing solutions to them.
The CONSTRUCTURE GUIDE provides you with the information necessary to learn all of the steps of designing with used shipping containers.
The Constructure Guide is filled with information that you can't do without if you are planning on designing a container house project. Purchase the Guide today and you can be on your way to designing and building your own container home.
