Feature:
Architects of Justice
The reasons for this are as follows:
• Containers are fabricated for the purpose of moving
cargo around the world.
• Once they are no longer fit to serve as cargo carriers
all containers are eventually headed for retirement.
• With a little work they can be refurbished for use as
a building material.
• Re-using them implies that the energy and material
originally used to fabricate them, for the purpose
of carrying cargo, is carried into a second use as a
building material.
• In the case of bricks and mortar the primary use is
as a building material and in our current world they
are seldom re-used which means that once the first
building they are used in is demolished the energy and
material used to create them is lost.
• In addition a container building may even be re-used
a third, fourth, fifth time as a building material.
There is also a saving on transport which has a direct
impact on carbon emissions:
• Using a container as a building material requires the
container to be taken, by a truck, to a fabricators yard
for modification, following which it is delivered to site
by truck.
• This totals two truck trips.
• Conversely a brick and mortar building would
require numerous trucks to deliver a range of
materials (bricks, cement, building sand etc.) to site
which would very quickly add up to more truck trips
than it would take to get a finished container building
to site.
The ultimate goals of sustainability are to Reuse,
Reduce and, Recycle. The re-using of shipping
containers as a building material ticks all three of
these boxes. AD
Further recommended viewing on the reuse of shipping
containers
africandesignmagazine.com
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