Stacked cargo containers in New Haven's "LEGO" apartments

so this is the first container building in Connecticut the second project is the second container building Connecticut when I say first and second the first or second legal building if people have container structures in their backyard we don't know this is the largest yet As I understand it, the largest residential shipping container building in the country is made up of 27

containers

, giving us a total of six 1,080 square foot

apartments

in the United States building with

containers

that such Maybe they are less than 10 years old, let's say around 2006 we started seeing them there. There were many concepts online, the renderings, very few buildings in Europe.

The Dutch, who have been the masters of this construction, probably close to 30 years, then there's the US military and we have no idea what they're doing, so it's not us. there are no code books, they are not, I don't think it has anything to do with containers, it is the fact that it is an all steel structure, any of the typical buildings are traditionally, once we get taller, they are steel clad with something else. here we're doing a building that's a steel clad steel frame building that we don't have a building code for or a building type that works that we don't like to use the word cheaper for because that means that's us.

As for skimping, we're not skimping, it allows us to build a structure that is very strong and that over time we'll get to a fraction of the price, but it allows us to build a structure quickly and efficiently. I have had to develop a complete system. coding each ladder has a code these ladders were in the containers when we transported them and then we lifted them into place in the sequence of how we place the containers different than how we would normally design just call it something and then the contractor takes care of it , but he takes care of the crane people in logistics.

Each container has its own number. Each staircase has its own number. Fourth floor. Second selection. Boulevard so they know which direction to point the container when loading it onto the truck. Wow. that's the goal the goal is to prefabricate as much as possible while we were placing the boxes we are still painting we are working off site painting the boxes before we get to the site installing the windows we set up the building in stages so that each floor requires 8 containers, the third and fourth floors are 8 plus 3, so there are 11 containers, we installed the first floor in 5 hours.

I didn't like how it turned out, so we came back the next week with the crane and relocated the building that we actually changed. the entire building rotated the entire building two inches has to go towards the street another three inches towards the street perfect initially we were going to cover the building but then we needed to allocate funds in a different place so we decided to celebrate the container idea these boxes have between 12 and 18 years have been stored, we use the same type of paint that merchant ships are painted with the idea that you never have to paint them, so there will be 6

apartments

with 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.

So this is one of our apartments, large living room right off the entrance, 2 bathrooms, full kitchen, we have a shower in one bathroom so their full bathrooms are a little compact with full bathrooms and then in the Another bathroom we have a bathtub, if we could have it. allowed more container we would have that's this careful dance we're learning to do with the fire marshal we've had a little battle with the fire marshal this is a one hour fire resistant wall we're We're planning to build a small scale version of this and burn it so that we can set a precedent so we can find out that there is no research, no one has any research on what we are doing, the US government has the most research and they don't.

I don't share the view of Long Island Sound, which is really nice, but we are very happy with the fact that we were able to go up so high that we can get views of the sea. Could you climb as high as you would like with containers we can climb on? eight stories no problem, potentially higher initially, these container doors were fully functional until we had to put a roof on in a cool place, that's the story, but that's in a container, I mean, if you look at it, we think the doors were at one time in the sea and now.

It's here on top of a New Haven roof. I personally like the look of containers, but I can understand it when dealing with local neighborhood politics when they see a container, one of the first things that comes to mind is industrial metal boxes. but as they see what we're doing there and as more people around the country start doing container projects, precedents are set, so this is the first container building in Connecticut, the container goes up behind this false facade, the good thing is that we actually blend into the neighborhood in a way that, as we discussed with the building department, they wanted us to cover half the back with this stuff and the only thing that really matters is an angle of 45 degrees from there, the porch is on each side. block my neighbors didn't notice it at all when we initially set up the building, they noticed it until we clad the front, they noticed it and that roof came in and as one piece they prefabricated it off site, brought it in and we picked it up.

We lifted it up and screwed it to the ceiling. We built this house based on that house because the absurdity of putting a mansard roof on that building we felt gave us the indulgence to do it here. This is my home. The parts of the wall that are solid. our container so there's a container here container here container on that wall so again you can't see very little this is the only structure it's three containers one two and three these are actually 45 foot containers that's what we have this is a two bedrooms, a bathroom and the inside we want it to look like a house again we are fighting, we are fighting against people's conceptions, we are fighting against the city, upstairs we are just cleaning the space because we are about to hit it from behind so that all the idea of, say, Plato's cave, if you start inside, you never know what it is until you get to the outside, we just took the doors, opened them, delivered the containers with the doors that we could. move and it was actually a good thing because we loaded it with all the materials through here, things that you don't think about when you do a traditional build, you know the walls are open so you can slide the material through the custom walls that are. coming up here we have to slide everything over here other companies have tried to reinvent the wheel and weld and use different types of fittings, we just use the same fittings that they use on container ships and we just use these pins, the container sits on it. we lock it in place and that's not going anywhere there's no point in doing something complicated when it can be simple these are the pins so this goes into a container the top container goes here which goes down to here and we lock it like this we lock them with these and we hold them together with these called bridge fittings, yes, without welding, we weld the building to the foundation.

If you google shipping container disasters you will see totaled ships and you will have eight containers hanging so the stack will all be this way and you will have a row of containers hanging so that's where we think, if it works why reinvent it? We're standing under each one of these, where there's 30 tons above us, oh, this building lasts longer than the neighborhood bins. in a steel core 10 steel core 10 acts like copper that if it gets wet it rusts the type of oxidation that is a type of rust it is simply happening a padna think that an old car rusts, you can break it off and finally you can pass when the container rusts it simply gives a shine and will no longer go away it is automatically protected there is the entire heating system for the upper floor this is the heating and water for the upper floor this apartment is a thermos that is what that The container is essentially a thermos if it is properly insulated these walls are our 30 our 32 most of the money was spent on insulation it is more expensive it is less expensive than traditional right now we are probably 25 to 30% less expensive Unfortunately, everything is tactical, many things you read on the web are not true.

You can't build this house for $50 a square foot and have it approved. You just can't. We built this first project. It's full scale so the finishes are on this floor is different than the finishes below here we put a control strip under the concrete they are controlled expansion joints so once the concrete sets it cracks naturally and below we cut the expansion joint in the concrete here we join the beams so that they look like one and below we leave them exposed the more people I teach, the more people begin to understand what we do collectively our process will be easier.

I think more people are trying to do it. The construction department is slowly relaxing. I wish we could. Start sharing information by sharing information from all of us who are doing this type of thing, then we can start to overcome these municipal problems.