Alternative Housing / Sustainable Living.

[Aaron]

I'm managing a project for a charity that looks at developing sustainable housing based on outfitting shipping containers. Aim is to design a program where older containers are stripped and donated by bigger companies, and are then outfitted at the lowest cost possible. Hope is that we can develop something that can be used for remote areas of varying climates, under a budget of $XXX [including shipping] per unit [we're doing studies now or costs]. Anyone been involved in this type of work and care to lend some information? Is still in the planning stage.

Would be good to see some general discussion of environmental issues in PNWI also.

[mph4ever]

the germans are the best at this. take your containers and replace them with precast concrete done on a factory floor in frankfurt and then ship it anywhere in the world. it works and the energy ratings are rather impressive too

[Aaron]

Thanks man! Hadn't considered pre-fab stuff to date, as the location for where our first site is located in northern Tanzania, and the only infrastructure there is related to the mining companies [hence seeing if we can get them to donate the containers we already know are on the ground there to shave a bit of costs off]. I will research ze germans though. Cheers.

I'm/where [it's mostly me at the moment] interested in using natural things as insulations, like grass as the roofing. I've seen a few articles using it in designer homes, but nothing beyond that though.