Current Eco Friendly Obsession

My journey with autism in my family has taught me to look at earth conservation in a new light. I believe that many of our current epidemics that effect our children, (such as severe allergies, asthma, and autism,) are brought upon us by the environment, or our lack of care for it.

Here is my current eco friendly obsession. It is housing built from shipping containers. Steel shipping containers come to us in the form of imports. Once we take out the goods, these shipping containers pile up... it is simply not cost effective to send them back. Architects and builders are latching on to the idea of using them as building material. Here are a couple of links I found while searching "shipping container house" on Google. The photos on these links are great.

http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/articles/containers.htm


"http://green.yahoo.com/blog/daily_green_news/8/twelve-amazing-shipping-container-houses.html


I made a little preliminary floor plan sketch based on 40' by 8' foot containers, using the method of just laying them on some type of leveled ground/foundation and cutting rooms between them. (And windows and doors, etc.) The really lovely thing about this type of building is that additions are easy to add as your family grows. The containers are all made the same and this makes them easy to stack.



I have all kinds of ideas for my container house should I ever have the opportunity to build one. The containers would be in a semi circle shape, which would shelter a green house that is glassed in the interior. Imagine, garden fresh organic vegetables in the winter! We would use salvaged and refurbished cabinetry, and sustainable bamboo flooring. I am sure there are so many other eco friendly things that can be used to make the container home very comfortable. I just haven't thought of them all or researched them all just yet.