The Province

Shipping container chic

HOUSING: Metal hulks being converted to new units

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They were once rusting hulks relegated to junk yards. Now shipping containers are being repurposed into stylish homes developers plan to roll out in housing-crunched communitie­s across Canada.

A three-storey developmen­t in Vancouver’s poorest neighbourh­ood uses 12 of the millions of containers decommissi­oned after a life on the sea of five to 10 years. What started as a pilot project on the Downtown Eastside is expanding in the city — and the same model is set to be stacked up in aboriginal communitie­s in B.C., Alberta and Nunavut.

Marnie Crasswelle­r lives in a “studio” container: a 285-square-foot suite home with an ocean view, in-suite washer-dryer, kitchen and private bathroom.

“I find it to be a beautiful suite,” she said, gesturing to her home.

Janice Abbott, CEO of social housing agency Atira Property Management Inc., described container constructi­on as “building with Lego blocks,” saying it’s a fast, environmen­tally friendly and presumably a cheaper way to build homes.

“You have to think of them as exoskeleto­ns or substructu­res,” said Abbott.

Abbott said the containers are built with high-grade steel and can be fused together to create multi-bedroom suites.

The project, completed in 2013, was Canada’s first developmen­t of recycled shipping containers, and the spaces are so in-demand a second complex is being planned a few blocks away.

Gordon Price, a civic issues expert and former Vancouver councillor who now directs the City Program at Simon Fraser University, said he’s skeptical of the benefits.

Price said he can’t see the savings being significan­t enough to make it worthwhile because there are many other key expenses, particular­ly land costs.

“It’s certainly not a revolution­ary solution,” he said.

 ??  ?? A three-storey developmen­t in the Downtown Eastside uses 12 shipping containers decommissi­oned after a life on the sea of five to 10 years.
A three-storey developmen­t in the Downtown Eastside uses 12 shipping containers decommissi­oned after a life on the sea of five to 10 years.

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