VIEW FROM THE TOP

Korean trek on display Anyone spooked by the thought of a big earthquake hitting Wellington might be interested in an unusual quake-proof Tawa home up for sale this month.

The new build, on Bell St, is made of four 40-foot shipping containers welded together. Its young designers were halfway through construction on February 22 last year, and considered moving in straight away.

‘‘When the Christchurch earthquake happened we thought ‘should we sleep in the house tonight?’,’’ owner Shasha Chen says. ‘‘The house will just shake but it won’t collapse.’’ Ms Chen, 25, and her husband Nick Yin, 30, designed the three-bedroom home in 2009, before shipping containers became a common building material in post-quake Christchurch.

They had been house-hunting for their first home and were unimpressed by what was available.

‘‘We just came to the idea to build something different,’’ Ms Chen says.

‘‘The container idea just popped out.

Shipping container homes are common in Europe and America.

The couple were attracted by the green credentials of using recycled containers, and thought it would be a cheaper way to build a house. They were wrong. ‘‘People say shipping container houses are cost-effective: that’s only in other countries,’’ Ms Chen says.

‘‘Here in New Zealand because the building regulations are different, labour costs are different, I can’t say it’s costeffective.’’

Safe as houses: Tawa couple Nick Yin and Shasha Chen designed their dream home, made of shipping containers, before C2hristchurch’s earthquakes, but are pleased its new owners will have a quake-proof house.