Shipping containers changing the game
Houses and extensions made of the repurposed material are making their way into cities
A Toronto restaurateur’s colourful new home addition marks the first time shipping containers have been used for a residential purpose in the city.
Three steel cargo containers form part of an expansion to the living quarters at the rear and above Harlem Underground, the Queen St. W. eatery where owner Carl Cassell, his wife, Ana Silva, and their children reside. The shipping containers face Graffiti Alley (Rush Lane that runs south of Queen St. W. from Spadina Ave. to Portland St.), and have been painted by artist-architect Javid Jah and urban street artist Angel Carrillo.
“I grew up seeing shipping containers used for building in Jamaica. I watched my uncle build a shop out of them,” says Cassell, 46, who is an artist and builder as well as restaurateur. “They made an imprint on my mind.”
The three stacked containers have been fabricated by Storstac, a company that repurposes used corrugated metal containers for industrial, commercial and residential uses. The containers, which have been fastened to the older building, contribute about 200 square feet to the overall expansion of Cassell and Silva’s apartment from 650 to 2,200 square feet. The containers house a staircase and form part of the second-floor living room and a third-floor bedroom.
A shipping container house coming soon to 5 Arkledun Ave. in Hamilton will be the first of its kind in an urban setting in Ontario. The four-bedroom, 2,460square-foot house built of eight modified containers (four stacked on top of four others) has been designed by Toronto architect Jason Halter of Wonder Inc. for client Geoffrey Young. It’s also being fabricated in Etobicoke, in the yard at Storstac.
Young, 39, is a writer and broadcaster who has worked on international development projects, including in New Orleans post-Hurricane Katrina and in Haiti after its devastating earthquake. With a passion for sustainability and smart urban design, he had been motivated to use shipping containers because they use upcycled materials, are adaptable and scalable to various sizes and settings, are robust enough to withdraw the elements, and don’t require clear-cutting of forests for lumber.
“I grew up seeing shipping containers used for building in Jamaica. They made an imprint on my mind.” CARL CASSELL OWNER, HARLEM UNDERGROUND
He also likes that Hamilton is trying to position itself as a cultural hub, attracting creative industries and rejuvenating older urban areas, and felt his house is a good fit with the image the city is trying to convey.
He’ll move into the house with his partner Wendy Cordova and their baby (due in November) and they hope to rent part of it to a refugee family. The shipping containers had been expected to have been placed on site by now, but issues caused by old sewer and water connections on the lot have delayed the project.
Young’s shipping container home on its 40-foot lot will cost about $175 per square foot to build and will sit on top of a 1,280-square-foot concrete basement with walkout. Its exposed corrugated exterior will be painted with a type of high-performance brick-red polyurethane paint on zinc over its steel skin.
“Geoff had a historic preservation interest and wanted a red-brick effect to fit with the context of the other houses in the neighbourhood,” Halter says. “It’s also going to have a structural flat roof, so we made it into agreen roof.” Not only will the homeowners be able to grow plants on the roof, but it will increase the R-value (insulation) of the home. Halter says the home will be 32 feet across and consist of two staggered rectangles. “It’s perfect. It’s a steel building in Steel Town.”
While the corrugated exteriors of Young’s and Cassell’s abodes provide clues to the origins as cargo containers, inside they will be finished as any conventionally built house could be and must meet Ontario Building Code standards. The containers are typically 20 or 40 feet long, eight feet wide and about nine feet fall (if they are of the “high cube” variety) and welders can modify them to remove walls or add windows or doors.
Cassell, who is hands-on finishing his addition, says while the shipping containers are like giant building blocks, the project has been more challenging than he anticipated.
“It’s a game changer for me,” Cassell says. “It’s the first time I’ve worked with shipping containers and my learning curve is steep. I have built a bunch of houses and this is my ode to myself.” He says the most difficult challenge has been figuring out how to connect the containers to the older building and ensuring rainwater would drain properly.
He also spent a year-and-a-half checking into companies that could do the necessary modifications to the containers before he chose Storstac based on the quality of workmanship and calibre of its welding. “It’s murky ground and you’ve got to weed through.”
Now, he’s delighted to live in a residence that reminds him of his native Jamaica and adds to the bold urban art in his neighbourhood.
“I’ve been coming to this back alley for 16 years to hang out,” Cassell says. “The neighbourhood has been the first in Toronto to truly embrace graffiti and I wanted to make a contribution. This is an ode to my whole experience.”