Shipping containers

Containers can be stacked or configured into whatever shape pleases you.

Want a cheap, rough-and-ready shelter on your piece of land? A used 40 foot shipping containers costs about $2000. They measure 8 feet (2.44m) wide, 40 feet (12.19m) long and 8 feet 6 inches (2.59m) tall. That's an area of 320 square feet (29.74m²). Buy three of these, stick them together and you have something the size of a nice one-bedroom apartment that cost you just $6000.

One option is to partially bury the container for an underground house. You may need to put up a pillar or two to support the weight of the roof. Use a metal saw to cut out holes for windows, pipes, or stairs to the second floor.

Putting earthen berms like these around the container and covering them with grass would insulate the house very well and would be a good option if you can take all the hobbit jokes your friends are gonna make. (The house in the picture is not made of shipping containers; it's just there to illustrate the berms)

A shipping container home can be made to look as classy as any other home

Of course, a bare shipping container isn't a nice place to live in, but you can do it up however you want. You need to put up insulation and install electrical fixtures and other fittings. A bare shipping container will also look terrible from the outside, so you will want to cover it in graffiti, plaster it, cover it with wood panels, or whatever.

• http://www.shipping-container-housing.com/ - This site has lots of information about sourcing containers
• http://home.comcast.net/~plutarch/ - Gives details of lots of projects of building using shipping containers