Back on May 16th I wrote a post on Shipping Container Buildings
and as I was reading the local Santa Fe arts guide yesterday, Pasatiempo
in the Santa Fe New Mexican, there was an article on the very same project.
Sorry but Pasatiempo is a pay site, not sure about the archives.
The article was by Paul Weideman in his Art of Space column.
Paul is an excellent writer and editor, and covers building
and architecture for the New Mexican.
The article filled in a lot of the blanks on this project.
Above is the front and the container door ends will be left as they are
as a visual aide to see the actual guts of the building.
Between the exposed doors will be an atrium covered in translucent,
white, polycarbonate sheets over steel framing.
For some before shots please click the Shipping Container Buildings link at the top.
This is the interior atrium formed by two stories of shipping containers
and the sides have been cut out to give the open look.
After the sides were cut out,
steel studs and steel post and beam were added for support.
The containers are welded together.
The article explains how everything had to be structurally engineered
because standards have not been set for container buildings.
Because there are no codes the state Construction Industries Division
classified it as experimental construction.
The contractor is Jim Borrego of Borrego Construction.
Sprayed foam insulation was applied over the containers
after steel studs had been attached for the metal siding.
Again refer to the photos in my earlier post on this building for the before shots.
The day I was there the painters were working.
The interior walls will show the container sides.
I am not sure what the cutout is for in the upper left
but it shows how the walls can be cut.
There is no wood used in the building other than possibly some of the floors.
From the back it looks like a typical commercial building.
This will be used by Adrianna Siso's Molecule Furniture + Design.
For more information go to boxhaus.net, Adriana's site
for promoting container building which also goes into more detail
on this project. Also check out her other site adrianasiso.com.
This is an exciting addition to alternative building
with lots of room to progress into the future.
It is recycling at its best as there are lots of used containers out there.
Our gluttony for imported goods may have an upside.
Now what can we do with all the junk that was shipped in those containers?
To see the finished building go to my post:
The Finished Shipping Container Building.
