Author Archives: Tommy Bray

Friday was the last day of the project, all students gathered back at the University of Brighton to present their finished models and designs. Myself and my other group members spent the morning creating our poster – a task that we underestimated. This is one area where I felt we could have done better if we’d planned our time more efficiently, and we definitely should have left it until the final day. I feel that had we not gone to Chichester on the Wednesday we would have had a much better final presentation. On the Wednesday there was relatively little we could do as most of the model making required heavy machinery that only Rob could operate, and although I was helping him, I was only standing at the out-feed of the machines collecting the finished pieces. However, it was a good experience to get out to a different college and experiment with a different discipline.

The finished model:

I was happy with our finished model. We had a removable roof so could view inside, and the furniture gave an accurate portrayal of the internal layout and how much space we had created by adding the sliding pod.

The last task was to present our model to the other students and a panel of judges from the University of Brighton, Chichester College, Hazelwick School and the CEO of Care Co-ops Brighton. I felt the presentation went well, with all of our group members sharing the input. I preferred the Q&A which ran for 10 minutes at the end of the presentation as it got the audience involved and it was more interactive, rather than just speaking directly to the audience.

All in all I enjoyed getting some experience with a real life client and project, and it was good to mix with other students from different disciplines.

Thursday was our last day to finalise our designs. Our design was pretty much complete, so I started looking into some other examples of container homes to see what issues had emerged during construction, and after construction when the homes were occupied.

One of the issues I found was from the ‘Containers of Hope’ project in Costa Rica, by Benjamin Garcia Saxe. The designer had underestimated the amount of wind the site received, and as the container had no cladding it was very noisy inside. The solution they came up with was to plant vegetation to reduce the power of the wind hitting the container. This isn’t an option for our project as the containers would be moved around to various locations on the site, so I looked into other ways of preventing wind noise. One option was to clad the container with re-used wooden pallets. The pallets provide a barrier to the prevailing winds as well as providing insulation from the sun, helping the container to regulate a consistent temperature. One thing I liked about this idea was that it retains the containers identity, as the container would still be visible through the gaps in the pallets. However, there were a couple of issues that needed researching:

• How to fit the pallets to the container – if the pallets were screwed directly through the wall of the container it would provide a thermal bridge from the exterior to the interior, which could cause a problem with water ingress and condensation.

• Whether the pallets would reduce the containers ability to pack/fold away – as we had the sliding pod and fold-down decking, adding external cladding could complicate the mechanisms that facilitate these features. Cladding the sliding pod would be especially difficult and it would have led to the loss of internal space, which ultimately was the most important thing.

Another issue I found was from the ‘G-Pod’ by Dan Sparks. He realised late on in his design that the longer walls of the container were load bearing, so if you create an opening in one of these it has to be compensated for. We were creating openings in both sides of the container, one for the sliding pod on the rear elevation, and two on the front elevation (one for a window in the kitchen, and one for a large sliding double door). This complicated the structure, added costs and questioned the structural viability of what we were trying to achieve. However, with the addition of a structural support in both of the larger openings the container would be structurally sound.

Yesterday we went to Chichester college to model our Eco-Cabins. The main structure of the model was in place before we arrived, leaving us to focus on the more intricate details of the design. We discussed our final design with the other students from Chichester and Hazelwick school so they had a good understanding of our concept, and then set to work.

Our first task was to draft up all of the furniture and internal fittings that would be going into the model so we could cut all the required components. We all headed upstairs and sat down in a classroom to put our ideas forward. We designed some bespoke kitchen units and bunk beds that will slot together when the pod closes for transportation, as well as a custom sofa unit with a folding doubled bed installed inside. This lasted until around 12 o’clock so when we went to get some lunch.

After lunch I went with Rob – our Chichester college group member, to help him with machining the required timber. Firstly, we cut the timber into the rough required sizes using a table saw, and then used a planer to remove the excess and give a smooth finish. Whilst we were doing this, our other group members set about creating the openings for windows in our model.

Above is a picture of our model with the sliding pod shown closed. This is how it will be during transportation, and the footprint will be no different than a standard 20ft x 8ft container.

This is how the container will look when the sliding pod is extended, it will house 4 single bunkbeds and we have created openings at the sides to allow natural light to brighten the space. The pod provides a level of privacy by keeping the bedroom space separate from the rest of the container, and the double sofa bed provides a separate sleeping area in the lounge.

Today was spent in the design studio with the objective of finalising our Eco-Cabin design. Hazelwick school and Chichester college students were based back at their own premises so we fed our developments back to our other group members throughout the day via whatsapp.

Our initial considerations for the cabin included a timber frame structure, as well as using a shipping container, following what we learnt on Monday. After weighing up arguments for and against both proposals, we opted for the shipping container concept. The main reasons for this were:

• Simplicity – the container is structurally sound for what we require, which allows us to focus on how to configure the internal space, and the necessary details.
• Transportability – containers are built to transfer goods, and therefore all required infrastructure is already in place making transporting the container simple. The Eco-Cabin will be re-positioned seasonally when on site, and being one solid unit, the container will be much easier to move than a cabin built from traditional materials.
• Recyclability – one of the key elements in this project. We will be recycling a used shipping container, and even after it has fulfilled its purpose as an eco cabin, it will be recyclable.
• Durability – a shipping container is built to last 25 years (containerhomeplans.org) in the working environment where it is likely to be damaged, and continually exposed to damp conditions and salt water. Therefore, our single use container will comfortably exceed the 10 year life span specified in the project brief

Once we were committed to the container concept, we started sketching plans and 3D drawings, exploring ideas on how we’d maximise the space and open it up to the environment. The dimensions of a standard container are 20ft x 8ft which we decided would be too small, so we looked into dynamic ways of increasing the internal space. Our final concept involves creating a 10ft x 8ft pod that will extend out from the main container on a sliding mechanism, which will fully retreat back into the container when not in use.

Tasks for tomorrow include detailing the sliding mechanism and the connections between the pod and the main cabin, as well as creating the model of the house and researching: costs; interior fixtures and fittings; and sustainable energy sources.

REFERENCES:

Containerhomeplans.org,. ‘How Long Will My Shipping Container Home Last For? | Container Home Plans’. N.p., 2015. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.