Sep. 30, 2024
Shipping containers have a fascinating history. For many years, they have been used outside their original purpose of storing and moving cargo. But recently, companies have found that storage containers can be a cost-effective solution for their needs. There are no limits to what you can do with a container these days, from temporary offices to pop-up stores and coffee shops. However, this wasn&#;t always the case.
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In this post, we explore the history of shipping containers and how they came to be used for other things, what purposes they are being used for, and why they are in such demand.
Before shipping containers existed, all cargo was loaded into crates, barrels, drums, boxes, and sacks and hand loaded onto cargo ships for transport across the ocean. This method of transportation is called bulk-break shipping. Also known as general cargo, it refers to items that are loaded onto a ship in individually counted units. Since everything was packed separately, it took a lot of time to load and unload each vessel &#; sometimes as long as three weeks! (Today&#;s modern shipping containers can be loaded and unloaded in less than a day.)
In the s, the Bureau International des Containers set the first international standard for shipping containers. The bureau established standards for transport between European countries. At the time, there were no standards for American containers. These early containers were not stackable. In , the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in Enola, Penn., opened the first container terminal in the world.
The history of shipping containers picks up around the middle of the 20th Century. The use of steel shipping containers begins in the late s. During this time, the U.S. military and commercial companies started to build their own containers. In , the U.S. Army introduced the Transporter, a steel container 8 feet 6 inches long, 6 feet 3 inches wide, and 6 feet 10 inches high with double doors on one end. It was mounted on skids with rings on each corner for lifting. The Army used these containers to transport various items during the Korean War (-).
As the war continued, the Transporter evolved into the Container Express (or Conex) box, similar in size and capacity but made modularly and could be stacked three high. The innovative design of the Conex box allowed items to be better protected from natural elements. By the mid-s, the U.S. military used between 100,000 and 200,000 Conex boxes each year. The containers contributed significantly to the globalization of commerce by reducing the cost of shipping items anywhere in the world.
In the s, trucking magnate Malcom McLean purchased Pan-Atlantic Steamship Company, intending to start a container shipping business, later called SeaLand. McLean worked closely with engineer Keith Tantlinger to create the SeaLand container that was 35 feet long, 8 feet wide, and 8 feet 6 inches tall. Each container had eight corner castings for stacking loads. The length was determined by the maximum size of trailers allowed on Pennsylvania highways. During this time, Tantlinger created the twist lock for connecting and securing each container. He also developed the first automatic spreaders to lift and move them. Today, both McLean and Tantlinger are considered innovators in the history of shipping containers.
The modern shipping container was developed in the s when sizes became standard. It made the shipping process modular, simpler to manage, and easier to schedule for transport. In , McLean turned a World War II tanker vessel into the first commercial container ship. Known as Ideal X, the boat could carry 58 containers during a single trip.
While McLean utilized the Ideal X on the Eastern Seaboard, an enterprise on the West Coast &#; Matson, Inc. &#; began transporting containers between California and Hawaii. Because of California&#;s different traffic codes, Matson&#;s containers were limited to 24 feet in length.
In the late s, McLean began shipping containers to South Vietnam for the U.S. military as the Vietnam conflict escalated.
The International Maritime Organization set the first ISO standards for containers in the late s. This is an important time in the history of shipping containers. The decree set better standards for the loading, transporting, and unloading of goods in ports throughout the world.
A edict set by the Inter-governmental Maritime Consultative Organization said that every international container must have a Convention for Safe Containers (CSC) safety approval plate that lists important information &#; like size, weight, age, and registration number.
Today, the rich history of shipping containers continues, but little has changed. Standard containers still measure 8 feet wide by 8 feet 6 inches tall. High-cube containers are an extra foot taller, at 9 feet 6 inches. Approximately 90% of containers in use today are either 20 feet or 40 feet in length. In the U.S. and Canada, they can be slightly longer &#; either 45 feet, 48 feet, or 53 feet. Current rules allow them to be stacked 10 or 11 high.
Some vessels no longer stack containers above deck and maximize their capacity by loading containers from the bottom of the hull. This way, you can stack them 21 high. To do this, heavier ones must be on the bottom of the stack to stabilize the ships and prevent damage to those that weigh less.
Nearly 90 percent of the world&#;s containers are made in China. By , there were more than 36 million containers in the global fleet. The global market for container homes is expected to reach over $73 million by , thanks to the quickness of building, ease of access, and lower building costs. Forty-foot containers have become the standard, but 20-foot units are often used for moving heavier cargo or for helping stabilize a ship. In today&#;s market, there are a few different types of container grades available, from one-trip containers (that make a single trip overseas) to as-is containers that can be used for 10 years or more.
For many years, containers have been used outside their original purpose of moving cargo. The most common use is expanding storage space, providing businesses extra room for inventory, equipment, tools, and more.
In the history of shipping containers, the idea of using them for alternative means has several origins. In , the Insbrandtsen Company filed a patent for using them as expo booths. A few years later, in the s, U.K. architect Nicholas Lacey wrote his college thesis on reusing them for housing.
It would lead to Philip C. Clark, who was the first person to patent shipping containers for housing purposes. In , Clark filed for a U.S. patent for turning steel containers into livable buildings. Clark showed how Conex boxes could be used as a house, citing weight-bearing foundations and showing they were ideal for modular construction. Seven years later, Stewart Brand wrote a book called &#;How Buildings Learn.&#; In it, he talks about using containers to create office spaces.
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James Florio
James Florio
Millions &#; perhaps tens of millions &#; of shipping containers are sitting empty at ports all over the world. And they've been a treasure trove for architects Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano.
"We found so many &#; it felt like something so ripe to pick, basically," said Lignano. He and Tolla were in San Francisco recently for the opening of an art exhibition at Hosfelt Gallery focused on their use of shipping containers as building material and art project.
The Italian "starchitects" got into the shipping container building game in the s, roughly a decade after these types of buildings first started appearing. (Shipping containers were invented in the mid-s, but the first reported instance of shipping containers being converted into housing was .)
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Ilan Godfrey
Ilan Godfrey
Lignano and Tolla's New York-based firm LOT-EK's projects include an experimental art school in New Orleans for people of color and an affordable housing complex in inner-city Johannesburg, complete with swimming pool.
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People like shipping container buildings not only because they look interesting but also because they seem to solve a problem &#; finding a use for the millions of empty steel shipping containers scattered across the planet. They're used in projects like Photoville in New York City, which transforms the containers into mini art galleries, and Monarch Village, a development for formerly unhoused people in Lawrence, Kansas.
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Dan Rockhill
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"Shipping containers are great for building with because they are modular, movable and durable," said California architect Douglas Burnham. His firm, Envelope, created Proxy, a development in San Francisco that includes several businesses housed in shipping containers, from a clothing store to a beer garden.
Containers are also an attractive alternative to traditional construction materials such as cement &#; cement manufacturing produces the world's third-highest level of planet-warming pollution &#; and wood, which requires cutting down trees and growing them again.
Italian architect Tolla said she and Lignano favor containers that are 10 to 15 years old, both for sustainability reasons and because they like the containers' hip, dilapidated look.
"Beauty can be found in things that might look ugly," Tolla said.
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Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
But here's the thing: The vast majority of people in the market for an office, public facility or home made out of shipping containers don't buy them heavily used, because doing so doesn't make financial sense.
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"When you're building a $100,000, $200,000 structure, that $1,000 to $2,000 difference between a new container and a used container is not really significant anymore," said Alex Rozkin, the CEO of Conexwest, a nationwide shipping container supplier. "And most customers will just opt for the new one."
Rozkin said most customers buy old containers only to build basic structures like storage units. And new &#; or nearly new, "one-trip" containers &#; come with additional benefits.
"They don't have the dents," Rozkin said. "They don't have the rust."
Also, some municipalities, like Los Angeles, won't allow the use of containers that are damaged, that have been previously repaired or that are more than two years old.
"If you're using a one-time-use container ... then that container would be put to better use transporting goods across seas and oceans, which is the purpose it's meant to serve," said architect and construction technology expert Belinda Carr in an episode of her YouTube video series.
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"The idea that you are saving the environment when you use shipping containers and that it's a highly sustainable practice &#; I understand if you're using something meant for the landfill. But if you are using a brand-new shipping container, what's the point?"
Carr said another significant challenge is temperature regulation. Those steel boxes get very cold inside &#; and very, very hot.
Brooklyn, N.Y., restaurateur Joe Carroll commissioned and lived in an eye-catching shipping container home designed by LOT-EK's Tolla and Lignano for five years. The home is prominently featured in a new documentary about the architects' work, We Start With the Things We Find.
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Danny Bright
Danny Bright
Carroll told NPR that he appreciated many things about LOT-EK's approach.
"It's about designing structures that are unique looking, not just a stack of cubes," said Carroll.
But Carroll also said his energy bills were sky high.
"There was no thermal heat or solar," he said. "We didn't have any of that in the home."
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All that heating and cooling takes not only money but environmental resources.
Critics say the most environmentally friendly use of all these unused steel shipping containers is to recycle them.
"The pitch of these containers is, 'Well, we're saving them.' But it doesn't make any sense," said San Francisco-based architect Mark Hogan of OpenScope Studio, who has publicly shared his concerns about shipping container housing. "You'd be much better off recycling the container into steel and then build out of steel studs &#; like the normal way you'd build a building."
This story was produced for air by Isabella Gomez Sarmiento and edited by Jennifer Vanasco for digital and air.
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