Photo: Travis Price Architects
Washington DC will soon get it’s very own apartment complex made of repurposed shipping containers. The complex will be located at 3305 Seventh Street. NE in Brookland. The firm Equity Group LLC is behind the project, which will involve turning an existing single family home into a three-story, four-unit shipping container apartment complex. Work has already begun, and the architects are confident the whole building will be finished by the end of August.
The doors of the containers will first be welded open in order to create shade fins. These openings will then be replaced by windows which will measure around nine feet from floor to ceiling. There will be another full-length window located opposite the mirrored wardrobe in each bedroom. This clever positioning of windows will maximize the amount of natural daylight coming in, as well as reduce much of the feeling of living in a rectangular metal box.
The containers have already been precut, the workers removing cut steel panels in order to create an open space living room, kitchen and dining room in each of the units. The shipping containers used for his project will be stacked three levels high, with six containers per level, as well as a basement unit. Each floor will house a single apartment unit, with six bedrooms and six bathrooms in total.
The walls on the outside of the main living spaces will be covered by Polygal, a type of see-through plastic, which is normally used in the construction of green houses. The stairwell will also be enclosed with Polygal. All the containers will also be made soundproof, and well insulated. The walls will be made of birch plywood, while the floors will be covered by marine-grade plywood flooring.
It has not yet been revealed what the rent of these units will be, but according to the architects, their aim is to provide affordable housing and they are staying within the budget so far.
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