One company is offering home buyers a unique concept that is geared towards growing modern families. The concept promises a home that can be easily expanded as the family grows and can be customized to suit their unique needs.
The idea is to construct homes out of shipping containers.
Blocks Container Structures from Canada is a shipping container construction company that is offering unique solutions for multi-generational households that hope to someday upsize.
The founder of the company Chuck Lemieux says, “It’s really about building homes that grow as your family grows and grow as your budget grows.”
The homes are expandable. So when a new child enters the picture or an aging parent wants to move in, families will be able to add a new room. Since all renovations are performed off-site, the simple process is as non-intrusive as possible.
Plus, there are homes to fit virtually any budget since the homes cost as little as $120 per square foot.
Lemieux says, “The really unique thing about building with containers is that we can start you off with a small one or two bedroom house and then we can add to that to grow your home around you as your family grows, as your circumstances change and as your budget increases. We start by planning where you want to be and then we build for where you’re at right now.”
While the concept sounds futuristic, Lemieux insists that it works. The idea for shipping container homes has been around since at least 1987. However, many believe that the idea may finally flourish in the coming years.
According to urban sociologist Jyoti Gondek, the constantly changing face of the typical North American household will lead to substantial changes in the housing market. With the idea of the “average family” being very ambiguous in today’s day and age, expandable shipping container houses might be the way of the future.
Sociologists are particularly enthused about the idea of families being able to expand their home without having to sell their current one and relocate. Up until now, expanding to a new family home often involves uprooting the family from the local community altogether. This affects not only the family but the community as a whole.
However, the biggest challenge for Lemieux has been convincing the public that his shipping container homes are just as good as traditional homes.
He says, “We’ve spent a lot of time setting up show homes so people see that the finished product can look as much or as little like a shipping container as you want it to. That’s also one of the biggest challenges we’ve faced with communities where people want everything to look the same. And we can do that. Most of our finished homes are unrecognizable as containers.”
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