For the last five year’s I have been on a mission to learn to build and problem-solve in unique and unconventional conditions. This journey led me to Kenya with a biochar start-up looking to change farmers dependence on fertilizer. Later in Oakland Ca, frustrated by a lack of innovative solutions to a housing crisis, I co-founded Boxouse which converts shipping containers into tiny off-grid houses. I started (underground) tiny house communities to help artists and makers afford to stay in the bay area.
Currently I am in LA improving metal fabrication and carpentry skills with dreams of architecture as built environment and functional facades.
I love building things and communities and am so excited that an inspiring platform like this exists. I am alsways looking for new locations to build in and projects to collaborate on.
Boxouse is way cool. I did not know it. How do you juggle regulation? I always thought that real estate does not get disrupted because of the regulatory environment, not because of the lack of technical alternatives. Examples: one, two… probably many more.
Regulatory blocks have definitely been a big factor in our ability to build tiny house communities openly which is why we moved the current community underground. Our experiments and experience have enabled us to approach city council with relevant data and suggestions on amending building policy. As of January 2017 the state of California amended the regulations on additional dwelling units as a response to the statewide declaration of a housing crisis. It’s certainly a long road but it is really exciting to see the innovative technology being implemented to address this problem.
Hi @gingeria, welcome from me too, how did you come across Edgeryders?
Are you looking East by any chance?
Also, check out @emsone and his story from Germany. @Hazem who do we know in Northern Africa, Middle east who might enjoy a connection?
Hey @gingeria nice to read about Boxouse and what you are doing, I am a fan of such interventions specially when it comes to housing.
I used to work for a short while with an urban research office in Berlin that was working from a container for a while then moved to regular office passing by a transition period in…well a living room of a cooperative housing building. and for this I can’t help but asking is these houses are used for long term ? is the community there using these houses as long-term off-grid houses or they are mainly used for short term rentals ?
was wondering if his model could be adopted by some projects like the openvillage, where a small community start off-grid using just container boxes as a building unit…with some trucks as well @matthias
nice to have you on board and hope to collaborate on building something somewhere
Not only for housing, here containers are used as a cultural center for youth and children, and a workshop for seamstresses in the tight community of Santa Maria, Santos, SP - Brazil. Also, refugees camps in Europe in some areas should be constituted of containers. I can’t remember if I read something about it here or watched a movie. In Egypt, there are several initiatives. Whether it’s viable idea for Egypt or not I do not know. In the south we have tribes and fishermen who live in wooden house that they prefer on the government white bricks houses. The heat is a factor. Teto, a Latin American International Organization, provides people who live in favelas with a decent alternative, not containers, but similar concept. http://www.techo.org/paises/brasil/
Thank you for sharing photos of container/ housing projects in Brazil!
Some tricks we used for preventing heat gain were reflective roof paint on the exterior of containers, solar panels across the roof with a 1’ airgap between so there was never direct sun on top and closed cell spray foam insulation. These things combined made a significant difference in the interior temperature of the container.
By “underground” I meant that we had to move the village into an undisclosed warehouse/ lot space not directly visible to neighbors and inspectors while the lag in legislation for tiny house communities catches up.
