We all know Florida is well exposed to Hurricanes, and that the season usually starts from June 1st till November 30th, so people try to be well prepared for this kind of situations. Just a month ago, hurricane Ian, the deadliest hurricane to strike the state of Florida since 1935, cause widespread damage across Cuba and southeast United States. So after hurricane Irma in 2017, artist Rob DePiazza, lost everything and decided to build a house out of shipping containers. The conexes are well know they can withstand extremely strong winds on the high seas, so the strength properties of the containers allows the house to withstand all the next hurricanes to come.
The house that was before, was damaged by a large oak tree, while people were still living in it. Most of the work was done by the owner, planning, contracting and building was done part by the owner and few teams of workers. The construction was finalized in February 2020. They used the shipping containers and instead of painting them they exposed the raw material, the cor ten steel and the natural corrosion, excepting the Livingroom. They used the patina of time from the life of the shipping container, all the scuffs, dents scrapes were left to tell the story of the many transatlantic crossing the box had made.
The house was built using 9 shipping containers, has all the insulation and furnishing you can find in a regular house, close to 1603 square feet of living space, but the owner was struggling to find an insurance company , since the house is something different than all of the houses in the neighborhood. Using quality materials, shatterproof windows and doors, make the house sturdy and able to withhold hurricanes up to category 5 and maybe more.
Overall it was a bald project to make, to be different than others, and in the same time upcycling the shipping containers, would help on the long run with the sustainability and protecting the environment, offering a good example to others in the same area, maybe think about how they would like to live, in a regular house or in a great design hurricane proof one, with a lot of personality.
