Monday, May 6, 2013

Hurricane? Tornado? What storm?

So I thought the other day: Forget the emergency room / cellar in case of emergency, and instead build in a couple of shipping containers bolted down to a floating concrete slab, then construct a house around it.

Paint it a nice charcoal color, then, from the exterior, cut out a section that is separated from the rest, and add your generator and water tank, complete with a locked door.  The top of the container would include a smallish solar panel array, and thus, even if the rest of your house were destroyed, you could still live at home while you rebuild.


Or you could simply buy three or four of these containers then bolt or weld them together, attached to a concrete slab, and voila: your house is a shelter.

I know what you're thinking: There have been container trucks that were simply lifted up and thrown several hundred feet; no way would this work.  But it would, because you're bolting it down to a concrete slab and attaching two of these together.  It would take a mega storm of unparalleled strength and size to pick it up, and at that point I don't think you'd be able to get out of Dodge -- so to speak -- fast enough to avoid this mega storm.

I know the second thought you've got: It's rare that a shipping container structure looks good, but I assure you, done right, even the crappiest of materials can be made to look good.  As my former boss used to say, I can made shit look tasty.

Well, it's just a thought.  Still waiting for that first client that would like to have an awesome home that gets plastered on design journal covers. :D

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