A Salt Lake city based company is coming up with new ways for people to own and have homes during this horrible downturn in the home market. The company is Gorilla Designs and they are turning unused shipping containers into affordable, high quality homes that will last a lifetime. The company was founded in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina said Roi Maufus of Gorilla Designs. "According to Maufus "After Katrina, we realized that normal houses and traditional materials can't stand up to global warming and the new storms that will come with it, We wanted to make something that could stand the test of time."Gorilla also wants to be more environmentally friendly. "This is definitely a case of one man's trash being another man's treasure," said Maifus. The are thousands of containers around the country sitting in ports not being used. They could be transformed in to housing for those that are in need. The containers are very durable, they are rated to carry 67,000 pounds and can withstand 8 fully loaded containers resting on it which is about 376 tons per square inch. "We certainly don't have to worry about snow load issues," said Maufus. The shipping containers can be furnished quite luxuriously with rich hardwood floors. People are not just living in a big rectangle box. The designs have them cut walls out and also container are welded together to create rooms. As long as the welds are good the containers keep it's extreme durability and the energy efficiency is doubled when compared to normal wood homes. Also the construction time in nearly 1/3 when comparing wood homes to the containers. The container can be assembled and shipped anywhere in the U.S. for only 3,000 dollars. Vicki Bennet of Salt Lake City's Office of Sustainability said "It looks quite modern and has nice, sleek lines, It doesn't look like a shipping container at all." According to www.weburbanist.com the first cargo shipping container home was built in southern California by Peter Demaria. Also they are very cheap to buy containers at about 900 dollars per container. I feel the idea is very smart and could become a very big industry. Especially in cities where space is not easily accessible and cheap and the modern look will go nicely with most cities. Most people will hear the idea of living in a shipping container and dismiss it as ridiculous which is what i did until i looked them up and found they were actually pretty cool looking and something out of a new futuristic movie. I think it is a great idea and should be seriously considered. The industries today are always  thinking cheaper, better, and greener and in this case all of the above are achieved.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30088780/

http://weburbanist.com/2008/05/26/cargo-container-homes-and-offices/