Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: What does affordable mean?

[Jock Coats (jock.coats]

There was a TV series in the UK as well recently called, I think,  
"Guerilla Builders" which featured a shipping container home in a  
back garden.  Very cool.

I've also seen one about one I think in New York - in-fill in a very  
narrow plot with containers stacked up on top of each other.  Again -  
very imaginative use of space.

No reason of course why you couldn't clad it if you wanted a  
different look on the outside.

For a more rural setting with great thermal qualities, how about  
straw bale building?  Single story the bales can support the whole  
building, or add a timber frame for higher buildings.  Very low build  
cost by UK standards - £400 psm instead of closer to £1000 in  
blockwork or steel frame.

Jock

On 12 Sep 2006, at 22:54, Cher Stuewe-Portnoff wrote:

> Brian, did you see the house built from shipping containers  
> featured on some
> home channel about 2 months ago? I think the owner-builders were  
> around
> Seattle. One of them was an architect, if I remember. Very simple,  
> quite
> livable for a small space -- very, very cool.
>
> Cher
> Columbia, MO
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Brian Bartholomew [mailto:bb [at] stat.ufl.edu]
> Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 4:38 PM
> To: Cohousing-L
> Subject: Re: [C-L]_ What does affordable mean?
>
> > At Sharingwood we have one, hand built shack of recycled scrounged
> > materials that was built for free by the owner, on a lot he paid
> > $20,000 for many years ago. We have another person who has acquired
> > a lot from their parents, who also was intending to hand build a
> > small, shack sized dwelling for under $5,000 in new material costs.
>
> I get giggles in my forming coho group for wanting to self-build a
> house using oceangoing shipping containers as a building block.  I
> expect it to have an unconventional appearance.  I also expect it to
> cost less than $20K for the house only.  Most of the real objections
> have centered around 'few people want to look at that', which is
> expected to hurt the prospects of mortgages and resales for others.
>
> May I invite cohos with scrounged and nontraditional houses to talk a
> little about the actual, observed consequences of such buildings on
> the financial lifecycle of more traditionally designed units?
>
>                                                         Brian
> _________________________________________________________________
> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
> http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/
>
>
>
>
> --
> No virus found in this incoming message.
> Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> Version: 7.1.405 / Virus Database: 268.12.3/446 - Release Date:  
> 9/12/2006
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
> http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/

--
Jock Coats - Chair, Oxfordshire Community Land Trusts
c/o Warden's Flat 1e, J Block Morrell Hall, OXFORD, OX3 0FF
w: +44 (0)1865 483353 h: +44 (0)1865 485019
m: +44 (0)7769 695767 e: jock.coats [at] oclt.org.uk
www: http://www.oclt.org.uk/ - http://jockcoats.blogspot.com/