While I was traveling in Denmark, I took a canal tour where there were retrofitted containers floating on the waterfront. This surprised me a lot as the area seemed to be an expensive area. The people living inside these containers looked like students. After doing some basic research, I discovered that this was the idea of a brilliant start-up founder where he saw the need for higher education students needing accommodations and he came up with the idea of using containers as a cheap solution.
Students need housing and containers offer a solution
By the end of last year, an estimated four million student beds were needed just to match demand from students. Furthermore, in Denmark that number was around 24,000.
When this founder saw the Denmark harbor was underutilized, he developed these retrofitted containers right on the water and centrally located in Copenhagen so that students do not have to commute long distances as well. Since they are not built on land, it provides a great opportunity to build these floating residences on waters, canals and harbors where the utilization is at a minimum.
The benefits of used containers for housing and other uses
Containers are widely used to transport goods between countries and on some occasions, I have seen them used as office space on land. However, offering containers on water for student residences sounds like a practical idea.
Used containers are usually cheap and can be cleaned and retrofitted in a cheap manner and because we are not discarding the steel as well, this is also an environmentally friendly option. On top of the containers, they also made sitting area for socializing as well as a tennis court, so it seems all the space is used well to make as much space as possible.
Expanding the use of containers to solve the housing shortage
The concept can be easily replicated in Europe since most shipping lines are using fewer and bigger ports, so all the ports that are not used as much as before offer a great alternative for housing. The same thing happens to canals, where in the past many ships used to call inland ports but due to low water levels, less inland locations are used to transport goods thus offering cheap alternative to residency.
The average rental price for houses in Copenhagen was approximately $600 per month, which is really cheap compared to finding a room in the city. They are also utilizing hydro source heating where seawater is converted into a free heating solution. The average square feet is around 800 which is pretty good compared to a college dorm.
