Wagga's container home builders say they're looking for ways to stay environmentally friendly

Luke Eagle and his wife Tash are building a five-bedroom, environmentally-friendly home at Gumly for their growing family.

“You could blame some of the lifestyle TV shows for it,” Mr Eagle said. “We’d seen it done a few times and thought it was pretty cool. The recyclable thing is something we really thought we have an affinity with.”

While most people think of shipping containers as big, ugly boxes, the Eagle’s home will be anything but. A long, sloping roof will stretch over a six-metre floor-to-ceiling glass panel, with modern-looking doors and windows. But around the side, keen observers will spot the familiar corrugated pattern of a shipping container. Inside, Mr Eagle said he planned to retain some of the look of the containers, but within the context of a modern-industrial style.

“We wanted it to look like a normal house with a normal facade and inside it will be all insulated and have plasterboard,” Mr Eagle said. “But on the back we’re leaving the door handles and that kind of thing as a feature. One of the doors will be to my office and it will still open up.”

It’s not just the construction that’s environmentally-friendly either, with solar panels and a clever use of nature helping to keep energy use low.

“We worked on the design so it would be kind of energy-neutral, the front of it for example is positioned perfectly due north, so we get all of the sun in the house through winter and then it’s shaded in the summer,”  Mr Eagle said. “We’ve got six-metre double glazed glass from floor to ceiling at the front of the house, so we can heat and cool it with minimal energy use.”

An entire industry has sprung up around the concept of shipping container homes as people look for ways to save money, or just recycle existing materials. Shipping container companies now sell their wares to be used in construction, while ready-made, modular homes can be bought and delivered anywhere in Australia with ease.

Wagga builder Wayne Carter said the humble shipping container proved its worth as a housing and office alternative after the devastating Christchurch earthquake in 2011.

“People lived in them and used them as offices, they were pretty handy and cost-effective,” Mr Carter said.

“They’d be solid and secure – you wouldn’t have to worry about white ants – although I’d be worried about the resale value. But, they can live in caves in Coober Pedy and get by, there’s all sorts of ways to live your life outside of a normal brick-veneer home.”

A spokesman from the Housing Industry Association said shipping containers and modular housing was becoming more popular, but cautioned there were still rules and guidelines that needed to be followed.

“Shipping containers definitely have a place in the world of architecture and construction, but their inherent flaws and limitations can’t be ignored,” he said. 

“In time and with more experience building challenges will be overcome more efficiently and we’ll see this trend expand further.”

For Mr Eagle, the container home concept was a step in the right direction for home construction.

“I hope this is where building and design goes,” he said. “The traditional home has got to change. As the weather starts to get more severe, people will be looking for more materials than just standard frames and bricks.”