Construction has just begun on a three floor, three bedroom, three-and-a-half bathroom apartment in Detroit, USA, taking just over six hours to build.
The North Corktown apartment complex is also entirely made of shipping containers, in an innovative project to use old containers to build new housing.
With the effects from the Great Recession and other challenges slowly being overcome in the Detroit area, property developers Three Squared proposed the use of shipping containers for apartments to help expand the residential living space in the city.
While small, the project is seen as an experiment using a new building technology as a tool in urban revitalization.
Speaking to Detroit Free Press, CEO of Three Squared Leslie Horn said, “Until you really build something, people don’t believe you can do it.”
While shipping container redevelopment has been seen throughout Europe and Australia, it’s much rarer in the United States because of the unconventional nature of the project.
Ms Horn told mlive that the 2,800 square foot building is 70% completed, with tours of the model home scheduled for later this week.
Once it is completed, the model complex will have taken less than 60 days to construct.
“I think we’re going to change people’s minds today,” Ms Horn said.
“We’re creating history in Detroit.”
The North Corktown complex took nine shipping containers to build, six 40-foot containers for the main body, and three 20-foot containers for the balconies.
The building is essentially two homes, which will serve as model units. It will be a starting point for the company’s next two projects called Rosa Parks Squared in Woodbridge and Kaline Squared in Corktown.
Three Squared hopes to have completed its next two buildings by the end of the year in Woodbridge and Corktown, two of the city’s most densely populated neighbourhoods.
The Kaline Squared complex will have eight separate units for sale while Rosa Parks Squared in Woodbridge will have 25 apartments.
Associate broker with The Loft Warehouse Jan Dijkers told mlive that the units will sell from between $150,000 for the smallest 640-square-foot unit, to $350,000 for the largest 1,800 square-foot units.
Project Manager- www.liquidpm.com