Students to study shipping-container homes

PROVIDENCE – This is not your typical energy-efficient house. Students at the Rhode Island School of Design and Brown University are preparing to review the viability of using shipping containers as the building blocks for energy-efficient homes.
Supported by a $150,000 federal appropriation, students from RISD will work with two local architects to design plans for such homes. If the idea is judged viable, Brown’s Rhode Island Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship will assist in commercializing the concept.
Leading the project will be Brown and RISD graduate Peter Gill Case and Joe Haskett, a RISD alumnus. The two led the company that built a commercial office building out of shipping containers. The building, off Route 10 in Providence, has been pitched as the model for reusing shipping containers.
“This collaboration between RISD and Brown has great potential to create jobs and provide affordable, sustainable housing. This partnership will leverage investments by RISD, Brown and the R.I. Economic Development Corporation to promote entrepreneurship and business development here in Rhode Island,” said U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, credited with securing the appropriation through the federal Partnership for Sustainable Development.
Case and Haskett say that ideally they want to develop a base model building that operates “off the grid” and can be built easily anywhere in the world.
“This partnership is really exciting,” said Brendan McNally, director of the Brown center. “We are taking Peter and Joe’s idea for affordable, sustainable housing, researching and testing it in the RISD advanced studio, and then using the programs and networks at RI-CIE to find the right market and business model to succeed. We believe this collaborative approach – idea-to-lab-to-market – is ideal to capitalize on Rhode Island’s knowledge economy innovations to create jobs and advance sustainable building options.”