Riding home from work today I passed this shipping container sitting outside a house. This is a fairly common scene around New Orleans as people still have trailers in front of their homes and portable storage units are parked all over. But this shipping container caught my eye precisely because it’s not one a person can just order up on the internet. I wonder where it came from and who owns it and what’s inside. Presumably it’s here for a rebuilding project. But which one? The house in this photo is being rebuilt. The lot on the left is empty, and beside that is another brand new house. The rest of the houses stretching down this street are in various stages of disrepair, including the one right next to this main house, which is missing an entire side, exposing the home’s rotting interior. This kind of uneven development always makes me wonder how real recovery is supposed to happen. How must it feel to go home to a rebuilt house surrounded by the ghosts of neighbors who probably aren’t coming back, of houses that still bear all the marks of that storm and those levee breaches? I continued on down Delachaise, crossing St. Charles, and was, in that space of four or five blocks, in a completely different New Orleans, one where passing through, you might figure everything is back to normal.
What I Saw Riding My Bike Around Today 
I love that TIGER word just sneaking onto the container!
Tiger is a Chinese Shipping Company. That type of container is readily available for purchase or rent. We use them quite a bit in the heavy construction industry, for storage and as field offices. They are durable, usually weather proof, and hard to break into. Last one I purchased for personal use was under $1000. Typically they are used for shipping until they get to the point where they are deemed unsuitable for oceangoing use. Then they become available as storage units on dry land.
Interesting commentary on the rebuilding of NOL. I haven’t been back since the month after Katrina, and wondered how it was coming along. I think with the current mortgage/economic meltdown there are going a lot of people surrounded by “ghosts of neighbors”.
Aaron
good to know! wow, you can rent those?
Also seen some great re-design of storage spaces onto- living, retail and library spaces from lo-tek
Those storage unit designs from lo-tek are fascinating! Down south, though, they best come with porches. I think the sight of these shipping containers permanently housed on people’s front lawns are unsettling, but I do like to see them put to creative use.
Here is a good website with lots of links and hours of reading…
http://www.shipping-container-housing.com/
I have toyed with the idea of using them for housing in the past, but currently prefer my elderly Airstream, easy to move by myself and can be done quickly in the case of an emergency.
Aaron
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Well, Australians are turning those containers into houses btw. Oh yeah, I love your blog. 🙂