c320 was designed by HyBrid Architecture as part of their Cargotecture series. According to the AIA Seattle website the building had a budget of $24,000. The Seattle Post Intelligencer reports a sale of twice that at $48,000. Either way, it seems to have met the goal of affordability. (The cost of the land is a completely different issue.) The container itself only cost $1800. It took forty-five days to fabricate the studio dwelling. The foundation was built of pre-cast concrete footings, which is why the overall installation only took sixteen hours.
The designers found that a forty-foot shipping container felt like an mine shaft. So, they half of a forty-foot container and attached it to a twenty foot container that was left over from a previous project. No explanation is given as to why they didn't just use a single 40 foot container, perhaps structural reasons? The two parts are offset by six feet.
The roof takes advantage of a green roof to add extra insulation and protection from the baking sun.
The project was designed as an overnight retreat for their client's lakeside property. The building is a total of 320 square feet. Seventy-five percent or 240 square feet of the studio is a pavilion like living space. The remainder of the space holds a small bathroom and sleeping area.
In conclusion, c320 meets many of the goals that designers hope to accomplish with container architecture: affordability, fast installation, mobility, an open living space, and low impact on the existing site. The only argument against the c320 is that it does not hide the fact that it is a shipping container. Many of the other container homes move away from the box-car look through arched roofs, for example, or different materials for siding. To counter that argument, it is the simplistic nature of the container that allows this building to be cost effective.
More information:
"On Architecture: Transforming cargo containers into a weekend studio." Lawrence W. Cheek. SEATTLE POST -INTELLIGENCER. http://www.seattlepi.com/visualart/276293_architecture04.html
"c320s - the Cargotecture Studio 320." AIA SEATTLE. http://2008honorawards.aiaseattle.org/node/140
"c320-Studio." HYBRID ARCHITECTURE. http://www.hybridseattle.com/c320studio.html
