Cargotecture finds home in Northeast Portland

Daily Journal of Commerce (Portland, OR), Jul 16, 2008 by Sam Bennett

Rather than spend a good deal of time and money on a home addition, Jenn and Dugan Gauer opted to have a shipping cargo container installed in their backyard.

The Gauers, who live on Northeast Fremont Street, recently took shipment of a cargo container workshop for their backyard. It was fabricated in Seattle by a company called ConGlobal. The container, called the "c384w," which stands for Cargotecture 384 square feet Workshop, was delivered to their home earlier this month.

It was designed by HyBrid Architecture, a small international firm based in Seattle that develops prefabricated building systems.

The workshop will be used by Dugan Gauer for repairing vintage stereo equipment. It will have a green roof to reduce heat gain and mitigate storm water.

"We were looking for more space," said Jenn Gauer. They considered moving into a bigger home, but home prices were too high. The two were using their basement for Dugan's stereo repair work as well as Jenn's pottery work. They both liked the idea of "reusing industrial waste" and the idea of "keeping a shipping container looking like a shipping container," Jenn Gauer said.

A sliding glass was designed to let in plenty of light.

Joel Egan of HyBrid Architecture said the Gauers have Oregon's first factory-built cargotecture project.

Factory-built means that the cargo containers were converted into a workshop first and inspected by state permit agents, and then shipped from Washington as two separate 24-foot-long containers on trucks. All the wiring and insulation are installed before the containers are delivered. The workshop does not have plumbing.

"The original cargo floors have been left exposed, preserving the nostalgia of a few deep scratches that recall the original life of these boxes," said Egan. "The project has been painted deep blue, but retains its transport stickers and labels on the two well-used 15-year-old containers."

The workshop has a state permit for relocation to anywhere in Oregon and Washington. The Gauers are waiting for a final inspection by the city of Portland before moving the workshop materials in.

HyBrid has other cargo container conversion projects in Enumclaw and Ocean Shores, Wash., and is currently involved in the design and permitting of works for the city of Santa Monica Recycling Education Center, a ski resort hotel just across the border north of Spokane, and the largest cargo container building in North America - a 450- container dormitory in Lubbock, Texas. They are also doing an eco resort in high mountain central Portugal, and workforce housing in Qatar.

"Containers offer many advantages: easy shipping, durability to last a lifetime, securability, overt sustainability, the structure to build to mid-rise heights and the emotional sentimentality of an object that has traveled more than most people can dream," said Egan.

Other examples of cargo container reuse include The Nomadic Museum, designed by architect Shigeru Ban to house Gregory Colbert's "Ashes and Snow." That facility is constructed of 152 steel cargo containers, stacked 34 feet high and combined with largely recyclable and reusable materials to form the structural elements.

The cargo container gives the Gauers the flexibility of being able to relocate the shed when they move. "We like the flexibility part of it," said Jenn Gauer. "But we're intending to stay, now that we have it done."