I went through a bit of a container home phase a little while back, as part of my ongoing fascination with the tiny house movement (which was in turn spurred by my own housing concerns). At first it sounded like a great idea--a quick and cheap way to build a house! (Although I should add that environmental concerns never really seemed to be that important in the early videos I watched.) So I looked into it a little more, and I even played around a bit with the idea to see what a suitable shipping container home for HJ and me might look like.
The glamour faded pretty quickly, though, as it became clear I had one of two options: 1) either confine myself to shapes that were not really ideal for a functional home, or 2) make so many modifications that I might as well just build the home from scratch. I also couldn't get around the fact that shipping containers, surprisingly enough, are not designed to be lived in. Insulation was a huge problem that I kept seeing designers and architects have to deal with, for one. Ultimately, it didn't seem like a shipping container home would be all that much cheaper than a normal home. (The owner of this "Mind-Blowing Modular Shipping Container Home", for example, admits that the materials cost is about the same, saying that the advantage is in speed of construction.)
So, yeah, I agree with pretty much everything she says in this video. I have to admit that I was a little hesitant at first because of the clickbait title, but she turned out to have some very well-reasoned, intelligent arguments. My only complaint is that she seems to be very reluctant to admit that the title is in fact clickbait. In her follow-up video, she explicitly denies that it is clickbait, and then goes on to say, "Even if I had used another title, people still would have complained." Yeah, no doubt. But that doesn't mean the title you did use isn't clickbait, because it totally is. I'm not saying I blame her for that. I mean, that's just the way YT works--clickbait titles get the clicks, so you gotta do what you gotta do. It's just a little disappointing that an otherwise intelligent individual is not willing to follow the Confucian principle of rectification of names (正名) in this instance.
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I must say your YouTube viewing habits are quite eclectic. I appreciate your finding and sharing these gems that I'd otherwise never see.
ReplyDeleteI went through a bit of a container home phase a little while back, as part of my ongoing fascination with the tiny house movement (which was in turn spurred by my own housing concerns). At first it sounded like a great idea--a quick and cheap way to build a house! (Although I should add that environmental concerns never really seemed to be that important in the early videos I watched.) So I looked into it a little more, and I even played around a bit with the idea to see what a suitable shipping container home for HJ and me might look like.
ReplyDeleteThe glamour faded pretty quickly, though, as it became clear I had one of two options: 1) either confine myself to shapes that were not really ideal for a functional home, or 2) make so many modifications that I might as well just build the home from scratch. I also couldn't get around the fact that shipping containers, surprisingly enough, are not designed to be lived in. Insulation was a huge problem that I kept seeing designers and architects have to deal with, for one. Ultimately, it didn't seem like a shipping container home would be all that much cheaper than a normal home. (The owner of this "Mind-Blowing Modular Shipping Container Home", for example, admits that the materials cost is about the same, saying that the advantage is in speed of construction.)
So, yeah, I agree with pretty much everything she says in this video. I have to admit that I was a little hesitant at first because of the clickbait title, but she turned out to have some very well-reasoned, intelligent arguments. My only complaint is that she seems to be very reluctant to admit that the title is in fact clickbait. In her follow-up video, she explicitly denies that it is clickbait, and then goes on to say, "Even if I had used another title, people still would have complained." Yeah, no doubt. But that doesn't mean the title you did use isn't clickbait, because it totally is. I'm not saying I blame her for that. I mean, that's just the way YT works--clickbait titles get the clicks, so you gotta do what you gotta do. It's just a little disappointing that an otherwise intelligent individual is not willing to follow the Confucian principle of rectification of names (正名) in this instance.