Climate Responsive Container Design for Sustainable Dwellings

The latent and looming risks resulting from the effects of climate change are currently considered as critical ecological challenges facing the world in the 21st century. The damages caused to fragile ecosystems by an augmented amount of resource extraction and infrastructural development in addition to the depleting ozone layer and a significant level of air pollution are also a cause for concern. This has prompted a need to design environmentally friendly buildings, including sustainable containers. The objective of this project is to draw attention to the significance of adopting innovative approaches and methodologies for sustainable containers designs. It further examines how the sustainable containers can be integrated for utility in different climatic zones to address the shortage of houses. The container’s response to the certain climatic zone is analyzed using Ecotect software from Autodesk. Findings suggest that the core objective of sustainable building design should be to reduce the total primary energy needs considerably through an application of renewable resources as well as through incidental heat gains that prompt the comfort system, in addition to a reduced utility of continuous energy importing to ensure comfort. When building fabric is utilized, there is a potential of minimizing artificial heating, lighting, cooling as well as alternative energy importing systems. Overall, shipping containers can be repurposed and converted into modern housing units, cafes, or workspaces as sustainable buildings because of their environmentally friendly nature and capacity to provide low-cost accommodation based on their nature of being reliable, accessible, flexible, and cost-effective. The containers can, therefore, be converted into architectural magnificence to resolve shortage of affordable housing, particularly in Lagos State, Nigeria.