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shipping container homes made by Berman-Kalil
BERMAN-KALIL CRAFTSMEN AT WORK ON THE INTERIOR FITTINGS OF A CONTAINER
I’m very interested in shipping container homes, as noted on the microhomes page, and today I was privileged to visit the production facility of Berman-Kalil in Kraaifontein Industria, who convert containers. See their website for clarifying videos made my their talented film-making relatives. Having seen other local container conversions when researching on the internet, Berman-Kalil stood out for me in the excellence of their design. When I visited the factory I found that they were indeed very beautiful, with clean, modern, minimal and elegant interiors.
A local producer of shipping container homes
Brad and Alicia and 12 permanent staff do the work of sourcing containers, and fitting them. Brad showed me a number of conversions, and at the moment they are building a containerized computer school, and medical facilities which will ship out to places like Tanzania. However their original goal was also to produce affordable housing.
Fitting out of the shipping container homes or containers converted for other purposes is customised to order. Depending on the budget, the walls are uninsulated and painted with an effective solar shielding paint, or insulated with a 44mm layer of polyurethane. If the roof can be shaded, then insulation against heat is not necessary. I planned to shade the roof of my intended container home with another container used as storage, and on top of that a deck, and solar panels, but now I know it’s a bit of a tall order. One of the designs produced by Berman-Kalil is a mobile bar. When the container reaches its destination, for instance a festival, the walls fold down to make decks, and railings and awnings and a fold-out ladder make the roof useable as a covered sitting area. The designs sound brilliant and Brad has completed a number of these designs with fold out entertainment spaces.
Fitting out of the shipping container homes or containers converted for other purposes is customised to order. Depending on the budget, the walls are uninsulated and painted with an effective solar shielding paint, or insulated with a 44mm layer of polyurethane. If the roof can be shaded, then insulation against heat is not necessary. I planned to shade the roof of my intended container home with another container used as storage, and on top of that a deck, and solar panels, but now I know it’s a bit of a tall order. One of the designs produced by Berman-Kalil is a mobile bar. When the container reaches its destination, for instance a festival, the walls fold down to make decks, and railings and awnings and a fold-out ladder make the roof useable as a covered sitting area. The designs sound brilliant and Brad has completed a number of these designs with fold out entertainment spaces.
The bedroom in one of the converted Berman Kalil containers
Among the twelve employees at Berman-Kalil are many skilled craftsmen. The company is small and there is such a diversity of work to do in converting a container, that many of them have become multi-skilled. However, when installing containers Berman-Kalil prefer to use local craftsmen, as they did in Soweto.
Going off grid made to order
Their craftsmen can fit out a micro-home that is off the grid. They have solar panels, chemical toilets and rain collection from the roofs of the containers as possibilities. How the completion is done depends on what you want, and how far away you are from their factory. Beyond a roughly 20 km radius for a small job, it will pay you to find local skills to do the plumbing and connecting to the grid.
a potentially off grid bachelor pad with solar panels From Berman Kalil
The beauty and intelligence of container conversion
According to Brad’s future visions, recycled containers are the next logical step in house design, bringing together the stripped down industrial aesthetic and green ethics. Changes underway at present are to change the outward appearance of the containers. Container building is slowly gaining ground in South Africa, and Berman-Kalil are doing their part in exposing South Africa to it. The company has been going for eighteen months. I think they have made huge progress and found international markets in such a short time. Absolute respect !
Containers can be piled up in different configurations, because they are easy to pile, being designed to pile eight high on the ships, though Brad warns that you need an engineer’s advice even for a two story container building. I’ve seen that container building design around the world, using container configurations from hollow to sloping forms and more, in Australia, India, US, Brazil, Germany and Skandinavia, has reached the cutting edge of design. South Africa has yet to accept this green and stylish innovation. But in terms of micro-homes, which is another worldwide green trend, the fashion for smaller homes, and tiny homes, and with ready-made off-grid homes, Berman-Kalil have a quality product in their shipping container homes, on the level with global trends, perhaps the best there is on offer.
Containers can be piled up in different configurations, because they are easy to pile, being designed to pile eight high on the ships, though Brad warns that you need an engineer’s advice even for a two story container building. I’ve seen that container building design around the world, using container configurations from hollow to sloping forms and more, in Australia, India, US, Brazil, Germany and Skandinavia, has reached the cutting edge of design. South Africa has yet to accept this green and stylish innovation. But in terms of micro-homes, which is another worldwide green trend, the fashion for smaller homes, and tiny homes, and with ready-made off-grid homes, Berman-Kalil have a quality product in their shipping container homes, on the level with global trends, perhaps the best there is on offer.
A question of acceptance and exposure ?
The powers that be in Cape Town are somewhat resistant to promoting converted container homes for large housing projects at this point in time. I think it’s a question of exposure, and long lead times. To work in city planning I imagine a place has to be planned as a village for shipping container homes from the get go. It affects the distribution of services, as they are on another grid scale, tailored to the size of the container, and there is the question of truck access for off loading. It would be wonderful if the city or a developer built a small container village for just ten homes or so, as an experiment, and rented it out, or laid the basics, service points and concrete slabs and streets, and allowed people to buy the plots and buy and convert their own containers, to see how people responded to the idea. In a further article I’ll discuss the why of this issue, why shipping container homes are a solution for Cape Town.
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home page with useful links on green living
different ways of building green
more ideas on eco cities
GO TO THE BERMAN-KALIL WEBSITE
sitemap
home page with useful links on green living
different ways of building green
more ideas on eco cities
GO TO THE BERMAN-KALIL WEBSITE