Travis Price, a Washington D.C.–based architect, recently explored the challenge of tuning shipping containers in an exciting 24-occupant apartment building in the Brookland neighbourhood.
Speed is what convinced Grace and Joiner, the client, of eschewing traditional construction in the first place. “The big driver was building 8,000 square feet during summer vacation,” Travis Price Architects associate Kelly Davies explains of the enthusiastic response. Price adds, “Assembly means cutting out all slow, weather-dependent steps. The really important thing is that efficiency translates to ecological benefit.”
The construction process of the SeaUA, that’s the name of the development, took only few months.
Besides plucking existing resources from the waste stream, the SeaUA design adapts them with sustainable-building strategies in mind, chief among them super-insulation (four inches of closed-cell spray foam) and natural ventilation. “Cross-ventilation occurs in the common space, when low operable windows on the dining room side and high operable windows on the living room side are opened,” Travis Price Architects associate Davies says. Daylight penetration as well as installation of ductless mini-splits, boost energy efficiency.