Shipping Container Design

The terms “shipping container design” and “cargotecture” are becoming more commonly used by people with interest in the field.  The majority of people still think of shipping containers as large, solid rectangular boxes with one purpose: to ship goods overseas.  To them, shipping container design and shipping container architecture are foreign terms.  We are working hard to change this.

There are many reasons to build with shipping containers, but coming up with the perfect design can sometimes be a challenge for our clients. Google is your friend for this. After looking over our projects and concepts, google terms such as “container homes” and “shipping container structures”. This is a great way to narrow down the style you like. Pinterest is also a great source to search on. The MODS Pinterest boards also have information as well as design ideas.

*MODS Design Tip*

A great design tip we can offer is to make sure you are including an ample amount of windows into your design. Our design team makes this a priority to make sure a heavy supply of natural light is incorporated into both our commercial and residential structures.

 

At MODS, we have built a variety of different commercial and residential structures.  All of our work is custom, which means we work closely with our clients so they are receiving an end product that exactly meets their needs and expectations. We love to push the boundaries and are always up for a challenge. The design possibilities are endless and there are millions of different ways to modify the containers. If you have an idea, no matter how crazy anyone says it is, let us know! We’d love to hear about it and make it become a reality. You can contact us via our website or by phone at 1-800-869-1277.

Container Trade Show Booth Advantages

You’ve been planning for this trade show for months. When the doors open and the room begins to fill with people, you don’t want to blend into the background as “just another booth.” Stand out from the crowd with a distinctive design that commands presence!

By using shipping containers as the base for our trade show displays, we have created a unique, portable solution that streamlines the trade show booth development and set up process. After understanding the needs of our client, our team will come up with a functional design that promotes your brand and products. The containers are able to be modified in an endless amount of ways. We can use single containers of various sizes for smaller booth style displays or multiple connected containers for larger displays. Entertain potential clients by adding a bar design to your project. Transport of your finished display on a flatbed truck is incredibly easy. We offer full-service set up once the display arrives on site. This means minimal set-up for you, as well as minimal staffing. During off hours of the show, simply close, lock, and secure your display.

Main Benefits of a Container Trade Show Booth

• The custom, unique design will attract attention
• Sustainable and eco-friendly
• Easy to transport, effortless handling
• Quick set-up and easy storage
• Brand visibility during show, transport, and when closed on location
• Minimal staff required for deployment
• Can be set-up to be self-sufficient with electric and water
• Turn-key options available with technology and furniture

 

 

Let us take care of your display, so your staff can spend their time on interacting with the interested customers. To find out more about how a MODS container trade show booth can simplify and improve your next trade show experience, contact us through the website or by phone at 1-800-869-1277.

Shipping Container Restaurants

Would you like to test a new market for your restaurant, but don’t want to work out of a food truck? Do you have a great idea for a new restaurant concept and want to be both eco-friendly and cost effective? Or are you looking to expand your restaurant to new, permanent locations quickly? These are all excellent reasons to build a shipping container restaurant.

Huge names such as Starbucks and Taco Bell are seeing the value in shipping container restaurants. Starbucks has already opened container restaurants in Chicago, Seattle, Denver, Salt Lake City, and Portland. Taco Bell built a prototype that was stationed at the SXSW Festival last year. Since Taco Bell is growing so rapidly, they will need to build around 300 new stores a year to keep up with demand. Brian Niccol, the CEO of Taco Bell, has stated that “We think we could do 100 to 200 of these container stores. But it has to be in the right climate and right location for it to make sense.” Both Starbucks and Taco Bell are pushing to become more environmentally friendly and for new stores to be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified. All Starbucks container restaurants are LEED certified.

If you are looking for a durable, eco-friendly building for your restaurant, but aren’t a fan of the corrugated metal/industrial look of the containers, don’t worry! We are able to apply any type of aesthetics you want. We can make the containers look like a rustic BBQ shop, a clay walled cantina, and everything in between. Our designers and engineers will work with you to come up with the perfect design that incorporates your restaurant’s theme.

We can have your restaurant up and running in no time with less building costs. For more information on building your own temporary or permanent shipping container restaurant, contact us through our website or call us at 1-800-869-1277.

Happy Earth Day!

Here at MODS International, we’re all about sustainability. We treat every day like it’s Earth Day by creating eco-friendly, shipping container-based structures. Building with containers reduces the amount of traditional building materials, as well as saves on steel and energy. A 40 foot shipping container weighs over 8,000 pounds, so each time we up-cycle one, we are also saving thousands of pounds of steel from being used. The process of re-purposing the containers actually uses far less electrical energy than it would to melt down these massive steel boxes. In fact, it takes about 8,000 kw of electrical energy to melt down a container, we use about 5% of that amount when re-purposing a container!

During the building process, we are often cutting out and removing a lot of pieces of the container. We don’t like to let these pieces go to waste either! If you were able to watch our container house featured on HGTV’s Container Homes, you would have caught a glimpse of what we can do with the extra parts and pieces. We were able to use the door handles and latches for the guardrails on the stairs, closet rods, towel rods, and toilet paper holders. The parts can also be used for doors, fencing, shutters, tables, and much more. As you can see in the photos below, the end products are not only functional, but really cool and unique looking!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you’re interested in an eco-friendly home or your company is ready to build more sustainable structures, we’re ready to assist you. Contact us via e-mail, phone or try our new live chat feature!

Advantages of a Container House

There are currently millions of shipping containers sitting around the world, making them readily available for alternatives uses. There are also many advantages of a container house compared to a traditionally built house. Containers make an ideal and easy to use building material. The corrugated steel they are made from is one of the toughest metals in the world! It’s extremely durable and made to withstand harsh weather conditions. They are also able to handle a large amount of weight and are easy to stack, move, and connect due to the locking corners.                                                         

When comparing the cost and build time to a traditional home, a container house will be less in both of these areas. Container houses are cheaper on average overall to construct than a traditional stick built home. The 2016 average cost to build a new house is about $150 per square foot, but this cost can increase greatly when with custom home construction. A MODS custom container house will cost you around $115 per square foot. This cost will vary though depending on your design, interior and exterior finishes, and the amount of modification to the shipping containers. A container house also takes half of the time it takes to complete a traditional single-family home. A MODS container house takes around three months from design to finish, while a traditional home takes at least double that amount of time. This is one of the huge advantages of a container house. You can be living in your dream home within just a few months!

A huge attraction of shipping container homes is that they are eco-friendly. Unless they are repurposed, the containers will either remain useless at a port or be melted down. Melting down the containers’ steel is a process that uses a huge amount of energy compared to the modification process. MODS uses one trip containers that are of the highest quality to assure your container home is as safe and long lasting as possible.

There are millions of design options for your container house. Whatever style and look you imagine for your home, we can make it happen! From large multiple container homes to one container tiny homes, we work closely with you so you receive the container home of your dreams. Contact us today to get started on your container house!