A second life for containers
Future vivero of companies Provençana
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This project is created to promote the recovery and transformation of maritime containers as social housing and public buildings, applying sustainability criteria.

The department of construction and civil works of the Provençana Institute has developed it, based on an initiative of Julio Martínez Alcalde that has devoted part of his professional career to enterprises related to the social economy.

Consequently, the main goals of the proposals are to join the collaborative and social economy with the educational world of Vocational Training.

Apart from being a recycling project for maritime containers, it is also an ecological project guided towards the social and solidarity economy. The buildings are designed following criteria of bioclimatic architecture and respond to the current demands of energy efficiency. The projected construction solutions allow its construction to be carried out in an industrialized way.

The students of the higher levels of Building Projects and Civil Works are developing the project, through the training modules of projects, in an educational innovation experience in the field of vocational training.

The basic project designs of the buildings that are showed in this web, were developed with BIM technology by the students of the 2016-17 course. The 2017-2018 academic year students have done the executive project level, also in BIM technology. This project will allow the construction of an experimental prototype of a small piece of equipment for social use that can be located in a public space.

Besides this experience, we will design the curricular contents to train the different trades required for the transformation of the containers. The goal is to replicate the experience in other places where the adequate conditions are given through social economy entities and solidarity for the production of real estate.

We have now incorporated this project into a very ambitious initiative of Mediterranean inter-cooperation through the European cooperative IESMED (Innovation and Social Economy in the Mediterranean), which aims to build a solidarity and socially innovative value chain around the recycling of containers maritime disuse.

Initial information

The construction sector is responsible for a high percentage of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere and the generation of waste.

Approximately a quarter of total energy consumption occurs in homes.

It is estimated that there are 1.6 billion people in the world who do not have adequate housing.

The problem of unemployment and access to housing are two related problems that are presented together and feed each other.

There are some seventeen million intermodal containers in the world. In addition, it is estimated that several million of these containers have been abandoned due to the cost of sending them back to their port of departure, generating another waste problem.

There are currently many experiences of constructions made from maritime containers.

Project objectives

Design social housing and small facilities based on maritime containers, applying environmental criteria of sustainability and with an industrialized construction process as simple as possible.

Design the training in trades necessary for the production of buildings.

Build a prototype where you can experiment with the different constructive solutions proposed, improve the design and calculate the costs.

Create and / or encourage the creation of social and solidarity economy entities for the production of social housing.

Allow the export and replication of experience in those parts of the world where the right conditions exist, such as Tunisia: high number of abandoned containers, sectors of population with high rates of unemployment and difficulties in accessing decent housing.

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