Consumers using shipping containers in Hawai'i typically are moving to or from this island state. But a new trend in architecture and an old trend in high housing costs are leading more people to move into the containers themselves.

Building homes out of shipping containers — referred to by one design firm as "cargotecture" — has been embraced by a growing handful of architects and developers around the world in the past several years.

But recently, there's increased interest and effort to produce container homes in Hawai'i as economical living quarters from a recycled product.

"It's exciting," said Zendo Kern, owner of Green Island Builders, a custom-home builder that often works with unique materials in pursuing environmentally friendly construction.

Designs range from single-container studios to doublewides to multistory apartments. Even expansive luxury residences complete with a container-based swimming pool are possible.

Hilo-based Green Island recently began building a 2,000-square-foot home on the Big Island designed by Honolulu architect Patrick Tozier using four 40-foot containers for a Mainland couple planning to move to Hawai'i.

The three-bedroom, two-bathroom house recently broke ground in the Hawaiian Beaches subdivision in Puna where land is still inexpensive.

Tozier, a University of Hawai'i graduate who founded Global Living Systems two years ago, said his clients needed an affordable house to go with their affordable lot. He said they suggested he use containers — an idea had hadn't explored before.

"I designed a home as efficient as I could make it and as beautiful as I could make it," he said. "You don't sacrifice quality for affordability in this case. It's super strong."

TREND NEW IN HAWAI'I

The simple layout of the house is an enclosed foyer between two pairs of containers, all of which is set in a foundation. Interior container walls are partially removed to make room connections. Exterior walls are insulated and feature windows on the broad sides and sliding glass doors on the ends.

Tozier said the containers come with plywood flooring that will be sanded and finished, and the exterior will be insulated with a heat-reflecting ceramic paint.

Several local architects and builders working with containers say commercial home production from the heavy gauge steel boxes is in its infancy in Hawai'i, and that broader development remains questionable given financing difficulty, permitting challenges and possible aesthetic objections.

On the Mainland, one driver of the trend is America's trade deficit that brings in millions of containers from China and other countries each year without a return trip for many of the boxes.

Some homebuilders have seen a good recycling opportunity that makes use of containers that shippers are happy to sell for little money.

Often though, container-home projects are expressions of hip, urban architecture that win design competitions, or become museum exhibits or get lived in by well-to-do buyers with eccentric taste — as opposed to providing cost-effective homes for people of modest means.

There have been some big steps by developers producing some notable modest living uses of containers around the world.

In London, there is a funky multicolored live/work apartment complex called Container City, built in 2001 by Urban Space Management Ltd. in an old industrial waterfront area that houses a community of artists and cultural events.

The developer used 20 40-foot containers to make a three-story building with 15 units that feature large portholelike windows, balconies set between open container doors, and staircases within containers standing on end. Later, Container City was topped by a fourth story and a second phase comprising an adjacent five-story complex with 22 studios.

In Amsterdam, Netherlands, a company called Tempohousing in 2005 built a factory in China to produce shipping containers, and has turned out several projects, including a 60-unit housing complex for the Dutch branch of the Salvation Army and a 250-unit student housing complex.

Tempohousing's largest project was a 1,000-unit student dormitory in Amsterdam completed two years ago to provide student housing for a five-year term that later was extended to 10 years.

GREAT POTENTIAL

One ambitious effort in the U.S. is being made by a startup company in New Mexico called PFNC Global Communities, which is raising capital to produce stacks of 320-square-foot studio apartments for workers in Mexico for less than $10,000 apiece.

According to an Associated Press story last month, PFNC aims to produce 3,000 homes in its first year and ramp up production thereafter.

In Hawai'i, surplus shipping containers historically have become mostly storage lockers and temporary construction site offices.

Relatively few people — mostly in remote rural areas of the state — have lived in shipping containers since the 1960s when the standardized boxes revolutionized global shipping. Most of the older and sometimes rather crude residential conversions, however, were usually made without required permits.

The newer interest in container homes from licensed contractors and architects attempting to work with county officials appears to be leading away from unpermitted container housing in the state.

Honolulu-based Container Storage Co. of Hawaii Ltd. mainly sells containers for storage, but because of rising interest, obtained a contractor's license this year to build container homes.

Chris Thometz, Container Storage's sales representative, said consumer inquiries started about two years ago and led the company to produce close to 10 homes since then ranging from 320-square-foot studios using a 20-foot container to a home designed from seven containers framing a large covered interior space.

"This is something that has really grown," he said.

Container Storage now has a variety of floor plans it offers with a design-build package for people interested in container living, and will make referrals to a few architects interested in custom work with containers.

"Most architects say, 'That's a ticky-tacky box. I don't want to work with a ticky-tacky box.' But it's amazing what you can do," Thometz said.

Fritz Johnson, a longtime local architect specializing in high-end custom residential work, got interested in container-based design six or seven years ago to produce portable school rooms and office space, but more recently has become a container-home booster.

"It really hasn't caught the public eye yet," he said. The challenge "is getting the public over the stigmatism attached to living in a container."

Johnson has created a few residential container prototypes, including a cottage and a 150-unit complex of two-story four-plexes, but no commercial production has resulted from the plans yet.

Johnson sees great potential for large-scale homeless shelters and affordable housing projects to be built from containers, though he said people need to be convinced of the merits of the idea.

"There's a pretty big reluctance when you say container-home," he said.

One advantage besides low cost is that container-home apartments can easily be stacked and stuck together. Also, such structures can be developed for short-term use if necessary and relocated.

Thometz of Container Storage also believes there's a future in Hawai'i for large-scale affordable container-housing. He plans to draft a grant proposal for nonprofits with affordable housing interests, such as The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, to explore possibly developing container housing.

Tozier of Global Living is offering his container-home design to others for free as an open-source form of architecture that others can use to create affordable container-homes.

"There should be interest in shipping containers (for affordable housing in Hawai'i), but whether or not it's going to get larger is a question," he said.

Those involved in the business say significant challenges may restrain growth of such unconventional homes locally.

SEVERAL HURDLES

One major hurdle is getting a loan. Lenders typically are hesitant or unwilling to finance something that lacks an established resale value and could be hard to resell. Also, bonding a project, which ensures construction is finished, is difficult for container homes.

Though it is often unsaid, there is fear that the general public will oppose such projects over concern that container-homes will be little more than corrugated metal shanties that potentially depress surrounding property values.

Obtaining county building permits also can be difficult. Noelani Whittington, spokeswoman for the Big Island Department of Public Works, which issues building permits, said getting a permit for a container-home does take extra effort, though the department is willing to work with builders who have an architect or engineer illustrate that a design meets building codes.

Under Hawai'i County's building code, shipping containers generally are permitted only as temporary structures. "They weren't built for living quarters," Whittington said.

A Honolulu-based firm doing business as Affordable Portable Housing said it obtained building permits this year for two container-home plans on the Big Island, though financing challenges have delayed construction.

Affordable Portable is working with another company, Containers Hawaii, to outfit the containers at a Kalaeloa conversion plant that Containers Hawaii established a few years ago to modify containers mainly for office use.

Francis Martin, principal of Containers Hawaii, said he suspects that some orders for "offices" are really intended for residential use, but that more people are now inquiring about home construction.

The company has one conversion project under way for a private owner intending to live in side-by-side 40-foot containers.

Prices for container homes aren't as cheap as they are on the Mainland because Hawai'i doesn't have as much of an unwanted supply of containers.

The state's largest ocean transportation company, Matson Navigation Co., maintains a "closed system" of company-owned containers that are cycled within Matson's shipping routes that include China and the West Coast.

Matson spokesman Jeff Hull said aging containers that Matson retires are sold to a West Coast vendor, while others are donated to charities.

Shippers including businesses and individuals who buy containers to ship goods to Hawai'i are popular sources for used containers, which can be found on Craigslist typically for $3,000 to $4,000. Commercial suppliers also sell used and new containers, the latter of which can go for $5,000 to $6,000.

Kern of Green Island said the cost to build the Puna container house is probably 5 percent to 10 percent less than the cost of a traditional home of the same size. The Puna house is costing $186,000, or a bit less than $100 a square foot.

Thometz of Container Storage provided a sample price quote for a 960-square-foot home made from three 40-foot containers on O'ahu at roughly $140,000, or just less than $150 a square foot, excluding foundation work and utility hookups, but including drywall and interior fixtures, exterior siding and a sloped roof with shingles.

Thometz said it's possible to cut costs by leaving the exterior without siding or other extras like the sloped roof.

"It's really a cost-savings kind of deal," he said.