Transformasi Kontainer Jadi Apartemen dan Perkantoran
Containers Being Transformed into House, Apartment and Office Building
Reporter : Gusmiati Waris
Editor : Cahyani Harzi
Translator : Dhelia Gani
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SEPERTI kata pepatah, rumah adalah jantung kehidupan, dan semakin banyak orang di AS, membangun tempat khusus dengan tumpukan kontainer.
Meningkatnya kebutuhan perumahan di seluruh AS, beberapa pengembang di Detroit dan Seattle melahirkan pemikiran ´luar biasa´ sebagai solusi: memanfaatkan kontainer bekas.
Sekitar 25 juta kontainer berukuran 20x40 kaki bergerak melalui pelabuhan AS setiap tahun, mengangkat segala macam barang mulai dari mainan anak, komputer hingga bahan kimia.
Dulunya, ketika sebuah kontainer ´pensiun´ dari industri perkapalan, akan dibuang di pelabuhan hingga berkarat. Namun kini, kotak baja berwarna-warni mendapatkan ´hidup baru´ setelah diubah menjadi rumah, apartemen, studio seni, gedung perkantoran dan bahkan restoran.
Arsitektur Hybrid, yang berbasis di Seattle, Washington, membangun perumahan dari kontainer bekas selama hampir 10 tahun dan dirilis dengan sebutan ´cargotecture´ sebagai pendekatan konstruksi ramah lingkungan, seperti dilaporkan ABC News.
Rumah dan bisnis disatukan bersama dari kotak warna-warni yang dapat dibeli seharga US$2.500 per kontainer yang tersebar luas di daratan AS dalam beberapa tahun terakhir.
Di Detroit, sedang berlangsung proyek untuk membangun komplek kondominium berlantai empat yang terdiri atas tumpukan 93 kontainer. Dijuluki Exceptional Green Living on Rosa Parks, yang telah dirintis sejak empat tahun lalu, namun mengalami penundaan lantaran krisis ekonomi.
Setelah rampung, kondominium akan menjadi rumah multi-keluarga pertama yang dibangun dari kontainer di AS. Menurut rencana, setiap unit akan menyediakan pemanas udara Ductless dan sistem sirkulasi udara, pemanas air dan solusi hemat energi.
Di Seattle, konstruksi yang dibangun HyBrid Architecture pada 2011. Sementara tempat tinggal miniscule, berukuran 192 meter persegi, didukung energi surya dan dilengkapi kebutuhan dasar seperti dapur, kamar mandi mini, sofa modifikasi dan tempat tidur lipat.
Sementara arsitek lain menata kontainer seperti menyusun mainan Lego, asal tumpuk. Alih-alih memodifikasinya, kontainer ditumpuk begitu saja di satu tempat dan tiap kontainer berfungsi jadi ruang tamu, dua kamar tidur dan kamar mandi, dapur, ruang makan dan gudang.
Susunan 35 kontainer biru dan hijau lumut ditumpuk jadi satu membentuk the Box Office di Providence, Rhode Island. Komplek seluas 12 ribu meter persegi ini adalah gedung perkantoran terbesar dari kontainer di Amerika Serikat.
Meskipun bahan bangunan mudah didapat dan relatif murah, pengembang Peter Case mengatakan proyek tersebut menghabiskan dana US$1,6 juta karena biaya tinggi lantaran mengubah peti kosong menjadi sebuah kantor.
Selain menjadi rumah dan kantor, kontainer juga digunakan untuk fungsi komersial seperti kios lobster berjalan yang disebut Muvbox, lengkap dengan meja dan tempat duduk diatapi awning.
Ide menjadikannya kedai, datang dari proyek seni di Montreal pada 2006. Sejak itu, kontainer yang sama muncul di Toronto, Times Square di New York dan bahkan Paris.
AS THE saying goes, home is where the heart is, and for a growing number of people in the U.S. and beyond its borders, that special place is a stack of shipping containers.
With the demand for affordable housing on the rise across the country, some developers in cities like Detroit and Seattle have been using a truly outside-the-box thinking to come up with a solution to the problem: building condominiums out of discarded shipping containers.
About 25 million of these 20-by-40 feet boxes move through U.S. ports every year, hauling everything from children’s toys to computers and chemicals.
In the past, when a container was retired from service in the shipping industry, it would end up discarded in a ship yard to be slowly consumed by rust. But now, the colourful steel boxes get a new lease on life by being transformed into apartments, art studios, office buildings and even restaurants.
HyBrid Architecture, based in Seattle, Washington, has been building housing from containers for nearly 10 years now and is credited with coining the term ´cargotecture´ to describe this ‘green’ approach to construction, ABC News reported.
Homes and businesses pieced together out of the multicolored boxes which can be purchased for as little as $2,500 each have been springing up from coast to coast in recent years.
In Detroit, a project is under way to build a four-story condominium complex consisting of 93 stacked cargo boxes. Dubbed the Exceptional Green Living on Rosa Parks, the development has been in the pipeline for four years now, but suffered a delay due to the recent real estate bust.
When completed, the condo building will be the first multi-family residence built from containers in the U.S. According to the plan, each unit will feature ductless heating and air systems, tankless water heaters and other energy-saving solutions.
In Seattle, the aforementioned firm HyBrid Architecture constructed the Sunset Cargotecture cottage in 2011. While the dwelling is miniscule, coming in at only 192 square feet, it is powered by solar energy and is equipped with all the basic necessities: a galley kitchen, a micro-bathroom, a transformer couch and a foldout bed.
While most architects see containers as Lego-like building blocks that are most useful when stacked. Instead of manipulating the boxes, he left them free-standing on the ground, with each container serving a different, clearly defined purpose: a living room, two bedrooms and bathrooms, a kitchen and dining room and a storage unit.
A jumble of 35 blue and lime-green containers stacked one on top of the other make up the Box Office in Providence, Rhode Island. The 12,000-square-foot complex is the largest office building of its kind in the U.S.
Despite the easily accessible and relatively cheap building materials, developer Peter Case said the project set him back as much as $1.6million due to the high costs associated with transforming an empty crate into a functioning office space.
Besides living quarters and workplaces, containers have been used to erect some of the more unusual commercial spaces, like the pop-up lobster shack on wheels called Muvbox, complete with unfolding table seating and awnings.
The idea for the quirky, crustacean-themed eatery was borne out of an art project in Montreal in 2006. Since then, similar boxes have surfaced in Toronto, Times Square in New York and even Paris.
