This spring, construction began on a project we designed in 2019 - The Ulmus, which is a multi-story container structure in Arizona. This is the second project of this type that we have done in Phoenix, with the Architect, LocalStudio. This is going to be a mixed use project, commercial and residentail. It consists of 2 three-story buildings made with shipping containers. Each building is made from 12 containers. What's made this building challenging is in addition to being constructed during The COVID-19 Pandemic, is that we are now having to comply with additional standards that are being incorporated into the International Building Code.
As shipping containers for a building material have gotten more popular, it was inevitable some standards would evolve. What has happened a lot of times from what I've been told by building officials is that plans are submitted with no analysis of the structure at all. The engineers have been assuming the containers maintain the same strength once they are cut into, but they don't. Also, containers are made by a wide variety of companies in China, and their exact construction varies by brand.
With this project we prepared the drawings using a standard container manufactured by Jindo, which is one of the larger manufacturers. As part of the project, the containers supplied had to be checked by a third party to assure that matched the ones I used for the design. I also had to specify the steel (ASTM A242) requirements on the plans. We needed to test the chemical makeup of the steel in the containers and the mechanical properties to assure the containers to assure the containers supplied complied with these requirements.
