Newark Custom Core Company
Growing interest in prefabricated homes today is a step in the right direction, but transporting large cubic volumes of open prefab space seems counter productive. The 20’ shipping container interior dimensions work best for a kitchen & bathroom, and would also serve as radiant heating/cooling system with the passive thermal system in the third floor unit, with instant hot water units as backup. In this three story design, the containers are welded together with steel cantilevered spacer beams, with pre-installed floor truss hangers. The 3 story “trunks” spaced properly would handle the vertical and lateral loads. The site installed floor beams, joists and curtain wall would complete the building.
The concept of this 228 unit mixed use project is to create a model complex, some retail space and start a new company to fabricate the shipping containers into single and multi-family residential cores. Three story buildings over concrete garages and eight unit buildings would be surrounded by one story restaurants and stores. The center garage would be the ‘seed’ assembly line for the first cores, then converted back to parking after construction is completed and the new company outgrows the site, as the demand grows for core housing.
The concept of the hybrid core house is to prefabricate only the core and to build the perimeter walls (straw bale, rammed earth, autoclaved concrete, etc.) and roof on site. The core would be packed with as many state of the art goodies as possible, such as a small propane refrigerator, backup pellet stove, composting toilet and a built-in hand cranked clothes washer. |
