Africa
Baobab
Houses in Sudan
Little boxes
Jan 19th 2011, 15:13 by O.A. | JUBA
YOU can tell a lot about a developing country from what its residents do with shipping containers. They are more than a means of transporting goods from factories and ports. South Asians turn them into shops by cutting open the front and adding tables for selling goods stored in the back. Some Afghan warlords have perfected the weapon-isation of the shipping container (which was originally used to ship American materials during the Vietnam War), using them as prison cells, torture chambers and execution grounds.
But in terms of ingenuity the South Sudanese are hard to beat. They have embraced the shipping container (which comes in a choice of 20-foot or 40-foot models) as the basic building block in the construction boom accompanying their search for independence. Many of the foreign officials and journalists who flocked to the capital, Juba, to witness the referendum on secession last week know all too well. They sleep in containers. Building materials are hard to come by since no paved roads reach Juba and there are few original buildings. So the South Sudanese hold on to the containers brought in on rutted dirt tracks and turn them into dwellings. Anyone who has visited UN and embassy compounds in Iraq and Afghanistan will nod sagely in recognition.
But they would be wrong. These really are actual shipping containers, not the purpose-built housing units en vogue in Baghdad and Kabul. They can be lined up on the ground or stacked up with an external staircase connecting them. For protection against the sun the South Sudanese put thatched roofs on top. Heat is also reduced by attaching air-conditioning units. To get a bit of light, windows are cut into the exterior walls, as well as regular doors. The interior is often divided with plywood walls, especially useful when the containers function as hotel rooms. A bathroom is cordoned off at one end of the container and a sink and toilet are installed. A shower can be cemented on to the floor, which is often covered with laminate. The nicer containerised hotel rooms in Juba come with desks and double beds covered with mosquito nets (see picture). Baobab spent New Year in his container and slept rather well.
About Baobab
On this blog our correspondents delve into the politics, economics and culture of the continent of Africa, from Cairo to the Cape. The blog takes its name from the baobab, a massive tree that grows throughout much of Africa. It stores water, provides food and is often called the tree of life.
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Completely fascinating and ingeneous.
Very little is wasted in poor countries. Sadly though, human lives are.
seriously economist this is extremely bad journalism, we in south africa make use of the container in all examples (except for the afghan one!)
The Economist: subtly (via an unspoken subtext of its future vision) lowering the expectations of "normal" living standards for the bottom 95-99% in developed nations, so that the remainder may live in an ever more-lavish lap of luxury, while this newspaper's favorite force - globalization, of course - expands the gap between the very rich, and the rest of us.
An ingenious idea on the part of the Sudanese (and others). Living in poverty is strong personal incentive against inefficiency and waste; living in a container would make an interesting vacation experiment.
But as a home? Particularly here in the northern climes of North America, and lacking sufficient container insulation? Surely not.
It seems the Economist is a good 5 years behind on container housing. This is a very old story.... docnick
I would like to point you to the work of:
Elizabeth Sheehan
Founder and President
Email Elizabeth Sheehan >
http://www.containers2clinics.org/
Elizabeth has two decades of experience delivering medical care in the US and abroad. She began her career in healthcare working in emergency rooms throughout the US as a Physician Assistant. After a year-long journey to 19 developing countries to investigate health care delivery systems, Elizabeth became the medical director of The HALO Trust, an organization committed to village-based mine clearance. With HALO, Elizabeth designed and implemented emergency care protocols for de-miners and expatriate staff in Cambodia and Mozambique. After earning her Master’s in public health in London, she worked for USAID on a primary health care reconstruction project in post war Mozambique. Later, she worked as a clinician in the Maputo Central Hospital teaching triage protocols and assisting the delivery of emergency care. After Mozambique, Elizabeth moved to Tanzania, where as part of the British High Commission she volunteered her medical skills and public health knowledge in orphanages, shelters and women’s groups.
For the past 15 years, Elizabeth served as director and trustee of a family foundation, for which she designed granting strategies and evaluation tools. To date, the foundation has granted over 12 million dollars.
Elizabeth is a graduate of Holy Cross College, Duke University Medical Center’s Physician Assistant Program and The London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene jointly with the London School of Economics. In 2010, Duke's PA Program selected Elizabeth as its Alumnus of the Year. She founded Containers to Clinics in 2008.
America's next top model.
A clever use but not without precedent. Containers have been used as housing units for university students in the Netherlands for some time now.
Funny. About two months ago, my hubby (non-American) mentioned the idea of using a container as a temporary office building, to which I kind of frowned upon. It seemed ghetto, what can I say. Nevertheless, I did warm up to the idea for economic reasons -- but we're still not going to do it.
I know this is a blog thing..but if a piece ever needed a pic...
And yes, we Africans are not as enterprising as the Asians (we are kind of cool cats really ..have a beer have a laugh and relax kind of people...which is not as good as it sounds)or inventive as the Europeans but when it comes to recycling..we are world beaters!
Heat your heart out Al Gore.