Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Continued use of the Shipping Container: PRO/con

The interest in shipping containers did not end with the primitive hut. Wes Jones continued to use shipping containers in multiple projects, which he titled PRO/con (Program/container). The purpose of PRO/con designs are to solve the problems related to low-cost housing in a time of mobility, therefore the use of transportable, inexpensive manufactured devices to construct a home are important to the theme. The system is based on the primary structural use of 20 ft standard ISO shipping containers. PRO/con takes advantage of the ease of transportation and storage of these containers in the designs.


The functionality of the storage container and its construction with the rest of the home is very accurately described in el segundo: 'It is a fully pre-fabricated unit to be delivered on-site and placed on arrangement of steel dunnage (similar to what is used for anchor billboards). Dunnage transfers loads of the new structure to host the building's structural hard points. A rotating subframe and slewing ring assembly rests immediately upon this anchoring, stabilizing dunnage, and in turn supports the basic PRO/con module of two containers.' The containers include all utilities fit for a typical residential environment, including rooms for sleeping, bathing, a living room, kitchen and study.

In total there are nineteen projects in the PRO/con category of Wes Jones architecture. Here we have done a brief overview of five of these projects. It is very easy to identify the similarities of these projects to the primitive hut.


Tennent, Scott, ed. Jones, Partners Architecture: El Segundo : Designs for Words, Buildings, Machines. New York: Princeton Architectural, 2007. Print. p. 119

2 comments:

  1. I found this is an informative and interesting post so i think so it is very useful and knowledgeable. I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this article.
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  2. I love how the article discusses the sustainability aspect of using storage shipping containers. It's great to see architects thinking outside the box (pun intended) when it comes to eco-friendly building materials.

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