Ryan Skipp did not fancy spending his retirement boxed up in the city.
The businessman preferred a bespoke box home in the Karoo, nestled in the mountains, which took just weeks to “install”.
Skipp is one of a growing number of people opting for modular “container” homes in remote areas where upmarket building services are in short supply — or unrealistic due to difficult terrain. The structure can be largely prefabricated in a factory, using repurposed second-hand shipping containers, and transported to a permanent site, reducing cost and adding convenience.
“It is pretty quick to put the actual home up — ours took approximately six weeks before we moved in, while we observe traditional builds around us taking over a year,” said Skipp.
His innovative container home outside Calitzdorp fuses elements of both modular and more conventional construction, with eye-catching custom elements not common in the area such as modern lighting systems, multilayer new-tech insulation materials and the newest UV treatments to the glass to deal with heat and light.
“We are able to build something that the local builders and architects would not be familiar with — they have their tried and tested methods and materials locally that their teams are familiar with, and are out of their comfort zone with something more innovative.With the modular house, there can be a lot of innovation starting at the factory due to the broad base of options available at the factory and city,” said Skipp.
The container benefit is gaining popularity countrywide, both in remote and urban areas, according to builders involved in the trade. The modular design is a highly visible feature of some coastal holiday destinations, such as Pringle Bay and Rooi Els close to Cape Town.
“It is permanent homes as well as holiday homes, or even home extensions,” said Deon van Deventer from Container Home South Africa. “The nice thing is that the amount of work that happens on site is limited to 10% of total build — everything else happens off site at our facilities in Melkbos and Johannesburg.
“Literally the only thing we need to prepare before dropping off the containers is the foundations. On the Monday you have foundations, Tuesday you put down the containers, and two weeks later you can be in,” Van Deventer, who owns an Airbnb container home in Velddrif on the west coast, said. He has also built houses in relatively remote locations in Limpopo and Mpumalanga.
Contrary to popular opinion, the container home is not much cheaper than a conventional home, particularly the more bespoke variety. Builders said enormous cost-saving was a common misconception, though the houses were generally about 10% to 20% cheaper than normal. “People think you buy a container and slap a few lights and plugs on, and boom you have a home for fraction of cost,” said George Karam from Cape Town-based Smart Modular Creations. “But there is still a lot more that needs to happen.”
He noted a recent upswing in demand after years of organic growth, particularly at the top-end of the market. The containers are sourced from the shipping industry, stripped down and repurposed. “They’ve seen a bit of mileage but are still quality-graded, airtight and watertight — totally seaworthy. They would normally sit in a yard and rot, but we take them and sort them out.”
Containers can be joined together in various formats, Lego-style, to create unique designs: “We will add build-ons and build-outs in all directions, linking them up with steel and timber structures. It then becomes more spacious in terms of design and layout,” Karam said.
Skipp said the container home also had a better overall environmental footprint. “The scar that we create on the landscape is less permanent — if in 50 or 100 years' time the home needs to be removed, a simple clean flat pad would remain on the mountainside, where plants can regrow — there is no big permanent foundation (just a few concrete plinths, that can be removed easily with the house). It also requires substantially less water to build.”
“It has different creaks and warming or cooling sounds than a traditional house, but seems to maintain temperature more evenly through summer and winter,” added Skipp.
Van Deventer said modular homes were suited to the surging Airbnb market due to the ability to install a unit in somebody’s backyard relatively easily. “At this stage my website is getting between 20,000 and 30,000 unique views per month, and on Facebook we are looking at a reach of around 300k and 500k per month.” This translated into an average eight to 10 quote requests daily.
Existing project locations include Kleinmond, Pringle Bay, St Helena Bay, Velddrif, the Cederberg and Knysna Elephant Park.
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