The solar-powered portable building fashioned from recycled shipping containers that’s been waiting patiently at the corner of Hyde Park and Waugh since last September isn’t just the sales office for the Mirabeau B. condo. It’s also a prototype.
Designers Joe Meppelink and Andrew Vrana of Metalab have teamed up with ttweak Renewables (creators of the Mirabeau B.’s sales graphics) and Harvest Moon (the condo’s developer) to market the structures, which they call SPACE. That stands for Solar Powered Attractive Container for Everyone — though more likely it’ll be for companies that want a sales center that also works as a big green sign.
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$48,900 will get you a 20-foot “high cube” unit with 10 solar panels. If you want it to work completely off the grid, it’ll cost $14K more. A 20-panel unit starts at $69,900. Want a matching unit — minus the photovoltaic panels — like they have at the Mirabeau B.? Add another $20K.
The SPACE is designed to withstand hurricane-force winds — and Ike was nice enough to provide a trial run. You’ll just want to seal up the unit and fold down the rooftop racks before that storm arrives.
- Solar Powered Attractive Container for Everyone
- Mirabeau B Sales Center [ttweak]
- Mirabeau B vs. IKE [Metalab]
- The Solar Powered Shipping Container Sales Center for the Mirabeau B. [Swamplot]
Images: SPACE
3 Comments
I hope the can find buyers that buy into this marketing.
It’s not like the condo market is on fire right now or anything. Theme condo’s are probably more in the tank than regular ones.
Stick a kitchen and a humble bathroom in it and I would love it.
Sorry but this seems like a self serving article to someone involved with this very good website.
Adaptive Reuse for a Container. Strange but I do not see any dents in a container.
There are already plenty of temp building products available for marketing purposes. Any of those products can be made green with a solar panel.
A little overkill. I am old enough to remember Arnold Morgan marketing Inwood Forest houses with solar panels, but there is still no efficient use for Air Conditioning, which is the bulk of our utility costs in Houston .