The SF Chronicle looks at the Harbinger

Last month, the San Francisco Chronicle published an article on West Coast Green's showhome, the Harbinger House from SG Blocks LLC:

What makes this year's showcase home different from the prefab modular model seen last year [MKD's mkLotus] in San Francisco is not all the green bells and whistles ... it's the actual framework of the house that is truly innovative. This year's showstopper is made from five 40-foot-long shipping containers that once roamed the high seas

The article repeated a comment we've seen a few times:

a layman can't tell that, underneath its sleek lines, Harbinger was once a collection of lowly shipping crates

The advantages of shipping containers?

They're made of heavy-gauge steel, which holds up nicely in a hurricane or earthquake, but is usually too expensive to use in construction. [SG Blocks] gets the containers cheap - $500 to $2,000 a pop - because the fuel costs to ship them back empty to China or other places overseas are prohibitive. Because of the United States' huge trade imbalance, there are many empty containers lying around.

Harbinger details:

• made from 5 shipping containers
• 2 stories
• 1,700 square feet
• about 5% less expensive than building in wood or other conventional materials
• can be built 40% faster

SG Blocks facts:

• founder: David Cross
• location: St. Louis
• has built 6 single-family homes in the US (designed by Lawrence Group)
• 400-unit elder-care facility in Oceanside, CA will be unveiled soon