A used shipping container is about $2,000. You'd want to check it for chemicals. It's closer to $10,000 if you want them fitted out as something you can live in, though. I'm not sure about the charm factor.
I can't imagine that one couldn't build a shipping-container sized building with wood for a lot less than $2000. Fir 2x4 and 2x6 timbers are literally dirt cheap right now. Throw in some siding, drywall, some insulation, and some roofing materials and you'd have a pretty nice shell of a house for about the same price. Best part about using wood is that you wouldn't be stuck with the long, skinny configuration; you could alter the dimensions quite a bit without too much extra cost.
Shipping containers are always proposed as the ideal solution for someone else. Nobody would actually choose to live in such a shithole if they had other options.
Shipping containers are suggested because they tend to offer a great base for construction on the cheap. They're solid structurally (since they need to be stacked, full 4/5 high) and they're very portable for getting to a site fully built. I don't think anyone is suggesting living in a raw container. They're just a great starting point.
There's a lot of creative ways to turn these into a home.
Shipping containers are a fetish among people who don't know what they are talking about - the pictures show two types of structures - structures few people can afford and structures few people would choose to live in.
None of them are as sensible as traditional modular housing:
From 2004-2010 I lived in both shipping containers (refitted) and trailers (basically 12' wide knock-down structures) and wooden shacks (and houses).
There are things I'd do with shipping containers to turn them into livable housing, but they go beyond a basic conversion -- it's cutting them apart and basically using them as a source of sheet steel and study frames. Normal steel structures or tilt-ups accomplish basically all of this already.
Prefab modules for things like kitchens/bathrooms, combined with inexpensive ways of enclosing space, is the way to go.
One can make some surprisingly beautiful houses out of shipping containers. I can't find the link at the moment but one such company advertises in dwell magazine. Hopefully I can find it.
For houses featured in Dwell, shipping containers are merely a fetish incorporated into million dollar+ dwellings.
Shipping containers are uninsulated and have stressed skin construction - they require a lot of work to be used as a thermal envelop, or when incorporating fenestration (not to mention blowing out a whole side.
With the economic downturn, the glut of shipping containers is long gone and prices for used containers have risen significantly over the past several years.
A lot of those buildings which are featured in glossy architectural rags are actually built with custom modules, not actual containers because the dimensions of a standard shipping container are suitable for...well, shipping, not human habitation - 7'-10" inside height before interior ceiling and wall finishes are added (and that's if your insulation is exterior).
I believe it, but at a certain point you are just using the containers as a metal frame with sheet metal sides that you are cutting a lot of holes in, and at some point it would make more sense to just build a metal framed building in the first place.
