Applying Circular Economy and Healthy Building Principles to Shipping Container Buildings

Abstract

This dissertation is research for the University of Suffolk (UoS) and the proposed BoxDock building project. BoxDock is a potential development on UoS marina-front property in Ipswich, England, to create a multi-functional building, using 50+ shipping containers as the base building material.

The University of Suffolk wants to create a space that encourages innovation and gives UoS a unique selling point (USP); a USP that differentiates it from other competing universities and gives students and Ipswich an iconic waterfront property that will help stimulate campus activity in an area of the marina that currently has little to draw in students and the public.

The principles of a circular economy and a healthy building framework are applied to BoxDock to show how the University of Suffolk can best create a unique shipping container building. This paper is presented in consultation style to best give recommendations of how BoxDock can be developed with these principles and the reasons to consider the circular economy model over more traditional methods of design and building.

The construction industry and commercial buildings both contribute significantly to GHG emissions globally and in the UK, and shipping containers are symbol of the modern consumer culture and transportation industries. By transforming this symbol of consumerism and industrialisation into an exemplar of sustainable design, the University of Suffolk and Ipswich will have a structure that provides a point of interest in the marina district as well as potentially provide a catalyst for further waterfront development.