集装箱改装成新住宅

AS IT IS 2015-09-14 Living in a Shipping¹ Container 集装箱改装成新住宅

Many people do not earn enough money to buy a house in the San Francisco Bay area. Housing² prices in northern California can be very high.

So, some young people have begun making their own houses out of shipping containers. It takes a lot of work and creativity to make a home from the large metal boxes. And those who are doing it must often fight local laws that limit where such homes can be placed.

Heather Stewart is an artist. She and 19 other people live and work in a small community. Their neighborhood is made up of shipping containers and other kinds of small houses. Most are standard containers, measuring only about six meters long.

On a recent day, Ms. Stewart was adding electrical wiring and pipes for drinking water to her home. She and the others are working together to improve their community.

“We kind of all have enough tools that we can pass them around, so then everybody has the resources they need to build what they want.”

Heather Stewart and her friend Luke Iseman have been living in the community since April. Before then, they lived in Oakland, a city near San Francisco. But officials forced the two to remove their shipping container houses from a property they had bought with friends. Officials said they were violating³ local laws that barred people from living in an industrial area.

So they moved to a large warehouse⁴. They and their friends have placed more than 10 containers inside the building. Each container costs about $2,000. The group wants to keep the small community secret from local officials.

Luke Iseman says he got the idea to live in a shipping container after he helped build a metal-working factory inside a shipping container. The container was then sent to Kenya. He says he realized then how useful the huge boxes are.

“A roof that doesn’t leak and a floor that’s level. So from there, it’s more or less aesthetic⁵ modification⁶.”

He and his friends say the lack of reasonably priced housing means people must be creative.

Camille MacRae lives in a container house in the same community as Mr. Iseman and Ms. Stewart.

“It's really interesting to be in this space because there are other people doing similar things, and just to have sort of like this richness of ideas and exchanges happening.”

People in other cities are building shipping container houses. And Mr. Iseman says the San Francisco Bay area may have similar housing communities that are hidden from local officials.

“People have been secretive about it because institutions impose⁷ large fines if you don’t comply⁸ with their rules.”

Words in This Story

standard – adj. normal or traditional in appearance

pass them around – expression. to share; to offer something to each person in a group

resource(s) – n. a supply of something that someone has and can use when it is needed

aesthetic modification – expression. changes to the appearance of something

impose – v. to cause (something, such as a tax, fine, rule or punishment) to affect someone or something by using your authority⁹

comply – v. to do what you have been asked or ordered to do (often + with)

1 shipping   

n.船运（发货，运输，乘船）

参考例句：

• We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
• There's a shipping charge of ￡5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。

2 housing   

n.房屋，住宅；住房建筑；外壳，外罩

参考例句：

• Do you think our housing sales will turn around during this year?你认为今年我们的住宅销路会好转吗？
• The housing sales have been turning down since the summer.入夏以来，房屋的销售量日趋减少。

3 violating   

亵渎( violate的现在分词 )； 违反； 侵犯； 强奸

参考例句：

• Ignorance of a law does not excuse a man for violating it. 一个人不懂法律不构成犯法的理由。
• It was sued by the U.S. federal government for violating antitrust law. 它被美国联邦政府指控违反了反托拉斯法。

4 warehouse   

n.仓库；vt.存入仓库

参考例句：

• We freighted the goods to the warehouse by truck.我们用卡车把货物运到仓库。
• The manager wants to clear off the old stocks in the warehouse.经理想把仓库里积压的存货处理掉。

5 aesthetic   

adj.美学的，审美的，有美感

参考例句：

• My aesthetic standards are quite different from his.我的审美标准与他的大不相同。
• The professor advanced a new aesthetic theory.那位教授提出了新的美学理论。

6 modification   

n.修改，改进，缓和，减轻

参考例句：

• The law,in its present form,is unjust;it needs modification.现行的法律是不公正的，它需要修改。
• The design requires considerable modification.这个设计需要作大的修改。

7 impose   

vt.把…强加于，加重…负担；征收(税款)

参考例句：

• Don't impose yourself on people who don't like you.不要硬缠着不喜欢你的人。
• I don't want to impose on you.我并不想打扰你。

8 comply   

v.遵照，照做，应允，顺从，服从

参考例句：

• She was told to pay the fine,but refused to comply.她被通知交纳罚款，但她拒不服从。
• Candidates must comply strictly with these instructions.候选人必须严格遵守这些指示。

9 authority   

n.当局，官方；权力，权威，威信；当权者

参考例句：

• He is recognized internationally as an authority in this field.国际上承认他是这方面的一个权威。
• Professor White is looked upon as an authority on mathematics.怀特教授被看成数学权威。