House in a Can: Prefab Metal Off-the-Shelf Grain Silo Homes
There are many plans in place to convert existing structures into new-use buildings, including shipping container homes and missile-silo houses. This design idea comes from a slightly different direction – with a plan to use cheap, sustainable and ready-made off-the-shelf components in order to prefabricate livable structures from the start.
At thirty-six feet in diameter and the potential for multi-story housing, there is a surprising amount of space in these metal cylinders – and a lot of value to have an already-built exterior shell that can be locally purchased, readily shipped and easily set up on a building site. Austin + Mergold have experimented with many variations on the essential design them, all revolving around this central, inexpensive and eco-friendly core concept.
Just as they must be weather-proof to protect grain, silos are constructed to be durable, safe and strong and are thus readily adaptable to new purposes – even with perforations for doors, windows and other necessary openings. Of course, such designs lend themselves to modular adaptation as well – they can be stacked on top of one another, joined together on the side and added to in all kinds of creative ways to form larger houses or even condo complexes or other small prefabricated housing communities.
