Comfortable Liveable Space: Shipping Container and Bamboo as Sustainable Building Materials in Equatorial Climate Perspective?

Abstract

The development of liveable space made from shipping containers becomes a trend even in Malaysia with the hot and humid climate persisting throughout the year. For sustaining the indoor comfort, building insulation is well adapted to increase thermal resistance and reduce the dependency on the mechanical cooling systems. The prospective of a shipping container as an efficient construction material and bamboo as a sustainable insulation material is well documented but basic information on the internal environment that has an impact on a person, particularly risk potential towards sick building syndrome (SBS) has been absent. Therefore, the measurements of both indoor and outdoor temperatures, relative humidity and CO2 concentration with two different conditions were done by using different sets of data loggers for at least 70 days under each condition. The first condition is a bare unit of the shipping container and followed by the installation of untreated bamboo as insulation for the second condition. This research reveals that high temperatures were recorded up to 40°C in both conditions and untreated bamboo as insulation increased the relative humidity levels up to the maximum, 100%. The mean values of CO2 concentration are in the range of 1,869 ppm to 2,938 ppm and they reach up to 5,000 ppm at the most of the intervals, indicating a significant contribution to SBS. The condition of the equatorial climate denies the compatibility of the shipping container to be used as the building material of liveable space. The quality and treatment of the bamboo must be the ultimate priority

Structural and Thermal Performance Assessment of Shipping Container as Post-Disaster Housing in Tropical Climates

“…However, the SC is not compatible under a hot and humid climate even with the use of insulation materials. This was also observed by Jamaludin et al (2021) in their study of providing bamboo as insulation for container construction in the hot and humid tropical climate of Malaysia [26]. Ismail et al (2015) highlighted that in the hot and humid conditions of the tropics governed by high humidity level of more than 70% in the average and hot outdoor temperature which can exceed 32°C in daytime, major modification works are needed to ensure a thermally comfortable environment for such type of architecture [23].…”

“…Results show that thermal insulation is irreplaceable in SCs as habitable spaces and that ccSPF is the most compatible thermal insulation followed by straw. Jamaludin et al (2021) explored the potential of using untreated bamboo as insulation material for residential SCs under the hot and humid Malaysian climate [26]. Results show that the use of bamboo as insulation did not improve but further increased the indoor thermal temperature and relative humidity of the SC.…”

“…This study aims to contribute to a better knowledge of SC building construction by (1) investigating the SCs structural performance when subjected to a variety of loads, including gravity, earthquake, and very strong typhoon, and (2) assessing the SCs thermal performance in a hot and humid climate to augment the limited studies on this topic [23,[25][26][27].…”

Construction sustainability of container-modular-housing in coastal regions towards resilient community

“…, 2018). The characteristics of a container, which has high structural strength, is easily recycled and reused and has a wide range of sources, make it a great material in the construction of livable space (Jamaludin et al. , 2021).…”

“…Shipping containers as modular building materials cut the cost of house construction by 50% and has a potential for enhancing mass housing development (Madkour et al, 2018). The Construction sustainability of CMH characteristics of a container, which has high structural strength, is easily recycled and reused and has a wide range of sources, make it a great material in the construction of livable space (Jamaludin et al, 2021). Moreover, by reusing these steel structures, there is less interest in brick, wood and other structural materials.…”