Rhode Island Company Turns Shipping Containers Into Accessory Dwelling Units

Regina Cole Contributor Real Estate

I think old houses, and the people who love them, are fascinating.

A Rhode Island company has launched a line of prefabricated accessory dwelling units made from shipping containers.

“This came about early in the pandemic,” says Anders Hansen, founder and principal of ADDASPACE, located in Bristol, Rhode Island. “I was at home with two kids and a 130-pound dog, and thought that, while it was nice to work from home, it would be nice to be just outside the house.”

Hansen, who grew up in Denmark, has a background in interior design.

“I wanted to create space that was mobile and modular and that compliments the main house. I also thought it would be good to use the yard, which goes unused during the winter.”

He turned to used shipping containers.

“We use ‘one-trip containers’ that have a minimum of dents or rust, and we make sure that they were not used to carry dangerous or dirty cargo,” Hansen says.

ADDASPACE offers a variety of configurations formed from 40-by- 8-foot and 20-by-8-foot containers, as well as larger buildings made by combining two or more containers. Doors and windows are cut into the container and it is clad with materials such as Kebony, a pine softwood treated to give it the same qualities as Ipé.