WHO WE ARE
We're a home and ADU builder based in the Portland metro area, and we provide homes across Oregon and Washington. We specialize in prefabricated container homes, which offer a sustainable, durable, and modern alternative to typical stick-built housing. From design, permitting, financing, and building, we're your one-stop shop for all of your home-building needs.
WHAT WE STAND FOR
Our mission is to make a positive impact on people’s lives by offering relevant housing options for those who seek a modern way of living that is kind to the earth.
We believe in living simply and supporting home ownership that is conscientious and forward-thinking yet stylish. We design and build sustainable homes in a climate changing world. By building out of upcycled shipping containers, our houses are durable, efficient, and unique. Our models range in size from 320 to over 1,600 square feet, and are used as accessory dwelling units (ADUs), short-term rentals, full-times homes, offices, and more. All of our models offer modern amenities, customization options, and high-quality finishes.
WHAT WE DO
Our mission is to broaden the housing industry by providing durable, efficient, and unique homes.
As a result, we use dramatically less lumber than constructors of standard, stick built homes. The structural benefits of building with these incredibly durable steel containers are aplenty.
We create affordable home ownership, incorporating a smaller footprint in a durable shell that is relevant to our current time period and circumstances.
We emphasize quality construction, include modern amenities around every turn, and promote ecologically mindful living by keeping all our models between 320 and 900 square feet. All our models have net zero energy options.
Today, Relevant Buildings has made these prefab homes viable in the United States by working closely with officials to build the units to UBC code and bringing production to a scale that makes quality housing within reach.
CARL'S EPIPHANY
$45,000 and a month of hard work disintegrated to ash when an arsonist burned down his pole barn mid-construction. That act sparked a movement.
Carl, a developer, excavation contractor, and entrepreneur, has been on a mission to find smarter ways to build homes for much of his career. While restoring old commercial buildings throughout the last decade, he was paying close attention to the housing crisis.
In the shock of the arson aftermath, it dawned on Carl that a metal building would not have burned and would be far superior in a climate warming world.
The idea of converting shipping containers took hold when he learned that, since the U.S. is a consumer nation, millions of shipping containers are left sitting in U.S. ports and shipping yards every year, never to be returned overseas.
After much research, Carl has come to believe that this largely untapped resource provides the perfect solution for affordable and sustainable housing–an option our team believes society needs in its struggle to provide quality housing to more people.
Through Relevant Buildings, Carl is promoting a simpler lifestyle and a new culture of homebuying that offers people better options for living with a reduced impact on their wallet and our planet.
Special thanks to two projects that inspired Carl as he was germinating this shipping container movement: A southern U.S. home and studio designed by owner/artist Julio Garcia and the Keetwonen student housing project in Amsterdam.
