Portable Steel Buildings at Work

This month, the world is treated to the vision of portable steel buildings, one facet of the steel building industry, at work in a rare setting – the Olympics. According to one of the UK’s premier daily newspapers, the housing provided for the thousands of foreign and domestic workers who are helping to staff London’s huge Olympics festival is constructed of portable steel buildings, stacked four-high. And while the newspaper article itself decried the overcrowded conditions, the photographs accompanying the article told a far different story. In fact, the miniature city of steel buildings looked like nothing so much as a small city of modular apartment buildings and the interior of each metal building unit was carpeted, paneled and furnished with a pair of bunk beds and dressers. In short, it was an ideal demonstration of the flexibility of steel building units and portable metal buildings.

One of the major problems that beset cities chosen to host the Olympics is the amount and scope of construction that must take place in preparation to house the events, the athletes, the staff and the guests. In many cases, when the Olympics leave and Olympics fever dies down, the cities are left with far more building space than they need or can use. London’s decision to use portable steel buildings to house staff was ingenious. The buildings are stackable, habitable and expandable by adding more units. Unlike barracks housing used for other Olympics events, the metal building configuration provides a modicum of privacy for employees, many of whom have traveled from other countries for a chance to earn money cleaning, taking tickets and otherwise helping to facilitate the events. Best of all, when the events are over and the athletes and workers leave town, the steel buildings can be deconstructed and rebuilt elsewhere, or dismantled and recycled. It’s a housing solution that makes perfect sense.

Of course, these particular metal buildings lack the style and flash that you can choose when you order a steel building to use for storage, workshop space or garages on your property. Every steel building manufactured for use in a commercial or residential application is custom engineered to suit the site on which it will be built. It will meet all codes and standards applicable to the building site and can be customized in many ways, including base color, trim color and optional accessories such as windows, doors, skylights and even solar panels. Like the Olympic staff housing, however, steel buildings offer the benefits of flexibility and the possibility of recycling at the end of the building’s useful life.