Changing consumer and architectural preferences: Questioning the shipping container solution for Z generation

According to the global environmental problems that have started in the 1970s, people try to find national and international collaborations, regulations, structures and solutions. These solutions have a rich content: priority on behalf of the construction industry; reduce of primary resource usage and energy consumption and changes of the architectural production approach, such as recycling and reusage. In addition to the re-functioning of an existing building, the inclusion of systems produced for a different purpose in architectural production offers a different source of re-functioning. Especially the changing user/consumer is very active in the evaluation of these reuse resources. While industrialization and modern technology provide benefits in many areas to make life easier, the user/consumer has also undergone a significant change in the conditions of the period. This change has also influenced the architectural needs and demands of the consumer. Every country has its different national characteristics with its developing technology and living user/consumer in its social, cultural and political environment. Technology, architectural environment and consumers have different approaches and scales of development within the conditions of each country. On the other hand, every country faces the global environmental problems that the world is experiencing nowadays differently within its own conditions and takes different measures. Among these measures, the construction industry also has different approaches. The near future will be absolutely different from the near past. Communication, the change of transportation means, easy relocation, easy communication opportunities have changed many concepts of belonging to the place, the traditional ones. This will also change the use of space, the meaning of space. Architecture is in a significant change with industry. The near future consumer who will demand this is the Z generation. In parallel with this, the architectural environment has inherited many environmental problems. In this rapid change, the solution of environmental problems requires solutions that will be in harmony with nature, which is much more natural, unlike the developing technology. The basis of this study is the use of shipping containers as a sustainable solution and determining the approach of the Z generation as a changing consumer for this solution. It has been tried to determine how the Z generation, living in the conditions of Turkey, evaluates the use of containers, which offers an alternative to the housing solution. Identifying the trends in the use of containers, which is considered to be a suitable solution for the Z generation, who is mobile, fast, bored and cares about home life with its generation characteristics, will give ideas about the housing production approach. While the architectural preference of this generation, who is also sensitive to environmental issues, is questioned, sustainability sensitivity has also been tried to be determined through shipping containers. Shipping containers have important advantages in the selection of housing for the Z generation with their speed, movement, economy, being eco friendly and recyclable. The hypothesis of the study is the residential use of shipping containers creates a vibrant and sustainable option for the Z generation which is active, sensitive and ecologically friendly. The study consists of seven chapters. In the first chapter, the information about the necessity, purpose and methods of the study are given. In the second part the factors in the change of the architectural consumption environment in Turkey are explained with the support of literature sources. In the third part, changing consumers and their preferences; generations, their characteristics, consumption habits are given. Here, the differences in generation/consumer behavior within the conditions of the period are conveyed. In the fourth chapter, a sustainable solution of global problems, technical knowledge, advantages and disadvantages of shipping containers are explained, and its feasibility is expressed with the examples of usage in architecture. In the fifth part, literature-based estimates on the architectural preferences of the Z generation, which has an important population in shaping the architectural production environment in the near future, are given. In the sixth chapter, there is a questionmaire if the Z generation prefers to dwell in shipping container homes. The students of the Department of Architecture were chosen for the survey. It is believed that being both an architect and a Z generation may contain important data for the architectural production environment in the near future. Purposive sampling method was used in the study. In the seventh chapter the results and suggestions confirming the research were shared. Keywords: shipping container, consumer, generations, Z generation, Gen Z, sustainability.