Tiny house - Shipping Container Office and Commerce building

Shipping Container tiny Office Building

Roseau, Dominica the "Nature Island of the Caribbean"
1-27-2020

Click on photo to enlarge

Gaynell Larsen ham radio
operator J79WWW
with good coffee.

During our "Ham Radio Mission" to Dominica we visited a very interesting application of using Shipping Containers to make a small commercial building  in the capital Roseau. The design and construction was really excellent. It looked a little out of place along the old buildings on main street. It has a great little coffee shop in one corner. The coffee was good and the price very reasonable.

The  coffee shop is tucked into about 1/3 of a 20 foot container at ground level. The building is constructed from 3 containers.

The interior of the small coffee
shop in the right side of  lower
side of shipping container

Coffee shop menu

The interior of the shop is small but well equipped.  The shop also is a wine shop so you have lots of choices.

The menu is in Caribbean $.  About  40 cents in US currency. You can get in town delivery for about 80 cents US.

Small office and retail space building
made from 3 Shipping Containers
in Roseau, Dominica.

You can see here a clever idea - the top container extends over the coffee shop and provides the roof area. A small garden and seating area is built in front of the coffee shop.

The other sections of the are small rental office spaces and a small conference room. It looked like about 6  offices were available and all done very nicely with A/C.  You do not need heat on this beautiful Caribbean Island.

Small office and retail space building
made from 3 Shipping Containers
in Roseau, Dominica.

Looking back at the coffee shop where you can see the top container being used as roof for front of the shop.

The railing you see over the container is where a small outdoor seating area was made with a roof overhead to be used by the tenants and their guests.

Small office and retail space building
made from 3 Shipping Containers
in Roseau, Dominica.

The deck and seating area described with the photo above.  It is nice with room for a dozen or so people. This  also provides the access for the 3 offices on this level.

Small office and retail space building
made from 3 Shipping Containers
in Roseau, Dominica.

Looking off the back side of the deck we can see the other offices in level one and two.

Small office and retail space building
made from 3 Shipping Containers
in Roseau, Dominica.

I could not actually get in the offices but took this photo through the window of the door  and you can see it is very attractive.

One of the main streets in
downtown Roseau ,
Dominica - The Container
building is just to the RT of
this photo.

The whole country of Dominica is small 15x30 miles in size with a population of about 65,000.  The capital Roseau has 15,000 people.

Look carefully and you will see a typical Dominica tiny house just over the roof of the while auto. The streets are very narrow and with autos parked on both sides there is barely room for one car to drive down the street. Look closely and you will see the ocean at the end of the street.

The island is still recovering from hurricane Maria in 2017.

We have visited the island 32 times in the past 23 years.  Our purpose has been to help with Disaster preparedness communications.
See Blog "CLICK"


Video of Downtown Roseau "CLICK"

Cobblestone  walkway
in place for  hundreds
of years in Dominica.

The island is a mix of old and new buildings. The island historically over the past 300 or so years was dominated back and forth by the French and  British.  Most recently it was a a British Colony and the dominate language is English.

In this photo you can see some of the cobblestone sidewalk that has been in place for hundreds of years.

Port Roseau in Dominica.

Dominica is the nature island of the Caribbean and has many beautiful water falls, hiking trails, hot sulfur spring bath pools & great Caribbean food - my favorite food!

You can see in the photo a cruse ship in port at Roseau. The ships  make a 9 hour day stop, however, they are an important source of income for the island folks.

David Larsen
 Blog Author

"by David Larsen"  Chantilly Farm owner, Computer Historian, and amateur radio operator -KK4WW   & N4USA .  I work out of one of the Tiny Homes at Chantilly Farm. A great place to work if you like the to be out in nature. I am 81 and ready to sell Chantilly Farm - I have a few more  projects I would like to do - if you have an interest to know more give me a call. 540 392 2392

Emergency Communications Center - Dominica Amateur Radio Club Site

Dominica Amateur Radio Club Inc. DARCI

Restoring the Club Site after Hurricane Maria

January 2020

David and Gaynell Larsen - Directors of the "Foundation for Amateur International Radio Service" (FAIRS) visited Dominica to assist DARCI in late January 2020 and  here are some of our activities. Many have assisted DARCI in recovering from Maria . A lot of amateur radio work is still needed - if you would like to help give me a call 540-392-2392.

click on photo to enlarge

DARCI  club members holding
donated equipment in front
of club house

Club members David J79USA, Tony J73TP, Gilbert J72GPG, Clement J73CPL - holding talkies and other equipment donated by Jay Wilson at Disaster Emergency Response Association (DERA). Photo taken in front of restored club house.
The building is made from two shipping containers with a truss roof  and a nice room between the containers. The roof was also destroyed by hurricane Maria.

Inside club house used for meetings
and teaching ham radio classes.
Gaynell J79WW & Clement J79CPL.

You can see the 2 containers with roof overhead with the room between containers. The room is very useful for meetings and other gatherings.

Solar panels are on the roof for off the grid operation during storms and power outages. The battery backup charged by the solar panels is below ground in a hardened container. The club also just buried the main power connection to the grid for a better chance of main power not failing.

Outdoor shelter at DARCI
 received heavy
damage from Maria .

Wood was salvaged from this shelter and used to repair the roof of main club house. The repair of this shelter will have to wait until the club has funds to do the work


You can see that the outdoor shelter was also damaged along with part of the security fence being blown over.

New  beam antenna
just installed on tower
at club house.

Gilbert J72GPG is the maintenance officer and he and Tony repaired the rotator  and a new triband beam. New coax feed line was installed making the antenna system operational as new.  The tower did withstand the hurricane so it did not have to be replaced.

The 50 foot tower at the home of J73CPL where Gaynell and I stay while in Dominica was totally destroyed by Maria. We need some help to get a new tower and beam up at that location in Wotten Waven.

Adding a dipole
antenna to club
house.

Gilbert with Gaynell J79WW holding the ladder for Gilbert to install a dipole antenna over the club house.

Operating Position  J73Z  at
 the club house in
the container.

Gilbert using his talents to repair the antenna rotator. This is also the operating position for club call J73Z. This is the container on the right side of building. The container on the left side is used for equipment and supply storage.

The club house also has bathrooms and  showers built into the building just to the right side of this container.

Clement J73CPL president of the
DARCI with three club members.

There is a lot interest recently from members of  the Dominica Association of Persons with Disabilities (DAPD) to become members of  DARCI  and assisting with emergency communications.  Several DAPA members have already joined DARCI and are helping to operate as net control for the regular morning mobile net.
The club has been asked to do some amateur radio training for DAPD in Dominica and I am sure this will result with more DARCI members.  These members can make significant contributions to the Radio club.

David Larsen
 Blog Author

"by David Larsen"  Chantilly Farm owner, Computer Historian, and amateur radio operator -KK4WW   & N4USA .  I work out of one of the Tiny Homes at Chantilly Farm. A great place to work if you like the to be out in nature. I am 81 and ready to sell Chantilly Farm - I have a few more  projects I would like to do - if you have an interest to know more give me a call. 540 392 2392