Imagine this: you are building a home, commercial structure or remote office. A shipping container or two arrive at your building site precisely on the scheduled date of groundbreaking. You open the box and inside are all the components necessary for completion for your project. A trained construction team arrives at the same time and starts snapping the pieces together.

"It's like real-life LEGOS," says Wyatt Brown, mastermind and principal of Density Investments of Flagstaff. "Everything you need to build your house [or commercial building] shows up in the box."

Brown's system reduces costs of skilled labor by 30 percent. Harness connections for the electrical wiring and plumbing systems eliminate the need for on-site plumbers or electricians. In a true spirit of sustainability and construction-waste reduction, the shipping containers become an integral part of the structure.

Using shipping containers for building is not a new idea, but the way Density Investments is implementing the building system is the innovation that Brown offers Flagstaff.

"Flagstaff has an affordable housing issue and an urban sprawl issue," says Brown, a Flagstaff resident for almost 15 years. He has been working with the city and county to develop sustainable land use projects to help combat the two problems. Density Investments has developed two subdivisions -- officially called Minor Land Divisions -- within Flagstaff city limits.

Density Investments focuses on sustainability by developing housing in space already served by city water, gas and electricity. It is more efficient to develop land within the existing footprint rather than developing cheaper land further away from city infrastructure.

Brown cites that building homes away from the city creates a disconnect for workers from their work environment and intensifies urban sprawl. It also increases gas consumption for transportation to and from work.

The land development strategy called "urban in-filling" focuses on existing areas of the urban environment. The City of Flagstaff designated several areas as redevelopment neighborhoods. One of Density Investments' containerized building developments is located in such a redevelopment neighborhood near Thorpe Park.

The single-family dwellings won't look like cargo containers. The Density Investments design team, which includes Flagstaff architect Paul Moore, promises an aesthetic use of the building materials. Moore, a project architect at Arcosanti and Biosphere II has expertise in practical, sustainable architecture and planning. The homes "will look like cute cottages that fit the neighborhood," says Brown.

By building affordable housing on Minor Land Divisions within Flagstaff's urban environment, Density Investments is killing two birds with one stone.

"The city and county are really hip to it," claims Brown, who views his work as a collaborative effort. "The city and county want to do more sustainable things.”

Density Investments' system utilizing oceangoing shipping containers and other sustainable materials makes green building an affordable alternative for Coconino County residents.

"Studying Federal land use policy in NAU's Parks and Recreation program is how I became hooked on land-use and real estate development," says Brown, who earned a BS in Commercial Parks and Recreation Management/Land Use Planning at Northern Arizona University in 2007.

"I read about architects using containers for housing in UK and Sweden." In the UK, an entire 300-room Travelodge was recently built by stacking LEGO-style, modified shipping containers. Brown learned that the containers were spacious and well insulated and that the flexibility and adaptability of the modular system shaves off costly construction time.

His resulting business model combines sustainable land use projects with an ultra-efficient design system that delivers just-in-time building materials. Not only is the system affordable, but the end result is a highly-efficient building. The wall components are "structurally insulated panels made like an Oreo. The insulation is sandwiched between two sheets of wood. The walls set up in minutes; it is extremely efficient," he says.

Efficient logistics is part of the service that Density Investments provides. "The components show up at the right time, and they are snapped into place. The homeowner and bank want to get construction time down to a minimum. Our biggest advantage is time savings," touts Brown. His building systems cut construction average time by 70 percent.

Density Investments will oversee construction of containerized housing on a subdivision in Kachina Village near the Pump House Wash trail later this year. SWI, Inc. engineering and Straightline Builders, Inc. are involved in the project.

Brown started Density Investments in 2006 and is currently an affiliate client at The Northern Arizona Center for Emerging Technologies (NACET).

For more information, visit www.densityinvestments.com or call 928-853-2626.