They’re fun. They’re also way more difficult to build than they seem.

Shipping container homes have been a trend for a while, from reality TV shows to housing policy discussions. You can even stay in one on Airbnb. But the truth is that these homes are a lot more difficult to build than you might think.

It’s easy to think that housing solutions are purely technological, but many obstacles to housing aren’t in construction but in the policies surrounding homebuilding. Moreover, many of the supposed advantages of shipping containers turn out to be more complicated in reality.

Vox’s Phil Edwards spent a night in a shipping container home to see how the experience of staying in a shipping container compares with the reality of building one.

Watch Phil visit other homes that were once considered the future of housing in America. He stayed in a Lustron, a pre-fabricated home made of steel. Watch it here.

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