HARTFORD -- Most of the two-family and three-family houses lining Vernon Street in New Haven, Conn., were built in the early 1900s and look like those constructed during the same era in any other city in the state: spacious front porches, flat or pitched roofs, and bay windows.

The house now going up on a vacant lot on the street will blend perfectly into the neighborhood, with one notable exception: It is about as far as a builder can get from traditional wood-frame construction.

The two-family house was fashioned by stacking and welding together six steel shipping containers -- three, side by side, for each floor. The interior walls of the containers are being carved out to make way for kitchens, living rooms, bathrooms, and bedrooms.

Architect Christian E. Salvati is making no effort to hide the building material. The facade will reflect a traditional design with mansard roof, but the exterior side walls will leave exposed the shipping containers' corrugated surfaces.

"I've never seen a house like that," said next-door neighbor Andres Marrero, who has lived on the street for nearly 30 years. "It doesn't look like a house. But I'll have to wait to see when it is finished."

When Mr. Salvati, 36, pitched his plan to city hall in New Haven, he said, "I had to convince them, 'No, I'm not crazy.' I've had to educate people on what I'm doing."

The New Haven project isn't the first in which shipping containers have been used as building blocks, but most have been concentrated in Europe, particularly in the Netherlands.

In the United States, the projects have been far fewer and most have been on the West Coast, according to the Intermodal Steel Building Units Association, which tracks construction using shipping containers. The industry is still fledgling but is growing -- with perhaps 1,000 units on the drawing board in the next year in this country and Canada.

Mr. Salvati's company, Marengo Structures, founded in 2009, is focusing solely on dwellings made from shipping containers. They are cheap, about $5,000 each, and have the potential to provide an incredibly strong frame for a building.

But won't the steel be hot in the summer?

Not so, said Mr. Salvati. The exterior walls of the apartment units will be cushioned with five inches of special eco-friendly spray foam insulation manufactured in Westport, Conn.

"The building," he said, "won't heat up any more than a traditional building."

First Published December 18, 2011, 5:15 a.m.