Their idea is creative and may surprise you.

David Mac Dougall of Forbes reports.

The Students From Norway Solving America’s Campus Housing Crisis

The solution to America’s current campus housing crisis may have already been solved by two students from Norway.

Across America this Fall, universities are facing a chronic shortage of accommodation. At San José State, all incoming students were put on a waiting list, while upper classmen were moved to hotels. At Iowa State, 200 incoming freshmen and transfer students had their requests for on-campus living turned down and more than 400 students were put into temporary dorm rooms. The University of Michigan ran out of housing after record enrolments and 450 freshmen were left without accommodation at the start of this semester.

The problem isn’t just confined to America. In the past few years, students from England to Australia have found themselves without accommodation during a housing crunch that’s hit universities hard.

But two students from Norway think they’ve got the answer: shipping containers.

When Magnus Øgård Meisal and Kristoffer Sørstrønen arrived at the University of Stavanger, they was shocked how “hideous” the student accommodation was.

Stavanger, on Norway’s west coast, is home to much of Norway’s North Sea oil infrastructure, and one of the reasons there’s a lack of affordable student housing is that oil companies snap up rental properties.

For the two civil engineering students, the solution seemed obvious: using shipping containers as the building blocks for new, affordable, environmentally friendly student accommodation.

“We were convinced that the module construction methods was the solution to build cheap and efficiently” says Øgård Meisal. “It just had to go through some design and architectural upgrades”.

Click the link below to see a picture of an example.