The problem with shipping containers is you may not be able to leach out whatever has soaked into that wood floor ever again.
I'm convinced that it should be possible to build a house in a hole from the dirt excavated from it. In medieval times they made cement by admixing sticky rice and pork blood in as an amendment. A bio-concrete.
Searching on the term 'origami shelter' I found this:
http://www.archdaily.com/781664/orig...luminum-sheets
That is extensible to the size of a shopping mall.