10 Houses Made from Shipping

Containers

A while back on an overcast Sunday, I holed up inside and watched episode after
episode of Top of the Lake (think Twin Peaks set in New Zealand). In Jane Campions
compelling drama, a group of women set up a camp called Paradise made from shipping
containers set on the edge of the lake. We like the idea of a shipping container as
vacation getawayits mobile, inexpensive, and an example of creative reuse at its
finest. Weve rounded up our 10 favorite houses (plus a swimming pool) made from
shipping containers.

Above: A guest house/garden retreat/playhouse made from a repurposed steel shipping

container by Jim Poteet of Poteet Architects in San Antonio, Texas. For more on the
project, see our Q & A with Poteet in The Architect Is In: Container as Guest House.

Above: The Oakland, CA, home of architect Stephen Shoup of building Lab inc. has an
attached office space for the firms staff built from a 3- by 6-foot shipping container. For
more, visit Dwell story, Creative Re-Use in Oakland; photography by Aya Brackett for
Dwell.

Above: A container functions as a pool in the center of Container City, a project

designed by Urban Space Management along Londons Trinity Buoy Wharf.

Above: Overlooking Loch Long on the Rosneath Peninsula in Scotland is Cove Park, a
group of artist residencies designed by Edo Architecture set into 60 acres of hillside. Six
containers welded together and planted with green rooftops form three accommodation
units.

Above: A pop-up hotel called Sleeping Around travels the globe according to demand.
The hotel is comprised of seven retired shipping containers kitted out with their own
water system and potential to use solar or wind energy. Once settled in a location, the
rooms can be set up and fully functional within five hours. For more on the hotel, visit
Design Boom.

Above: Using a stray shipping container and timber from old weapons boxes, architect
Damith Premathilake built his holiday cabana at Maduru Oya in Sri Lanka. Photograph
by Logan MacDougall Pope for Inhabitat.

Above: Maziar Behrooz Architectures Insta-House is a prefab container art studio made
up of four 8-by-40-foot containers covering 960 square feet. The two-story live/work
space can be erected in one week with prices starting at $99,800. The house shown
here is tucked away in the Hamptons.

Above: A bach (meaning vacation cabin; its short for bachelor pad) in New Zealand
designed by Atelier Workshop. The container has built-in wood paneling, a foldout
terrace, and bunk bedsall that and its meant to be mobile. For more, see A Shipping
Container Transformed into the Ultimate Holiday House.

Above: Prefab houses from MEKA (Modular, Environmental, Kinetic, Assembly) made
from steel shipping containers, cedar wood paneling, double- glazed argon-filled
windows, a bamboo interior, and slate bathroom; four different design options range
from $40,000 to $135,000.

Above: Spotted on Inhabitat, British Columbia-based design collective Bark Designs All
Terrain Cabin is a 480-square-foot dwelling, fully equipped for off-the-grid living.

Above: Designed by architects Severo Fernandez and Basilio Rodriguez of Estudio Base,
a cargo container house sits on a flat site in the Galician countryside of Spain.
Craving more smart design solutions? Sift through the Architecture & Interiors section of
our archive, including 10 Favorites: Smart and Skinny Houses in Japan.
N.B.: This post is an update; the original story ran on July 3, 2012 as part of our Made in
America issue.

10