Interesting Homes

20 Amazing Homes Made from Shipping Containers

by Aditi Justa Feb 4 2010  GreenDiary.com

We have always seen shipping containers on trains, at ports or piled onto cargo ships but with changing times, we can see them being transformed into beautiful homes. The container houses apart from being beautiful and stylish are portable, affordable and durable. Below is a list of 20 amazing homes made from shipping containers.

espace mobile

espace mobile

1. Manifesto House:

manifesto house

manifesto house

Infiniski’s Manifesto House utilizes pre-made materials like shipping containers and wooden pallets to create a new contemporary house. Built in Curacavi, Chile, the modest home is composed of two 40′ shipping containers and two 20′ containers. The wooden pallets on the exterior provide shade and allow the home to be naturally cooled.

2. Crou:

crou

crou

Olgga architects, a French firm shaped 100 recycled shipping containers into a sturdy, economical and sustainable student housing in Le Havre, France. Dubbed the ‘Crou’, the 2,851m2 structure is made by stacking the container on top of one another. There is an environmental benefit associated with it which is it puts surplus containers to use instead of letting them slowly rust in a landfill.

3. Redondo Beach Container House:

redondo beach container house

redondo beach container house

The Redondo Beach House is an architecturally designed shipping container based contemporary house to suit your site and lifestyle. The award-winning De Maria Design’s luxury beachside house was constructed using eight prefabricated, recycled steel shipping containers, which are integrated with some traditional building techniques.

4. E-House:

e house

e house

Envision Prefab created “E-House,” built using of sturdy cargo containers. The E-House successfully combines container architecture with residential housing to provide environmentally-responsible design. It includes green features like energy efficient appliances, low-flow toilets, grid-tied solar panels, an electric car charger, LED lighting, low-VOC paints, non-toxic insulation, greywater recycling, an organic waste composting machine, a custom made recycling center and many more.

5. Keetwonen Complex Houses:

keetwonen complex houses

keetwonen complex houses

The largest container city in the world designated with the name Keetwonen, is a home to 1,000 students. Designed by Tempo Housing, the building is extremely popular among students for its qualities like soundproof walls, spacious interiors, good insulation and exceptional comfort.

6. Container Home:

container home

container home

French architects Claire Helene Drouin and Jean Marie Sanchez have designed their own home using shipping containers, but their home is different — it’s large, green and illuminated mostly by natural light. The “Container Home” has been built using 15 shipping containers, which have been stacked together.

7. Container City:

container city

container city

Container City is an innovative and extremely flexible system that opens avenues for affordable and stylish accommodation with trendy and colorful bit of architecture. Designed by Urban Space Management, the system is build by linking shipping containers together to provide high strength, prefabricated steel modules.

8. Container House by Leger Wanaselja:

leger wanaseljas container house

leger wanaseljas container house

Leger Wanaselja’s Container House is a traditional looking container composed residence, located on top of a hill in an East Bay suburb overlooking San Francisco, Calif. The 1350 square foot, three-bedroom house incorporates three forty-foot containers, two stacked on one another, and the third cut in half and stacked on itself uses blown cellulose insulation to the roof and floors, “green seal” paint on the interior, along with 100% wool carpet and bamboo flooring.

9. Freitag Shop:

freitag shop

freitag shop

The Freitag Shop in Zurich is not only the world’s tallest building made from shipping containers but also is the tallest building in Zurich of any kind. Built using 17 old, rusted shipping containers, the 85-foot-high structure is a true depiction of eco-conscious efforts.

10. LiNX Temporary Structures:

linx temporary structures

linx temporary structures

Conceived by Dublin-based designer Richard Barnwall, the LiNX offers an innovative solution for temporary shelter applications, like for construction workers. The double-story model is made from four 20-foot shipping containers. This easily shippable temporary structure is equipped with a bathroom, a changing room with showers, office space and an additional room for lunch.

11. Kalkin’s prefab homes:

kalkins prefab homes

kalkins prefab homes

After designing the popular shipping container coffee shop for Illy, Adam Kalkin is out with its prefab homes. The homes range from a very simple, merely containing a room in a single container to other with whole other structures built inside them. Kalkin’s prefab homes use anywhere from one to six, or sometimes even 12 shipping containers as the frame for the home.

12. Greentainer:

greentainer

greentainer

Designed by Exposure Architects, the Greentainer Project in Gandino, Italy is a perfect combination of amazing design sense and reusability of existing resources. This beautiful shipping container home incorporates floor to ceiling windows to provide ample amounts of light.

13. Illy Push Button House:

push button house

push button house

Adam Kalkin had built an amazing shipping container living space. Dubbed the ‘Push Button House’, the house transforms at the push of a button. It is created from recycled and recyclable materials and is the physical representation of Illy’s dedication to sustainability, art and innovation.

14. Ross Stevens House:

ross stevens house

ross stevens house

Ross Stevens, an industrial Design lecturer at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand is here with yet another incredible house transformed from a shipping container. Composed of three slate gray containers stacked up like blocks beside a hilltop, it strikes the perfect balance between ruggedly engineered construction and clean modern form.

15. Port-A-Bach:

port a bach

port a bach

Atelier workshop’s Port-a-Bach shipping container home is a small, energy efficient and environmentally friendly portable home you can spin into dwelling that folds up into a fully enclosed steel shell. Giving a new dimension to portability, this 20-foot container has been transformed into an entire studio apartment.

16. Shipping Container Home in Houston:

shipping container home in houston

shipping container home in houston

Developers Katie Nichols and John Walker along with architect Christopher Robertson is a single-story home, located on the outskirts of downtown Houston is made from 4 shipping containers sourced from nearby ports.

17. LOT-EK Container Home Kit (CHK):

lot ek container home kit

lot ek container home kit

Lot-ek’s scalable system comes fully equipped and ready to plop on-site with built-in electrical, plumbing, HVAC, and fully insulated AND furnished and is capable of being placed anywhere from 640-2560 square feet. The CHK system comes in two different series- Compact and Loft, and boasts 8×8 floor-to-ceiling windows, built-in closets, and wood floors.

18. Haiti shipping container homes:

haiti shipping container homes

haiti shipping container homes

SEED, a group of researchers from Clemson University plans for emergency housing for Haiti. The team utilizes shipping containers, which are strong enough to withstand both hurricanes and seismic activity. They are expected to have a coating of insulating ceramic paint and wooden shipping pallets that act as “pods” for bathing and cooking. SEED plans these houses to provide safe and non-toxic emergency housing for the short-term.

19. Ecopod:

ecopod

ecopod

The Ecopod is a small and energy-efficient home design for on or off-grid living. Each Ecopod has a floor made from recycled car tires, walls insulated with a soy-bases product and powered by an 80-watt solar panel. Built from 8×20 steel shipping containers, the multiple-use, portable container home is a boon for the environment as it emits low footprints.

20. Espace Mobile:

espace mobile1

espace mobile1

The affordable and customizable prefabricated houses based in the Australian countryside are made to retain heat and conserve energy. This simple, elegant and retro-looking modular home created by Espace Mobile comes with a three-year warranty and each section of the house is 4 meters by 1-15 meters long.