With the advent of recycled architecture, new and pioneering architectural designs are a common observation. The new recycled architecture that is turning heads around in current times are the shipping container houses. 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 dwellings. The container houses apart from being beautiful and stylish are portable, affordable and durable. 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. Below is a list of some amazing recycled containers.
1. 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. Built on modern lines, the sleek and elegant building is resistant to fire, mold and termites. About 70 percent of this affordable construction was assembled in a shop making it inexpensive, time-efficient and resource-efficient.
2. 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 fulfills all of Amsterdam’s housing regulations. Making it extremely popular among students are its qualities like soundproof walls, spacious interiors, good insulation and exceptional comfort. Other amenities that each resident enjoys include a kitchen, bathroom, balcony, separate sleeping and studying rooms and large windows lighting up the room with daylight. The complex also has an automatic ventilation system, along with central heating and high speed internet, as well as dedicated bike parking.
3. Port-A-Bach:
Atelier workshop’s Port-a-Bach shipping container home is a 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, with large internal storage cupboards and shelves, a stainless steel kitchen, bathroom with shower, sink and composting toilet, bunk beds and dressing room. This small, energy efficient and environmentally friendly home is perfect to fit two adults and two children comfortably.
4. 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 cost-efficient as well as environmentally friendly. It is build by linking shipping containers together to provide high strength, prefabricated steel modules that can be combined to create a wide variety of building shapes and adapted to suit most planning or end user needs. Though the modular units are already being used by youth centers, art studios, retail spaces and for classrooms globally, they are also ideal for offices, homes, apartments and work spaces.
5. Ecopod:
The Ecopod is a small and energy-efficient home design for on or off-grid living. Built from 8×20 steel shipping containers, the small home can easily be transported and is secure enough to position it in distant locations for extended period. 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. The multiple-use, portable container home is a boon for the environment as it emits low footprints.
6. Espace Mobile:
The affordable and customizable prefabricated houses based in the Australian countryside are made to retain heat and conserve energy. This affordable 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. The price you will have to pay to make this simple, elegant and retro-looking house yours is a mere $87,500.
7. 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. The shop is full of eco-friendly products like messenger bags made from recycled traps and tires.
8. 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.
9. Greentainer:
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. It can easy be pick up and hauled to a different location, as it is a single container. Designed by Exposure Architects, the Greentainer is equipped with a photovoltaic system that can supply all the heating and cooling needs of the space. The house that is an excellent example of elegance, eco-consciousness and affordability can be used a small office, meeting room or a lounge bar.
10. 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.