Recycled living space?

cow-hi
A friend was talking about her (planned) new backyard art studio last week, designed by her husband. It's two stories, built out of recycled shipping containers, and has a number of sustainable features like rainwater collection (Seattle, what can I say?). At about 800 sf, it actually looks pretty cool. There's a lot of focus in the design on low-cost, re-use, and enviro-friendly.

Here are the exterior and interior views: I do wish there was more to explain the special features. Anybody think they could live in an ex-shipping container house?

http://youtu.be/_PiEWA37F3E?hd=1


http://youtu.be/wNugTwmLcbg

Spectacular!!! I LOVE sleek, clean, modern, contemporary living! I know what I'm about to say next may sound a little non-frugal, but I could honestly see myself in something like this, maybe with an additional container stacked on top of the ground level one, and another incorporated into the design (set on an angle) and at a lower or higher vantage.

Thanks muchly for this HKPassey! P.S. Whenever members post links like this I find myself daydreaming over all the possibilities and revisiting the link(s) over and over again! Such a love of mine it is.

P.S. HKPassey, what do think of the idea of adding additional containers to the basic one container design?

Wow i love it.

I've seen pictures of various architectural competitions using shipping containers, and there are some very neat designs!
They are more narrow than a singlewide trailer, so the layout would have to be pretty efficient.
I'll probably get one for an outbuilding of these days.

Makes me wish that we hadn't sold our shipping container that we bought to store our furnishings while we were building our new house...

Fun sound track too.

A friend in FL built his blacksmith/metalworking art studio out of two shipping containers with an open breezeway between for the work area. One is a painting booth and supply area, the other office space, photography set-up space, and more supply area.

Shipping container houses are a big thing on the West Coast. They stack them up to make a sort of Frank Lyod Wright kind of modern house. They can look pretty cool if done right. There are even people who buy them and leave them on the container ship as their "stateroom" and travel the world via freighter! One guy I read about on an expat website www.escapeartist.com did that for years. After he was thru he had the container set up somewhere (England I think) and used it for his permanent home. But not all communities allow them. I recently heard about a place in Long Beach, Ca where a shipping container home "extension" was approved by the city with the neighbors approval. But once it was installed by the homeowner they refused to paint it (leaving all the rust and shipping names & numbers exposed as well as some horrible bright yellow color) or finish it in any way. Plus it ended up being bigger and more unsightly (even if it was painted) than the neighbors thought it would be so they are trying to get it removed and put a permanant city zoning ordinance in place to ban shipping containers forever. They are still cery cool though IMHO!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mrs-M

Spectacular!!! I LOVE sleek, clean, modern, contemporary living! I know what I'm about to say next may sound a little non-frugal, but I could honestly see myself in something like this, maybe with an additional container stacked on top of the ground level one, and another incorporated into the design (set on an angle) and at a lower or higher vantage.

Thanks muchly for this HKPassey! P.S. Whenever members post links like this I find myself daydreaming over all the possibilities and revisiting the link(s) over and over again! Such a love of mine it is.

P.S. HKPassey, what do think of the idea of adding additional containers to the basic one container design?

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I think it could be cool. I'm feeling a bit minimalist and adventurous right now, since everything is changing. What could also be cool would be to install two or three creatively, connected together with stairways, in my current back yard... the nearly vertical part. Sort of like a running treehouse on the hillside. Actually, I think Ralph is using several containers in this one, as there's a loft.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Spartana

Shipping container houses are a big thing on the West Coast. They stack them up to make a sort of Frank Lyod Wright kind of modern house. They can look pretty cool if done right. There are even people who buy them and leave them on the container ship as their "stateroom" and travel the world via freighter! One guy I read about on an expat website www.escapeartist.com did that for years. After he was thru he had the container set up somewhere (England I think) and used it for his permanent home. But not all communities allow them. I recently heard about a place in Long Beach, Ca where a shipping container home "extension" was approved by the city with the neighbors approval. But once it was installed by the homeowner they refused to paint it (leaving all the rust and shipping names & numbers exposed as well as some horrible bright yellow color) or finish it in any way. Plus it ended up being bigger and more unsightly (even if it was painted) than the neighbors thought it would be so they are trying to get it removed and put a permanant city zoning ordinance in place to ban shipping containers forever. They are still cery cool though IMHO!

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Another trend is manufactured/modular homes that almost look like they were made from shipping containers, but very high end, very avant garde. And very, very expensive.

yes. though insulating can be difficult and metal walls can be cold. It really depends upon the expenses of those items in addition to the recycling of containers.

that being said, I do love them. :)