Self-Contained
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Adjacent to a small cottage on more than three acres in Topanga, California, stands a home addition that architect Christof Jantzen created from five shipping containers. He gutted the cabin and installed a small new kitchen and bath before adding the containers, which increased the size of the house by another 800 square feet.
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“In order to create a unity between the old and the new, I used a freestanding steel roof supported by I beams to cover both the cabin and the containers,” says Jantzen, who passed on installing A/C in favor of integrating natural cooling elements into the design. “The roof has an interesting climate-control effect; it almost functions as a sun umbrella hovering over the house with a buffer providing an airflow that helps keep cabin cooler, especially in summer.” The containers at front hold two side-by-side bedrooms; at left is the living area.
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Jantzen was able to leave most of the sloping lot intact by anchoring the structure onto concrete piers of varying heights. He installed floor-to-ceiling insulating glass on one side of the bedrooms, consulting with a structural engineer to shift load-bearing elsewhere to compensate for the removal of the original steel panel.
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On the opposite side of the house stands an old oak grove; the views to it are enhanced by floor-to-ceiling sliding doors, which, when opened, create a natural breezeway through the house. Jantzen was able to sneak the roofline in just under an existing branch. At left is the small bedroom of the original cabin.
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Jantzen sheathed the living area’s walls and floor in furniture-grade plywood paneling, behind which he placed thermal insulation to retain heat in the winter. He then sealed the ply in a water-based, low-VOC clearcoat to prevent any fumes from escaping from the ply.
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The dining area overlooks the oak grove; the original cabin can be seen beyond the glass doors. Jantzen placed the addition about two feet higher than the cabin, reached by a small staircase at right. “The containers are not only recycled, they’re very sturdy—stacking up to eight stories high on cargo ships—they are the perfect building material,” he says.
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The owners of the Kelly residence in Brentwood, California, designed by Abramson Teiger Architects (which was on the AIA tour of Los Angeles in 2008), chose a Jantzen container design for their small poolhouse, which was pre-designed and fabricated, then lifted onto the site with a crane.
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A rear wall of the container in front was covered in wood, with the opposite walls designed to be left completely open to the elements.
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Made up of two containers, the poolhouse, built by Eric Engheben of 44 West Construction, was placed on the prepped foundation in three hours.
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Jantzen designed a new, multi-story 2,400-square-foot house in Topanga, California, still in the permit stage, out of 18 containers, incorporating an existing tree into the atrium design.
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In this unbuilt design for a friend’s ironworks shop in Venice, California, Jantzen envisioned seven triple-stacked containers to house the owner’s collection of homemade racecars. “The containers can be a very playful architectural element,” says Jantzen.
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