Shipping Container

Treehouse (Jerusalem, Israel) Literally a growing structure—two pines grow through porches on either end of the rustic home—this treehouse by Golany Architects provides a stark contrast to the industrial aesthetic often associated with shipping container construction. Photo by Golany Architects

Two San Francisco art and travel addicts overhauled a loft—and customized a pair of shipping containers—to accommodate their collection and reflect their passions. The shipping containers were stacked, joined with steel tubes, and lashed to reinforced floor joints to make them earthquake-safe.

Transforming shipping containers into habitable spaces is a growingly popular subset of prefab. Just off the Delaware River in Pennsylvania, Martha Moseley and Bill Mathesius adapted an unused concrete foundation to create a home made from 11 stacked shipping containers. "We were inspired by the site, and our desire to have something cool and different," says Moseley.

This modular home prototype by Meka is a shipping container clad in cedar.

For an adaptive reuse project in Toronto, Levitt Goodman Architects used a shipping container as a visitors' center.

Maziar Behrooz designed this container studio set amid lush trees.

Trejos positioned the containers about 60 centimeters above the ground floor, which gives the main gallery and workspace a bit of a sunken feel. The double-level main room offers a spacious interior, perfect for large events and easily altered so it can be utilized as a photo studio for indoor shoots.

Atelier Riri devised a creative way to make living inside a shipping container in Indonesia’s tropical climate both comfortable and economical. The architects layered recycled pine, glass wool, and planter mesh on top of the home to help keep temperatures down.

A cherry red game room gives way to a second green space on the roof, which can be used as an extension of the indoor space.

Covered with wire mesh, the green roof will continue to vegetate over time.

“We wanted it to feel open and spacious,” Alexander said. Much of the work on the containers was completed off-site by SG Blocks, and then delivered for construction. It's clad in Cor-Ten weathering seel.