Build Concepts

A pair of environmentally attuned architects combined adjoining properties in a Los Angeles canyon to house their modernist menagerie. With exposed industrial materials for finishes, the interior includes hand-troweled, waxed concrete floors, Douglas fir beams, and sealed-plywood ceilings. The open kitchen’s island, topped with soapstone, doubles as a bookcase for the living room.

Shipping containers are the building blocks of this residence tucked away in the redwood forests of Santa Cruz, California.

Studio H:T designed this shipping container home on Nederland, Colorado.

This three-bedroom home in Lille, France, is made up of eight stacked containers.

Mike McConkey, a superintendent for a general contractor, tasked Chris Bittner of OBR Architecture with designing an environmentally sensitive home for he and his wife in San Diego County. Utilizing three shipping containers and a bevy of cost-effective appliances, they managed to limit the budget to $160,000.

The second-floor office is housed inside a rounded rectangle of concrete that the architect inserted on top of the old farmhouse.