Container

The shipping containers are stacked five across and five high. The modular system enables the building to be dismantled and relocated at the end of Stow-Away’s lease.

In addition to its sloping, tree-covered lot, what makes the Birch Le Collaboration House so special is the home's large, indoor-outdoor covered porch. The space is an extension of the floor-to-ceiling windows that line the walls of every Hygge Supply home. The Birch Le Collaboration House is also the first Hygge Supply home to be finished in black-stained Thermory pine cladding.

This prefabricated kit house by Adam Kalkin is designed from recycled shipping containers. Its 2,000-square-foot plan includes three bedrooms and two-and-a-half baths. The shell of the Quik House can be assembled in one day, and the entire home can be built in three months or less.

“It’s the biggest one you can get,” says Patrick Powers of the shipping container he revamped and moved to Salt Spring Island, British Columbia. Steel frames hold ample glazing, including a pair of custom 2,000-pound sliding doors.

You can buy just about anything on Amazon these days, from mundane household necessities to garish novelty items—and now, there are even DIY kits to help you construct your own tiny guest house, shed, office, or lounge. Take a look at the prefabricated units Amazon has to offer, and get ready to upgrade your backyard.

Dortheavej Residence by Bjarke Ingels Group

The exterior’s charcoal metal paint finish helps recede the cabin into the surroundings.

Owner Stacey Hill was instantly drawn to this shipping container’s existing blue color and chose to leave it unchanged. Architect Jim Poteet added floor-to-ceiling sliding doors to allow light in, as well as a cantilevered overhang to shade a window on the left side, which houses a small garden storage area.

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.

Clad in white HardiePlank siding, the duplex was designed to mimic the industrial look of the shipping container extensions.

The 40-foot-long containers hang 16 feet over the ground. The deep balcony, Gooden says, offers solar protection, keeping strong sunlight out but letting natural light in. The home has three bedrooms, a den, and three and half baths.

The home exterior was recently sandblasted and painted with a ship-grade, high-gloss industrial paint.

In February of 2007, two San Francisco art and travel addicts purchased a 3,200-square-foot former Chinese laundry and tooth-powder factory with column-free interiors and a zigzagging sawtooth roof in lower Pacific Heights. They customized a pair of shipping containers to accommodate their collection and reflect their passions, and hired a local company to sandblast the interior to expose the board-formed concrete walls and replace the carpeted floors with Georgia hickory pecan planks to further lengthen the loft and make it look more like a warehouse.

Protected by a roof overhang, the sunken lounge provides sweeping southeastern views of the city and fjord beyond.

Large, sliding glass doors connect the interior living spaces to the garden, while drawing in plentiful daylight.

“Stacey hopes that we can use this as a prototype for a development of artists’ studios someday—we talked about maybe siting several of them together, like an old mobile home park.” The steel sculpture is by San Antonio artist George Shroeder.