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

Shipping Container Home (Brisbane, Australia) Architect and designer Todd Miller didn’t just use a shipping container for this home—it appears like he used an entire shipping company, since it took 31 containers to build this industrial but inviting home, which features a massive graffiti mural on the back wall. Photo by ZieglerBuild

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.

Moseley notes the home’s distinctive staircase as one of her favorite features. "When the steel was ordered from the steelyard," she says, "it was marked with our metalworker’s name, for easy pickup. That scribble still exists in random places in the staircase and is very industrial—we love it!" Hand-welded by Mike Carman, a local contractor, the staircase runs through all three floors, and it was custom-sized to fit the dimensions of the shipping containers, measuring nine-feet-six-inches tall and eight-feet wide.

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.

Maziar Behrooz designed this container studio set amid lush trees.

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

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

Sliding bamboo panels on the west side of the house can be adjusted to provide shade during the later part of the day.

Opting for IKEA appliances helped rein in the budget, but the home's greatest cost-saving measure may have been Mike's background in construction. His degree in architectural engineering enabled him to play an active role in both the ideation and execution.

The 800-square-foot house is among the first shipping container residences in San Diego County, according to Mike. He hopes it will soon by joined by a larger container home on the property, at which point it will become the guesthouse.

Other than some use of drywall, the structure is completely made of shipping containers.