Siding

The front door to the units.

Cross section of Franceschi Container Houses

Franceschi Container Houses are three independent living units totaling 2,260-square-feet, built from used, 40-foot high cargo containers placed side by side.

The Outward Bound cabins, designed by the University of Colorado Denver's design-build program, have steel frames that lift the structures above a three-foot snowpack while supporting corrugated-steel "snow roofs."

Tomecek Studio’s Container House in Nederland, Colorado, is a 1,500-square-foot residence anchored into a rock outcropping. The dwelling—which comprises two insulated shipping containers clad in fireproof plank siding—is powered by photovoltaic rooftop panels and takes advantage of passive solar strategies to keep energy demands to a minimum.

Michael Hughes and his University of Colorado collaborators transformed a 10-by-47-foot trailer destined for the landfill into the striking TrailerWrap “rehab” prototype.

Insta-House by MB Architects

Grannis Road House by Ty Kelly

A peek at the home from a distance.

An expansive lap pool.

Mitchell says that the red cedar “provided a nice level of contrast from the white siding on top and helps to establish those two spaces as distinctly separate.” The siding is from James Hardie.

“Considering all of the foot traffic around their property, [the owners] made it very clear that they wanted to find a way to maintain as much privacy in the home as possible,” architect Chad Mitchell says of this Denver home. “Thus, the main floor of the home is elevated from the sidewalk by about six feet.” The exterior siding is red cedar with a custom Sherwin-Williams stain.

Apart from a “generous” master bedroom, Mitchell says that the couple also wanted a rooftop deck to see views of downtown Denver. A sloped roof kept the building up to code, and the outdoor deck “was achieved by shifting the upper volume backwards from the front of the house,” he says.

This by Chilean practice Pezo von Ellrichshausen Arquitectos is built with local timber, with 45 rigid frames set in a fan-shaped configuration.

A semi-circular house in the commune of Chonchi, in Chile’s Chiloe Archipelago.

A study room that opens to the green backyard.

A renovated prefab in Norway.

An updated modular prefab in Norway's in the Snarøya peninsula.