Modified shipping containers are increasingly used to build unique houses.

Modified shipping containers are known for their sturdiness and their versatility. Their use as mobile offices, booths, ticket offices, outdoor stages, pop-up restaurants, secured warehouses, to name only a few, is increasingly known to all. But a new trend has emerged in the last few years and it has started to grow: shipping containers used as houses!

As surprising as it may seem, creative and visionary people have managed to demonstrate that shipping containers have everything, and even more, to create the perfect house.

Modified shipping containers

Modified shipping containers have numerous benefits. They are sturdy, modular and affordable!

Sturdy

As unbelievable as it may be, the house you can see in the above image, which was designed by architect Ray Kappe, was installed in only 8 hours! So needless to say that containter-houses are installed in record time on the property site. The other aspect to consider when it comes to shipping containers is that they are designed in a controlled environment. That means that the containers are built to specific standards and are therefore very reliable. That also means that they are built to be sturdy with a minimal amount of materials, especially when it comes to wood.

Shipping containers are also built in one piece, therefore significantly reducing the environmental footprint associated with the transportation of construction materials. With all these features, you will not worry about construction defects, since the assembly process is minimal and done on the property site. In addition, shipping containers are waterproof, and their locking is secure, being made from non-corrosive steel, which makes them the ideal living environments or vacation homes.

Modular

If the image you have in mind right now of this type of houses is one of a metal rectangle, think again! Houses made from modified containers are among the most fashionable and unique there is out there. The only limit is the designer’s imagination. In fact, containers can be stacked, put back to back, or even placed perpendicularly – in order to create multiple floors, the desired length, or as many sections as wanted.

Given their great modularity, modified shipping containers can meet all your housing needs, in addition to being very easily and promptly transported. And you should know that once inside the house, it is impossible to know you are in fact inside a container: this house is evidence of that fact. To get an idea of how versatile and esthetically interesting container-houses are, take a look at this photo gallery.

Affordable

What is most fascinating with container-houses, is that it can be a mini-chalet just as much as it can be a luxurious house or even a work of architectural art. This means that the price of a container-house is not only proportional to the buyer’s budget, but it is also significantly lower than that of a traditional house, whatever may be its style.

Indeed, the acquisition costs of shipping containers – the number of which varies according to the desired size of the house – and of their modification – in order to give the house the wanted design, by removing or adding partitions, by adding windows, glass walls or doors, by installing balconies, etc. – are in all cases lower than those associated with purchasing or building a traditional house. What’s more, since container-houses can easily be built to be energy-efficient, they save their owners considerable amounts of money in the long run.

Contern containers specialises in the sale, rent and modification of shipping containers. If you have any questions about shipping containers or our services, we invite you to contact us today. It will be our pleasure to answer your questions.