We've had the pleasure to be working on a residential design for clients who aren't afraid to think outside the box, or rather think about how best to use the box. To that end, over these past few months we've been working on a moderately sized shipping container based home (ISBU home to those sticklers for terminology,) comprised of a total of seven modified ISO shipping containers.
The ground floor is composed of a 40' Hi-Cube that houses a home office and a guest suite (whose shower area opens up to the backyard and possible future pool) and a 20' standard container that comprises a gourmet kitchen, both of which bookend a sunken entry area (for shoe removal,) and a raised dining area, which open into the high vaulted space of the family room. Under the stairs, which rise up along a tall polygal wall, is the door from the carport and exterior storage container that defines the far edge of the home. Through a commercial glass door and a commercial overhead door on the back wall, can be found the wide covered porch and the extents of the backyard (and possible future pool...)
Heading back inside and up the stairs lands you at a catwalk "hallway" that serves the two boy's room, their shared bathroom and play area between, the compact washer and dryer closet, and the parent's en suite. Each bedroom is housed in a standard 20' container with it's own cantilevered balcony overlooking the frontyard and the servant spaces (bathrooms, utility room, andmaster closet) are infilled between the containers.
At each end of the catwalk are a roofdeck off the parent's suite (located over the exposed area of the 40' container below,) and access to a second 40' container that serves as the boy's realm (which has it's own exterior stair access to the backyard as well as a deck above the carport.)
Capping the whole ensemble of downstairs public spaces and upstairs private spaces is a large pre-engineered steel roof structure that makes room for an "attic" space above the bedroom containers with access to adjacent exterior roof decks.
With the free flow of ground floor space, the compartmentalization of the private spaces on the second floor, and the extra "attic" and upper roof deck spaces provided by the pre-engineered roof structure, the house is composed so that it tightly integrates the indoors and outdoors. Coupling that with integrated planters at the entry, backyard, and between the inner and outer stairs, this house will become further enmeshed into it's site through the landscaping.
