designSTUDIOmodern

happyFAMILY

 

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.

Think (and eat) inside the box

We absolutely love it when people talk about our la Boîte projects. Even if they use the term "quirky," we get that they are raving about the design and sustainable ideas inherent in "the Box"

link to gethappyaustin blog

 

 

 

Small house

Sometimes in the design/build business you meet clients that want to do some nice and simple things. They seem incredibly sane and together when you first meet them, but as the talking to them about their project drags on into months, and then years, and everytime you have a meeting the project scope has changed significantly, you just get the sinking feeling that they are maybe a bit crazy. Then one day they call you out of the blue and are "ready to get started," so naturally you jump at the chance to finally be able to put pen to paper and get some of those ideas out of your head and into the wild. The ideas that have been bouncing around in your head for a year or so just spill out and an almost fully formed design rises out of the flurry of activity. You're jazzed because the project is so strong, and it meets and excedes every single programmatic requirement and desire expressed in the various discussions, and no compromises reared their ugly little heads in the process. You are very happy with the whole thing and can't wait to get it built...

 

and then that feeling you had all along (rememeber the one where you thought the client may be a bit crazy?) becomes so very right...

 

Well this design was like that. Which is too bad really, because as you can see this would be a great little house.

 

 

At 838sf conditioned space, with a modest master suite and a bonus bedroom/office, this house would live like a much larger house with the various decks and protected space. Simple, small, easy to build, efficient. Nice.

 

 

Big Boy flattery

 

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so we are duely flattered that the big boys over at Starbuck's are opening up their own shipping container coffee shop. While we surely beat Starbuck's to the punch, it's likely that we weren't the first to get a full time coffee shop open in a repurposed shipping container. While we may not have been the first, we sure blazed a trail of good design, and pushed the envelope of shipping container coffee-shop-dom! Either way we'll take the flatteryand the imitation!

 

(photo credit: Joshua Trujillo/seattlepi.com)

The good folks over at State Impact/NPR picked up on the story and gave us a nice shoutout for all three of our shipping container based projects to date. I'm sure they'll be happy to know that there are more projects like that on the boards. Info on those projects to drop soon.

 

 

newsworthy

KVUE news stopped by the shop today to do a quick interview about building with shipping containers, and to cover our la Boîte and other shipping container based projects. Not a bad bit of exposure:

 

 

 

 

Getting set

The second la Boite box is pushing forward for the final few days of work before permitting and setting it up on site. Plumbing has gone in, cabinets and fridges, have been set, and the folding window wall has been glazed. All that's left on the insides of the trailer are the setting of the sinks, final electrical trim-out, mini-split AC install, and various minor trim bits. Masking off of logos and exterior paint are up soon after!    

 

 

 

la Boîte, part deux

While we've been playing around in dumpster pools, roasting pigs, building a sushi trailer, and enjoying SXSW2011 maybe a little too much, we've also been busy building out a second version of the la Boîte trailer for a new downtown Austin location. This makes the third shipping container-based food trailer we've worked on, and it will be followed by a third la Boîte as well.

 

 

There are only minor updates and changes to the general layout. The major change (other than colour) is the need to "shorten" the sliding door due to site constraints (more about that in a future entry...) To that end we hinged a flap of the big sliding door, so that it folds back on itself and creates a little protected area around the tongue when in the open position. The logo will be changed up a little bit from the original, because of the extra exposure of the hinged flap to passers-by at the new site, so we'll have a big "Boîte" on the large section of the slider and a vertical "la Boîte" on the smaller hinged flap.

 

 

As before the logos will be masked off before the body of the box is painted. It's gonna be just as pretty as the original.

 

Today we started the install of the linoleum to the floors rolling up onto the back wall. Similar detail as in the original, but with a larger diameter cove in this incarnation. I'm loving the way it intersects with the door frame. It really calls attention to the continuity of surface.

 

 

Expect an opening at the new downtown location in late April or first week of May.

tastiest box in town

 

 

haha! SushiBox has their online menu and website up and running. Go check it out so you can stalk them on twitter, FB, and Yelp. All the cool kids are doing it!

Austin Modern

 

 

Nice little write-up over at 2Modern featuring a shout-out to La Boîte and sushiBOX. You got to give it to Adrienne. She has pretty good taste in modern!

 

link

stumble upon

 

It's funny what you can run across on the net. Like a gorgeous shot of la Boite from over a year ago. It sure is pretty under the lights of a professional photographer...