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The First Shipping Container House We've Seen That Actually Looks Awesome

An airy forest home courtesy of architect David Fenster's design skills

By Rain Noe - October 2, 2015

in Architecture

To be blunt, most houses we've seen that are built out of shipping containers look like total crap. So our hats are off to architect David Fenster, who designed this beautiful 1,200-square-foot home, sited in the Santa Cruz Mountains, out of shipping containers. Using a series of clever design tricks—look for the "redneck bay window," "shower tower," inside-outside catwalk and how the kitchen was handled--Fenster has managed to create an airy, functional, spacious-feeling house that doesn't make it feel like you're living in a steel box:

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Amazingly, this was reportedly Fenster's first time working with shipping containers. I discovered this by reading a Yelp review of Modulus, the Silicon Valley firm Fenster founded. Writes Connie DeWitt, who commissioned the home with husband Kam Kasravi:

…Although they had never worked with this material, they were intrigued and jumped into the project with both feet. David, the principal, created an amazing, beautiful design that was perfectly suited to our challenging site and that met all of our requirements (and many that we hadn't even thought of) from the first concept. Refreshingly different from the stereotype I had of architects, David listened to what we wanted and didn't impose his personal aesthetic vision on us. It was truly a collaborative effort.

If having an architectural firm that listens to your needs, understands that real people have real budget constraints, and that has sensitivity to and an understanding of the practicalities of getting things built in the real world—while also creating innovative, breathtaking designs—you will not be disappointed in Modulus.

It's kind of weird reading Yelp reviews of architects. Can you imagine if they had them for industrial designers?

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bruno core

9 years ago

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please do you some real research next time ! (when are we getting the old core77 back the site where people were addicted - waiting impatiently for the next post ! )

http://www.dezeen.com/2015/01/11/grillagh-water-house-patrick-bradley-maghera-northern-ireland-farm-shipping-containers-grand-designs/

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- Brandon Wood
  
  bruno core
  
  9 years ago
  
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  Never seen this one before, a lot of great details in this house. Thanks for posting!
  
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- Sandy B
  
  bruno core
  
  9 years ago
  
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  You can watch the whole episode on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taShJ0jxaSU
  
  It's not on the Channel 4 website at the moment so that's the best quality I could find easily.
  
  The bath cost £16,500 ($25,000) but other than that it was almost a £100k house. He did already own the land, which helps a lot.
  
  It's the best container house I've ever seen by far.
  
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Ariel Drach

9 years ago

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Actually there are several container houses around the globe that were deserve to be mentioned in this article.
I agree that the above is a great one.
I am thinking of building one in the near future. Shame that my local authorities make it difficult

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Olivia Nelson

8 years ago

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It's always exciting to see how people can use stuff like shipping containers. This is a pretty great house they made! It's larger than I thought it would be, I hope that it lasts them a long time.

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Jayson Lee

9 years ago

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Before everyone gets too excited about building their own containers house.
There are quite a few points that you will need to be aware of. Just like many things out there, there are pros & cons to such construction method, and require alot more preparation than just having a crane that drop the container on a marked up area:

http://www.archdaily.com/625449/11-tips-you-need-to-know-before-building-a-shipping-container-home

http://www.archdaily.com/773491/opinion-whats-wrong-with-shipping-container-housing-everything

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jared french

9 years ago

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I bet rainstorms are awesome & amplified in this thing. Nice pad, even nicer property. Wonder how much welding & any trepidation on the welder's part to be doing this work surrounded by forest fuel?

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Brandon Wood

9 years ago

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Yeah, there are definitely some nicer ones out there. This was done by BNIM in Kansas City, MO
http://www.bnim.com/project/glassberg-container-house

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Pit Scharlé

9 years ago

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http://shop.gestalten.com/container-atlas.html

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Pit Scharlé

9 years ago

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Hi,

Maybe worth you order the follwoing book as well. I highly recommend it!
http://shop.gestalten.com/container-atlas.html

Pit

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Chickee Chickee

9 years ago

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The light was an amazing idea and keeping the rustic looks for character and style was perfect. This is really awesome!

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