Design Your Own Shipping Container House

With shipping container homes, seeing is often believing. You may have an idea of what container houses are, but until you see the incredible designs others have come up with, you'll never have a full picture of what is possible.

It's why we love inspiring people with shipping container architecture examples. Many people just don't realize the number of ways containers can be used to create unique, sturdy, and affordable structures.

This article is our chance to brag a little bit on container cargo boxes as a building medium and highlight the ingenuity and craftsmanship of some of the best container homes in the world. Below, we showcase a wide variety of containers homes: from cabins to mansions, homemade to professionally designed, and everything in between.

There's something for everyone, regardless of your budget and design preferences. And, we've been sure to include houses from a variety of locations across the globe, proving that container construction can work almost anywhere.

Each home below includes a brief description, a picture, and a link to our Container Project Database. There you can find tons of information about the cost, owners, location, and more, as well as numerous pictures and drawings.

Old Lady House

Celebrated shipping container home architect Adam Kalkin designed the Old Lady House in New Jersey with nine surplus shipping containers.  The two-story container home includes two glass-filled wings separated by a lush courtyard.

Learn more of the Old Lady House in the Container Project Database

PV14 House

Set in Dallas, Texas, this 3,700 square feet gem is one of the most well-known shipping container homes the world. Fourteen recycled shipping containers were combined with a primarily concrete ground level to form a house with three bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms.

Learn more about the PV14 House in our Container Project Database

Riverfront Container House

Rick's two-story shipping container home on two scenic acres is just steps from amazing kayaking on the Loxahatchee River near Jupiter, Florida. The house's three shipping containers make use of their structural integrity to form a two-story cross shape that includes an upstairs unit with an adjacent roof deck. With some work, Rick secured an approved building permit for this appealing design and was able to construct it in compliance with local building codes.

Read our interview with Rick from the Riverfront Container House

Hamptons Container Beach Box

Many people dream of a home in the prestigious Hamptons area of New York, but did you know you can have a shipping container home in the Hamptons too?! The Beach Box is a luxurious home built from containers with expansive decks and flip-flopped layout with living areas above the bedrooms. And since it is surrounded by exterior cladding, most people don't even realize it's a container home.

Learn more about the Beach Box Container House in our Container Project Database

Casa Incubo

Casa Incubo is a Costa Rican shipping container home that was created with eight 40-foot high cube containers. The boxes really accentuate a design that blends industrial, contemporary, and natural architecture in an uncommon way.

Read about Casa Incubo in our Container Project Database

Campo Cinco Retreat

Roger Black is the proud owner of Cinco Camp which is over 200 miles from the nearest airport. This rural retreat of shipping container tiny homes was built from five cargo containers and cost around $200,000 (and would have been half that in a more accessible building location). Three containers are bedroom/bathroom units, one is a kitchen and dining room, and one is for storage.

Read our profile on the Cinco Camp

Livingston Manor Container Getaway

Few shipping container homes are as simple yet iconic as Robyn Volker's hillside example in rural New York. This 800 square feet house takes advantage of three converted shipping containers. It demonstrates a simple but effective way to stack shipping containers and work with the building site, instead of against it.

Learn more about the Livingston Manor Container home in our Container Project Database

Manifesto House

When you think of ingenious exampled of homes from shipping containers, the Manifesto House in Curacaví, Chile has to be on your list. The container home is all about reuse, not just from the repurposed shipping containers, but also the recycled wooden pallets used as cladding. Built with two 20 ft and two 40 ft ISO storage boxes, the huge openings on both sides of the ground floor living room provide incredible cross ventilation.

Learn more about the Manifesto House in our Container Project Database

California Container House on a Canyon

Mike and his wife took a DIY approach to build a shipping container home just outside of San Diego. Like an increasing number of new container homes, they built their hybrid container house with a combination of surplus shipping containers and traditional construction. Set right on the edge of a canyon, this storage container house has interior and deck areas that seamlessly connect into indoor/outdoor living room areas with postcard-like views.

Read our Interview with the Owners of this Canyon Container Home

Containers of Hope

The Peralta family are proud owners of this shipping container house outside San Jose, Costa Rica. It's one of the most well-known affordable shipping container homes in the world, seen by millions. Constructed with two 40-foot units, it cost a very reasonable $40,000 and provides over 600 square feet of living space.

Learn more about Containers of Hope in our Container Project Database

Nederland Container Home

This beautiful home is set in Nederland, Colorado with stunning views of the surrounding mountains. It is unique due to the open-concept living room built between two shipping containers and the external cladding that obscures the metal surfaces that form the structure of the underlying shipping containers.

Read more about the Nederland Container Home in our Container Project Database

California Forest Container House

This impressive shipping container home is surrounded by massive trees inside a California forest. It includes a cantilevered walkway entrance to the see-through floor of the second level that allows sunlight to cascade through both floors. The home's simple used containers were modified in a factory off-site, then synergistically brought together into this masterpiece.

Learn more about the Six Oaks Container Home in our Container Project Database

Adelaide Container Accommodation

Look at the interior at Saffy and Dom's shipping container house and you're probably convinced it was an expensive, professional undertaking.  However, this enterprising husband and wife team based in Adelaide, Australia decided they could become their own container home builders…so they did!

Read our interview with Saffy and Dom

Container Vale da Vila

The Container Vale da Vila, sometimes called the Nomad Living Guesthouse, is set in Vale da Vila, Portugal. The builders only used one custom container, but the home feels much larger thanks to the huge sliding glass doors that open to a shady outdoor transitional space.

Learn more about the Container Vale da Vila in our Container Project Database

Atlanta Shipping Container Homes for Rent

Adele and her partner built two 160 square feet Conex box houses behind their main home to form an indoor/outdoor living space oasis in the middle of Atlanta, Georgia. They were attracted to building these eco-friendly container guest houses by a book featuring homes built with shipping containers and quickly connected with a professional builder to create their tiny house dream.

Read our interview with Adele about her Atlanta Container Homes

New Orleans Shotgun Shipping Container Home

This unique residence was built for about $200k by a husband and wife in New Orleans, along with a team of friends and family. They spent two years of weekends and evenings building the home with surplus containers, wood, and a unique transparent plastic. The completed container home includes a master bedroom and bathroom, a kitchen, home office and a living area.

Check out this Shotgun Container House is our Container Project Database

WFH Container House

This container home has a huge sloped roof topped with a living garden that filters rainwater and also provides the building with additional protection from the elements. The corrugated steel walls are clad with bamboo, completely obscuring the conex shipping containers underneath and blending with the natural environment.

Learn more about the WFH Container House in our Container Project Database

Whiskey Bend Ranch

Whiskey Bend Ranch is a property set in the country just outside of Austin with a small shipping container home that packs big luxury features. The designers created a rural retreat that boasts a raised patio with views of the property.

Read more about the Whiskey Bend Ranch in the Container Project Database

Cordell House

The Cordell House in Houston, Texas spans some 1,500 square feet and contains two bedrooms, a home office, a playroom, a kitchen, and a laundry room. There is also a 40-foot shipping container located at the rear of the property which contains the guesthouse. Partial wood cladding ties everything together.

Read our Profile of the Cordell House

San Antonio Container Guest House

This single shipping container dwelling features bold colors and extensive use of landscaping, even on top of the roof. It's a small but efficient design that encourages outdoor living on a beautiful lot.

Learn more about the San Antonio Container Guest House in the Container Project Database

Riverside Hideout Container Cabin

If you have access to a beautiful country property like Ryann did, using a shipping container as a home can be a great alternative to a cottage or lakehouse that may be out of your price range. Her 320 square feet Ohio residence was a container home building project taken on by her family, with relatives all chipping in to work and learn together with this unique building material.

Read our interview with Ryann from the Riverside Hideout

Bamboo Grove Container Homes

Shanti brought her can-do attitude and resourcefulness to two shipping container homes she built on her property in Florida.  Her tiny home floor plans make use of refrigerated shipping containers as well as a multitude of reused and recycled building materials to form environmentally friendly housing units.

Read our interview with Shanti about these Florida Container Home Rentals

Klip River Container Cabin

Shelley's container cabin features four repurposed shipping containers arranged in a U-shape with an enclosed area in between made from a sloped roof that includes a loft.  Shelley demonstrates that building with old shipping containers offers cost savings that allow dreams to be achievable for people from all walks of life.

Read our interview with Shelley about her Container Cabin

Summary

What a colorful mix of container structures from around the world. Hopefully, you've been inspired by these real-world examples to further explore shipping container alternatives to traditional homes. If you're curious about seeing even more examples of incredible container projects, consider checking out our articles about container farms, container pools, container offices, and other case studies!

For those interested in learning more about the tactics of building with containers, you owe it to yourself to get as much information as possible. There are some peculiarities when building with shipping containers, especially around choosing insulation and how to heat and cool them without having condensation. A great place to start your research is the Design & Build section of our website.

Design Your Own Shipping Container House

Source: https://www.discovercontainers.com/what-i-wish-id-known-before-building-my-shipping-container-home/