About Cristina Menezes
Project: Pocket House
Design: Cristina Menezes Arquitetura e Decoracao
Location: Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Year: 2013
Area: 30 sqm
Photogapher: Jomar Braganca
Brazil company Cristina Menezes Arquitetura e Decoracao created a 30 sqm house inside shipping container, "Pocket House". The project includes an architecture with the principles of mobility and sustainability. The existing civil work was the base for the shipping container. The rest of the work was only installation. In fact, this part of construction was very important, because the container should have the ability to be transported at any time to any place, without any inconvenience. Only furniture and decor elements will be transported separately. The measurements of the shipping container are standardized, and the container of the Pocket House is the 40-foot shipping container that is 12.20m x 2.44m, externally. Internally, after the installation of the structure with flooring and interior finish, the final measurements were 11.80m x 2.34m. Due to the small width, the first change we made to visually minimize this narrowing was to cut the long side to fit glass sliding doors. So we can have an amplitude and an integration with the external area! These large glass doors assist in ventilation and natural lighting. Steel side of the container was used as a deck structure that we created to have an extension of social space and a place for leisure activities. All the furniture is easy to move allowing you to use the deck as an extension of the living room and kitchen. The kitchen equipment is movable and electric and you can use it on the deck. For this purpose the outlet points for water and sewer were created on the deck.
For walls, ceiling and floor only one material was used: Ipe wood. Thus, we don't have the color and texture separation of what is floor, wall and ceiling and sense of amplitude increases. The bathroom walls are made of glass for lighter weight and less space. A translucent printing on the glass provides privacy between the living room and the bathroom. LED lighting enhances this interior design. For the acoustic insulation, we use a specific paint for this purpose on the steel side walls of the container.
This project allows you to have a 30 sqm house inside shipping container with kitchen, dining table, living room, bedroom and bathroom. This is sustainability! This is a new and current concept of living!