$950,000 2500 sq ft Shipping Container Home, Massachusetts

Interior

Location

Area	2500 sq ft (230 sq m)
Containers	Four 40 ft
Bedrooms	4
Bathrooms	3
Sold Price (2021)	$950,000
Location	West Stockbridge, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States
Year	2018

This stylish and dynamic 2500 sq ft shipping container home with 4 bedrooms/3 baths will provided guests with a spectacular woodland retreat. Located on the ground floor is a wonderful private in-law suite with it's own private kitchen, banquette/dining table, full bath with walk-in shower, smart TV, and full size day bed. The kitchen in this separate suite is equipped with a refrigerator, sink, full size electric range/oven, and full size dishwasher. Two large sliding doors let in a ton of natural light and can be used as a private entrance if needed.

Head up the spiral staircase to the main floor where you will discover the open concept living room, kitchen, and dining room. The well equipped kitchen has everything a guest may need including a 5 burner gas range/oven, microwave, standard drip coffee maker, coffee grinder, juicer and soda stream. The dinning room table seats 6+, and the living room has a comfy sectional sofa and a Smart TV for guests to stream their favorite shows (no cable channels).


The master suite has a queen size bed, walk-in closet, smart TV with sitting area, walk-in shower, and double sink vanity. One guest bedroom has a queen size bed and is attached to the shared bathroom with a walk-in shower and separate soaking tub overlooking the property. The 3rd bedroom has a full size bed and a dresser for guests to store their clothes. Also on the main floor, there is a separate office with a desk, 2 bookcases, and small bench perfect for a guest that may need to work from home.

Outside this beautiful 2500 sq ft shipping container home you will find 2 sun decks, a grill, Adirondack chairs, a dinging table with outdoor umbrella, and an orb chimney fire feature.

Guide to Building the Mythical Inexpensive Modern Prefab Shipping Container Home

Maziar Behrooz

Architect/Founder at MB Architecture

2019

About Maziar Behrooz

The particular challenge (near impossibility) of using shipping containers to build homes.

Cutting and welding steel is a highly specialized trade. And in most cities in the US, especially those that are not close to ports, or that don't have a large commercial base, steelworkers are both hard to find and expensive to employ. For example, on Long Island, where there is a good commercial infrastructure and some nearby ports, the average hourly rate of a steel worker hovers around $40-$45 per hour (while an experienced wood framer might make around $20-$30 per hour). Right here is your first conflict: the inherent desire to use containers in order to lower cost, and the higher cost of working with steel.

To elaborate, with most shipping container designs, you would be cutting and removing parts of the container. This may include segments of the corrugated walls or roof, or the very heavy-gauge steel of its floor plate, or its giant doors. Then, when a piece of wall, for example, is removed, the opening has to be framed with steel extrusions (rectangular tubes); these are welded around the opening to maintain structural rigidity. All of this is both time-consuming and expensive - relative to cutting and nailing lumber.

Ahurewa Eco Retreat - 700 sq ft Off-Grid Shipping Container Home, New Zealand

Best of all, this beautiful 700 sq ft shipping container home is completely off the grid, with solar power, rainwater collection and even a vermicomposting toilet, meaning the owner will never need to see another power or water bill again.

Video

Location

Project	Ahurewa Eco Retreat
Owner	Rosie Gee
Area	700 sq ft (65 sq m)
Containers	Five 20 ft
Bedroom	1
Year	2020
Location	Coromandel, New Zealand

You will surely love this incredible home constructed out of five 20ft shipping containers. Its owner Rosie opted for a shipping container home after realizing its durability and industrial style look. The shipping containers are painted black from the outside to blend with the natural surroundings. On the contrary, the interior space is more colorful than the exterior. There are plywood paneled walls and orange accents all around the house.

The living spaces are creatively designed with large glass walls to allow in natural light and offer an outdoor view. As the owner is a reading enthusiast, there is a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf inside and even some storage for books under the bed. There is also a cozy deck to enjoy the outdoors. This house is no short of features and facilities to make the owners feel at home.

Rosie's home is situated in the middle of a spectacular conservation block and her beautiful modern shipping container home has been wonderfully designed to take full advantage of the beautiful surrounding landscape.

Best of all, this shipping container home is completely off the grid, with solar power, rainwater collection and even a vermicomposting toilet, meaning she will never need to see another power or water bill again.

Modular Shipping Container Home on Steep Slope, Marin, California

Taking advantage of the natural topography this modular 2 bed shipping container home has a series of connected roof decks with commanding views. The pier foundation have minimal impact on the site and recycled shipping containers with a prefabricated interior, considerably reduces construction time and cost as well as reducing the carbon footprint to a dot.

Floor Plans / Drawings

About Studio KfA

Project	Marin Metal
Design	Studio KfA
Area	1440 sq ft
Containers	Eight 20 ft
Bedrooms	2
Bathrooms	2
Year	2020
Location	Mill Valley, Marin County, California

This private residence is set within a steep wooded site in Marin California commuting distance from San Francisco. Driven as a response to ever-increasing construction costs and lengthening time schedules in the heated market of the Bay Area; this house exploits the proven concept of recycled shipping containers as a fast, effective and cheap alternative to traditional house building. Prefabricated then installed on-site within days.

A pair of shipping containers measuring 20x8 feet are set parallel to each other with a 4-foot infill space between them forming a 20x20 foot space. These arrangements allows for the minimal intervention and cutting of the container and standard repetitive glazing units. Complete sides, either one or two are removed allowing for large floor-to-ceiling glazing along the long edge; as in the kitchen dining and the main living space. Alternatively, simply one shorter end is removed; the doors being replaced with glazing as in the lower bedrooms.

In total eight 20x8 ft containers are arranged in this manner stacked and rotated 90 deg. to form this flexible 2 bedroom modular shipping container home on steep slope with 1440 sqft of internal space. In this layout, the lower floor contains the bedrooms, bathrooms, mechanical, and storage. The connecting stairs occupying the 4ft between the containers. Above this, the entrance, loggia, and main living area is an open space that spreads the full length of the building. The centrally located stacked stair connects up again to the dining and kitchen areas and the first of two large roof terraces.

A cohesive elegant functioning modern home on steep slope. The luxurious results are often unassociated with such building techniques.

650 sqft Shipping Container Home - Three Small Bedrooms in Three Small Containers, New York

Construction Process

Location

About MB Architecture

Project	MTK Cabin
Design	MB Architecture
Area	650 sq ft
Containers	Three 20 ft
Bedrooms	3
Bathrooms	2
Year	2018
Location	Montauk, Long Island, New York

Description by architects

A small modern shipping container home in the woods in Montauk, consisting three bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen and living areas, pre-fabricated using three 8' x 20' shipping containers.

The “Hamptons,” the Atlantic side of the Eastern End of Long Island, are known for a seasonal population who live in large homes, often over 7,000 square feet. But it is also home to a year-round population. We were lucky to receive a commission from three clients who needed a home to share while they live and work on the East End.

Our clients recognized the limitations of their budget and laid out programmatic requirements and aesthetic preferences that were inherently compatible with very affordable solutions. Their appreciation for small spaces, in their words, like boat cabins – bathrooms with open showers, single bed bedrooms, and a compact kitchen – made some unconventional design considerations possible.

Located in Montauk, where the amount of affordable housing is limited, we set out to create one of the least expensive new residences on the East End. The site is less than a mile from the marina where many people already live in tiny quarters on their boats, so the idea of smart solutions that make tiny living enjoyable was always on our and our clients’ minds.

For a start, we all agreed that the shipping container house should be no larger than 650 square feet, the minimum house size allowed in the Township of East Hampton which encompasses the Village of Montauk.

Based on our prior work in the area, and knowing of the high costs of site-built homes, we felt the need to explore prefabrication. Our initial research let us to the use of three recycled 8’ x 20’ shipping containers retrofitted and finished off-site and shipped to Montauk. Each container is 160 square feet, bringing the total of three containers to 480 square feet. By adding connecting spaces, we achieved the minimum required size.

From here our design challenge was to transform the otherwise claustrophobic space of the containers into intimate but open rooms that form a range of connections to the landscape around them. Each room becomes a window, an opening, or a doorway that creates its own connection with its outdoor surroundings.

In its tiny shell, the home features three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a kitchen/dining/living room area. The shipping container home is organized into three pods with glass connections between them. The connections can be read as two separate tiny rooms maintaining privacy between pods or the connections can be read as one single unit that includes the porch forming a fourth volume. From the porch to the pods to the connectors, we maintained a uniform ceiling height and floor plane.

We staggered the containers to create privacy between the three people living in the home and used glazed connections as transitional and intimate spaces in between. On the axis of circulation (East-West), the containers were developed as perpendicular extensions along a promenade; circulation itself became a shared room. While in the cross axis, each container was developed independently to house its own program.




The containers are insulated on the inside with with closed cell spray foam and clad with finish grade plywood on the walls and ceiling and engineered wood on the floor. The connectors are frameless thermal fin-glass panels. The exteriors of the containers are spray-painted with marine grade paint. All built-ins are supported by the side-walls letting the floor plane be free of any obstruction. A combination of curtains, louvers, and deciduous trees help manage thermal loss and gain.