Container living - Is it comfortable?

Regarding container living, you may ask: is it comfortable to live in a shipping container? The answer is it depends on the level you invest in your project. I’ll explain my point of view in this article. 

You know shipping containers are all receptacles originally designed to transport cargo overseas. When they are retired or abandoned from shipping for some reasons, they become a plentiful source of used shipping containers available for residential purpose. Though the number of containers available for recycling is quite finite, the interesting fact is that the number is up to the millions.

Single-container house

The usage area of one container unit is rather limited for a complete regular house. For example, a 40 foot ISO container has width of 2.4 meters and floor area of about 29.7 square meters. If a house made from such a single container, I think it is not so spacious and comfortable, but you can still arrange enough main function spaces for daily living.

Image courtesy of www.port-a-bach.com

Thus this kind of one-container house is more suitable for temporary or mobile house (at the construction or picnic areas, for example). The facilities inside the dwelling can sufficiently provide you with an acceptable living. For instance, a 45ft container mobile home can have a kitchen, a living room, a bed room.

Multi-container house

At higher cost, you can afford building a house with several used shipping containers. Then with suitable design, you will have a spacious and beautiful house, which is almost the same as a conventional dwelling, in terms of appearance as well as of comfortableness.

Let’s take a real example. Boucher Grygier Shipping Container House designed and built by Leger Wanaselja Architecture provides us a fabulous view of how comfortable it is to enjoy living in a shipping container home. Take a look at its kitchen and living room in below images.

Image courtesy of www.lwarc.com

You know shipping containers are all receptacles originally designed to transport cargo overseas. When they are retired or abandoned from shipping for some reasons, they become a plentiful source of used shipping containers available for residential purpose. Though the number of containers available for recycling is quite finite, the interesting fact is that the number is up to the millions.

According to Leger Wanaselja Architecture, “this house incorporates three insulated containers into the design of this airy yet compact 1350 square foot, three bedroom house. Two forty-foot containers are stacked on one side and a third is cut in half and stacked on the other creating protective walls for a two story atrium living room in the middle. Bedrooms in the upper containers are given added width with bay windows. A stair and a bridge through the atrium connect the two upper containers to the space below.”

If you’re desired to see more visual details of internal amenities of the project, watch this video. I’m sure you’re gonna love it.

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