The Container House
Cleveland, Ohio
The Container House project was developed during the second semester of 2016 for a venturesome client in Cleveland, Ohio, who hired us to design a fast, affordable and sustainable solution to procure himself with a small cottage for his vacation and retreat times. Using various concepts developed all over the world as a point of departure, the client's goal was to repurpose three 40' x 8' disposed shipping containers to assemble a 900 sf self-supporting single-story house.
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The first step in the documentation process was to contact local and remote container fabricators and collect technical information that had to be filtered, analyzed and processed to make the structure suitable to our client's necessities and the at times extreme climate conditions of the northern state of Ohio.
The building provides room for an integrated living, dining, kitchen and pantry area, two spacious bedrooms, an office, one full bathroom a walking closet and laundry room. Illuminated with large floor to ceiling windows, it is crossed by a 14' high central foyer topped with continuous clerestories. The foyer houses the main circulation and a convenient storage / mechanical attic above the master bedroom accessible by a pull-down ladder, while offering the occupants with physical and visual amplitude. With the purpose to prevent the accumulation of large volumes of snow during the severe winters of Ohio and overheating of the steel roofs in the summer, it was decided to furnish the house with sloped screens supported by metal structures welded to the container frames. These multipurpose shields will be equipped with solar panels for energy efficiency. The floor plan has been laid out in modules for future expandability, including the addition of a partial second story.
