These are creative and beautiful!
When I first shared with Malaysians about container homes and their benefits, most of them looked at me with a little hesitation… however, in the States, people have been using container homes for years! Some because they can’t afford the rising costs in housing property, and some because they’re cost-effective, you can get them installed anytime and you can let your imagination run wild with interior design!
When conceptualizing our accommodation at Kechara Forest Retreat, Dukkar Apartments, the idea of using containers came to mind. It was quick to implement, and durable for outdoor use. The idea seemed a bit different for most people to easily accept at that time, but everyone, including our VIP guests, have been very taken aback at how comfortable the space is!
Recently, I shared a few pictures of container homes which I found to be very beautiful and practical. It seems that Malaysians have been picking up on the idea of container homes… great!! I thought that I’d share more pictures which I found on the internet so that we can generate more ideas. Do take a look at these beautiful pictures… it reminds me so much of the time I lived in my own container on our retreat land in Bentong.
Tsem Rinpoche
These rusty shipping containers look abandoned, but look inside and… WOW, I just can’t believe it!
I thought that the only use of shipping containers was the transport of goods by sea and train, but I couldn’t be more wrong.
There are a number of spectacular houses made from shipping containers all around the world, with incredibly detailed interiors and huge glass windows that make these cozy spaces amazingly bright.
Are you still thinking that you wouldn’t live in a shipping container? I guess you will change your mind before the end of the article.
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1. This modern and elegant home in Redondo Beach. Can you believe it’s made from shipping containers?
It even has a pool!
What makes this home even more special is the living room’s glass wall, that can be entirely opened.
2. This home in Savannah, Georgia, surrounded by nature (by Price Street Projects)
The inside is incredibly spacious!
Simple and classy at the same time.
The contrast with the exterior is quite impressive.
3. This is Six Oax by David Fenster of Modulus, located in the Santa Cruz mountains, California
The attention for the details is remarkable in this one.
Even the stairs look cool.
One of the house’s huge windows.
The external part is not so bad to be a shipping container.
4. This one is located in New Zealand, right in front of the sea
The night atmosphere is amazing.
The fireplace is its touch of class.
5. This awesome shipping container/house is located in Quebec, Canada, and looks like a nice mountain chalet.
6. This one is located in San Antonio, Texas, designed by Poteet Architects.
It has a living room, a studio, one bathroom and this nice patio.
The inside is warm and comfortable.
A touch of red for the bathroom.
The patio.
7. This one is so big it has another house inside!
Unbelievable!
8. Located in El Tiemblo, Spain. They used four containers for its construction.
A bedroom.
The patio.
9. This Colorado home had a pre-existing structure, to which they added two containers (by Studio H:T).
10. If I didn’t know it, I would never imagine this was made from shipping containers!
I’m 100% jealous now…
11. This is located in the Mojave desert. Just amazing.
12. In San Jose Costa Rica, there is this amazing house, probably my favorite of the entire list. The budget for its construction was $40,000.
Gorgeous…
Bright and spacious…
The living room.
Bathroom with a view.
The bedroom.
13. This Flagstaff, Arizona house is made from six shipping containers.
The interiors are detailed.
There’s also a small terrace.
[Source: http://justsomething.co/shipping-containers/]
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The containers are marvelously enhanced to resemble the most modern architectures. It goes to show creativity will not be bound by the squareness of the containers. They are excellent examples of “thinking out of the box.” Especially the one on Redondo Beach has high ceiling and big hall that do not exhibit the structural characteristic of the container. It is really impressive. Thank you, Rinpoche, for this sharing.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this article. It is amazing how an architect can turn a shipping container into a home. One look at the pictures, I feel like staying in those houses. They are so cozy, comfortable and even spacious. The interior designs are modern too. Some parts of the house design even allows you to relax yourselves. These kind of container houses are suitable for people who does meditation on their own and these container can be built on the places which the owner finds suitable.
With folded palms,
Vivian
I love these beautiful architecture and interesting designs of houses and rooms.Most interesting and amazing is that some of these houses are built from shipping containers,and i didnt know it could be built into houses. Fantastic! Reminds me of KFR 🙂
Wow! Those people are really creative and such awesome ideas! The way the houses are designed is just spectacular. I like how they can incorporate the containers into 1 huge home and it doesnt even look like any part of it is out of place.
In Kechara Forest Retreat, http://retreat.kechara.com/plans-and-facilities/#da we have the same thing in the middle of the forest! And they are really spacious and comfortable. From the inside, its just like any other rooms in my house. You dont even feel like you are in a container. AWESOME place to be in!
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing all these beautiful container houses.It is wonderful indeed using unused containers to build homes…Creative and beautiful houses from what i saw from those pictures shared by Rinpoche. Well i have seen there ‘s more container houses built in some area as guest house….as it is cheaper . The Dukkar apartments at Kechara Forest Retreat is one of them.I have not seen it before but one will see it.
Thanks with folded hands.
Wow, thank you to Rinpoche for introducing us to the concept of Container homes and residences.
OMB! These houses are stunning! They do not look like containers at all, it’s amazing what people can do when they have creativity and commitment, it’s not easy to build a house out of containers I believe, there’s a lot of safety precautions beforehand. One of the reasons why I love containers is because they don’t have pillars ( yes hehehe), I find pillars very obstructing and ugly. Moreover, getting containers is way more cheaper than building an actual house of our own, the money we save can be used for furnitures and decorations to turn the containers into a cozy home. I really like all these houses and how they are built and decorated, it’s very attractive and they make people want to live there.
1)Yes Rinpoche, indeed. I also wouldn’t have realized that the 10th house is built out of containers. I guess I can say that there aren’t many people in Asia who knows about living in containers and most of them would not want to. Maybe it is because they have never thought of building containers in these ways or they are just not really familiar with people living in containers but then here we are in KFR living in containers.
2)I myself also did not realize that containers can actually be built in this way until I read about this and saw these pictures. The way the build the containers is really beautiful and very fancy. They look like normal houses, not close to looking like a container
even from the outside especially the first, fourth, fifth and tenth house. I must say, that their work is splendid and awesome.
3)I highly recommend people to live in containers if they want to live in landed properties and want their house to be as big as a Bungalow, Semi-D or a Villa because it is much cheaper as it is not made out of bricks and cement. Then we can the containers together, do the floor in whichever way you want. Isn’t better to be able to structure your own house like how big you want it to be or how you want it to look it. To me, it sounds just perfectly amazing
I love the concept of container house. People are fully utilising an old container to build an affordable and cosy house. Depend on the creativity of the owner and interior designer, containers house can be luxurious one.
The good points about container house are, reuse old and unwanted material, cost saving and can build a house fast.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing all these beautiful container houses.
Dear Rinpoche,
These were all so amazing. I loved the creativity of recycling all the shipping containers to make these gorgeous homes. 🙂 And they do look very cozy. I especially liked no. 7; the really big container with the house in it. That one was really cool. 😀
The fact that some of those houses blended in with the nature around it made me smile. Gives me hope that we could find ways to save the environment. 🙂
Your humble student,
Keng Hwa.
These container homes are a class of it’s own. As simple as it can be, the interior decor that goes with it really magnified the creativity, warmth, coziness and the attractiveness of a home, which is most affordable. Sometimes, we cannot judge a book by it’s cover but we need to take a peep inside, to get the whole meaning of it. Inner beauty is that matters most, as it is often said so of a person’s character. It is true also of container homes with a character of it’s own.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this article and pictures of the beautiful container homes. The Dukkar apartments at Kechara Forest Retreat is a testimony to this .
Regards
Leonard Ooi
KPSG
Rinpoche’s sharing sure opens up my mind to the vast possibilities of container homes. I love staying in KFR’s Dukkar Apartments as its really comfortable. All the pictures of the container homes are beautifully designed with open and clean lines that offers simplistic, yet comfortable living. Love it.
These homes are very modern and unique. I wonder how well insulated steel is… It’s probably got added insulation too. 40k for a brand new house? That’s a good deal.
These simple yet cozy container homes show us life can be as simple as this. Sometimes the more we have the more burdens we create for ourselves; and the less freedom we have.