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Projects

Welcome to our curated collection of real-world shipping container home projects from around the globe. Each project tells a unique story—designed by architects, builders, or passionate homeowners who embraced modular, eco-conscious living. From remote off-grid cabins in New Zealand to striking two-storey homes in suburban Australia, these builds showcase the versatility, beauty, and innovation possible with repurposed shipping containers.

Whether you’re an architect looking for case study inspiration, a developer exploring modular construction, or a future homeowner considering a container build of your own, this is where practical design meets sustainable ambition. Every home featured here includes key project details: site location, number of containers used, layout considerations, sustainable features, and insights into construction methods and builder vision.

Dive in to discover how people are rethinking traditional housing by turning steel boxes into warm, functional, and future-forward homes. Use these examples to shape your own ideas, refine your plans, or simply enjoy the creativity of container architecture.

Bayside Marina Hotel: Pioneering Prefab Container Hotel by Yasutaka Yoshimura Architects

Bayside Marina Hotel: Pioneering Prefab Container Hotel by Yasutaka Yoshimura Architects

    Along the scenic waterfront of Yokohama, Japan, an innovative prefab container hotel stands as a testament to architectural ingenuity and sustainable design. Completed in 2009, the Bayside Marina Hotel by Yasutaka Yoshimura Architects reimagines shipping containers as sophisticated modular hotel accommodations, challenging conventional construction methods while embracing the site’s coastal setting.Read More »Bayside Marina Hotel: Pioneering Prefab Container Hotel by Yasutaka Yoshimura Architects

    Wijn of Water - Shipping Container Restaurant Rotterdam

    Wijn of Water: How a Shipping Container Restaurant Transformed Rotterdam’s Harbor Landscape

      When Rotterdam’s Lloyd Quarter was undergoing revitalization in 2005, an unlikely architectural star emerged along the Maas River. Nine weathered shipping containers, once carriers of global cargo, found an extraordinary second life as Wijn of Water (Wine or Water)—a shipping container restaurant that would challenge conventional hospitality design. This pioneering project by Carolien Bijvoet represented a bold experiment in modular restaurant design that told a compelling story about adaptation, resourcefulness, and Rotterdam’s enduring connection to maritime commerce.Read More »Wijn of Water: How a Shipping Container Restaurant Transformed Rotterdam’s Harbor Landscape

      The BadGast Shipping Container Artist-in-Residence Studio

      BadGast: Shipping Container Artist-in-Residence Studio in the Netherlands by Refunc

        Along the windswept beach of Scheveningen, near The Hague, a compact structure stands boldly against the coastal sky. Built from industrial steel and creative intention, BadGast offers more than just shelter. This shipping container art studio serves as a functional, immersive retreat—designed specifically for artists, architects, and researchers seeking to engage with the sea.

        Located within the vibrant F.A.S.T. (Free Architecture Surf Terrain) beach community, the project merges surfing culture, art, and sustainability. From the start, BadGast was never meant to be static—it was meant to evolve. And it has. Since 2009, this modest two-container studio has welcomed a new resident every month. Each one brings their perspective. Each one leaves something behind.Read More »BadGast: Shipping Container Artist-in-Residence Studio in the Netherlands by Refunc

        Upcycle Living’s Affordable Container Homes – Phoenix Arizona

        Upcycle Living’s Affordable Container Homes – Phoenix Arizona

          Phoenix-based Upcycle Living is aiming to bring affordable shipping container housing to the masses with its modern cost-effective designs. Just last fall they installed a 2-bedroom house at a green street fair in Phoenix, and orders started rolling in. The designers and builders now expect that they can produce a similar modular model for less than $100,000.Read More »Upcycle Living’s Affordable Container Homes – Phoenix Arizona

          Travelodge Container Hotel

          The Travelodge Shipping Container Hotel – Uxbridge, UK

            Travelodge, the budget hotel company, completed their first recycled hotel made out of shipping containers in August 2008. The 86 containers used in the Uxbridge hotel were prepared in China with plasterboard walls, electrics and bathrooms already in place before being shipped to the UK, stacked and assembled like lego pieces. The containers are simply bolted together and once installed at the site, windows are fitted, the modules are decorated and furnished, and then the exterior of the building is cladded.Read More »The Travelodge Shipping Container Hotel – Uxbridge, UK

            Recycled Container House in Bukit Tinggi, Malaysia

            Recycled Container House in Bukit Tinggi, Malaysia

              Designer Ken Kwok leads the firm Anand Bungalows, and has a wealth of experience in residential design having built hundreds of homes in and around Malaysia. This recycled container house is located in Bukit Tinggi, Pahang and consists of six, stacked containers – four of which are oriented north and south and two oriented east and west. The four containers are stacked to create a two-story volume with the doors oriented to the north to form partial enclosures for the balconies and windows. In between the container volumes, a double height atrium was constructed allowing for proper ventilation – hot air rises and the windows on opposing sides encourage cross ventilation.Read More »Recycled Container House in Bukit Tinggi, Malaysia

              The Freeman Feldmann Shipping Container Home – freeman feldmann house houston texas

              The Freeman Feldmann Shipping Container Home

                Developers Katie Nichols and John Walker have focused their careers on creating affordable, sustainable, design-intensive homes for creative, urban people.  To achieve that goal, the duo tapped into an inexhaustible resource in the port city of Houston, Texas– shipping containers.  In a partnership with architect Christopher Robertson, Nichols and Walker created the Freeman Feldmann Shipping Container Home a few miles north of the city.Read More »The Freeman Feldmann Shipping Container Home