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.
Korean designers Keehyun Ahn & Minsoo Lee have designed a public observatory called OceanScope in In-cheon made of recycled materials, including old shipping containers.Read More »OceanScope Observatory by AnL Studio
Earth Science Australia‘s team built the rainforest research center using two 6m (20′) containers placed 3m (10′) apart. Leaving a space between the containers allows for a semi-enclosed area for storage, hanging out or doing research. There is a total of 30sqm of dry sleeping area, 15sqm of mostly dry cooking area and 45sqm of covered outdoor area. Believe it or not, the entire project, including the containers, trucking the containers some 500km, screening in the cargo doors, steel, cement, sand and gravel, nuts, bolts, carports, C-section, screens, timber, decking oil and painting cost only $16,000 AUS.Read More »A Shipping Container Rainforest Research Center in the Tropics
Green Frame House designed by Studio Astori De Ponti Associati was led by architects Antonia Astori, Nicola De Ponti and Ester Pirotta, who worked in collaboration with Art Container. The two story home is composed of six standard containers configured in a staggered stack to add variation to the design.Read More »Green Frame House for Sustainable Container Housing in Italy
A striking example of shipping container architecture, Platoon Kunsthalle serves as an exciting and inspiring new exhibit hall and art center in Seoul, Korea. Built from standard shipping containers by Graft Lab Architects, the Kunsthalle, provides a gorgeous modern space where new ideas thrive and creativity is let loose. The building opened last April and houses art studio space, exhibit areas, a restaurant and bar, as well as lots of open space to gather.Read More »Platoon Kunsthalle: Seoul’s Modern Shipping Container Art Center
Texas architect Jim Poteet helped Stacey Hill, who lives in a San Antonio artists’ community, wrangle an empty steel shipping container into a low impact container studio, playhouse, garden retreat and a guesthouse for visiting artists. The container measures a narrow and long 8 by 40 feet; Hill asked that a portion of the square footage be retained as a garden shed and the rest serve as the living space. The architect added floor-to-ceiling glass doors and windows, heating and air-conditioning, a green roof, bamboo flooring and wallcovering, a small sink and shower and a composting toilet, and placed the structure on a base made from recycled telephone poles.Read More »Low Impact Container Studio in Texas
Maduru Oya – The Lakeside Shipping Container Home Sri Lanka : A Sustainable Shipping Container Holiday Cabana at Maduru Oya.
In the serene landscape of Maduru Oya, Sri Lanka, an innovative shipping container home transforms the lakeside view of an army training camp. This eco container home in Sri Lanka showcases how repurposed materials and thoughtful design create sustainable living spaces even in remote locations. Moreover, the lakeside container cabin in Sri Lanka, designed by architect Damith Prematikake, offers a perfect retreat while harmonizing with its natural surroundings.Read More »Lakeside Shipping Container Home Sri Lanka at Maduru Oya
Future Shack by Sean Godsell is an early icon of Cargotecture and Container Home Design. It was originally designed was to provide low cost / temporary / emergency housing. The work however transcends from Form to Art – through it clean functional lines and simplicity that one can only admire and be astounded by.
From the Architect: A mass produced relocatable house for emergency and relief housing. Recycled shipping containers are used to form the main volume of the building. A parasol roof packs inside the container. When erected, the roof shades the container and reduces heat load on the building. Legs telescope from the container enabling it to sited without excavation on uneven terrain.Read More »Future Shack by Sean Godsell
In a remarkable example of adaptive reuse, over 7,000 shipping containers have been stacked together to create the thriving marketplace in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The kilometer-long Dordoy Bazaar is considered one of the Asia’s greatest public market places, and it is built out of thousands of shipping containers double-stacked under large shade structures.
The bazaar first began back in 1992 and it has since grown into an enormous marketplace containing streets, plazas, restaurants, stores and offices. The market stretches about a kilometer long and is located on the north-eastern outskirts of Bishkek. Technically, the market is composed of several (about 9) different markets, but there are no fences or demarcations to indicate the different areas, each of which specializes in various types of consumer goods.Read More »7,000 Shipping Containers Used to Create Bazaar in Kyrgyzstan
New York studio MB Architecture have completed an art studio in the woods made of two steel shipping containers in Amagansett, New York. Called Container Studio, the structure features two containers positioned next to each other on a foundation wall, within which a basement has been created.Read More »A Container Studio By MB Architecture
In 2009, Inhabitat brought exciting news of a beautiful new shipping container art center opening up in Seoul, and we’ve just discovered that it has a sister structure in Gwangju that rivals both its cool factor and creative contribution to the Korean community. Called Platoon Kunsthalle Gwangju, the newer building is made up of dark grey and orange cargo containers, and houses emerging art and subculture exhibitions as well as an event hall and bar. Click through our gallery to peek inside this intriguing space.Read More »Platoon Kunsthalle GwangJu Shipping Container Art Center Stacks Up in Korea
Infiniski combined with James & Mau are amongst of our favourite shipping container home designers and builders. Casa El Tiemblo aka Casa Raulinski is another one of their creative recycled projects. Located in El Tiemblo in the province of Ávila, Spain, this shipping container home was completed within six months for a budget of 140,000 euros. Read More »Casa El Tiemblo aka Casa Rauliniski – Shipping Container Home by Infiniski and James & Mau
Founder, Michael de Jong came up the idea for the MEKA after years of building luxury homes in Belize, hiring Jason Halter and Christos Marcopoulous for the design. Michael states, “Many prospective homeowners want to avoid the hassle, wait time and hidden costs of traditional construction. No one wants to wait a year and then find out the price of materials and laborers have increased by a third or more. No one wants to deal with unreliable contractors or builders.”Read More »MEKA Shipping Container Home Pops Up in NY