Real estate broker Jeff White always wanted to transform shipping containers into affordable housing, so he took action. Laughed at by the first architects he approached, work began on his first concept using a 40′ long, 9’6″ tall and 8′ wide container in the driveway of his Salt Lake City home. After two years of work (planning, groundwork and permits), the shipping containers became a modern 672-square-foot house. “I spent 40 thousand dollars for the lot and then the infrastructure underneath it, getting the sewer, water lines, probably an additional 25 thousand dollars. So you can see where I’m at, the house is still coming in at 55 to 60 thousand dollars,” said White. Continue reading for a video of another beautiful shipping container home in the Redwoods.
Kam Kasravi and Connie Dewitt wanted a modern cabin that wouldn’t disrupt the Redwoods on their property. First they considered prefabs, but quickly realized they wouldn’t fit up the narrow road to their land in the Santa Cruz mountains.
So they convinced their friend, architect David Fenster, to design them a home made from shipping containers. Built from recycled cargo containers hand-picked from the Port of Oakland, Six Oaks was built around the footprint of the land.
The containers were building blocks that were cut and stacked to fit between Redwoods along a steep grade. While the home was assembled in 6 hours, it took nearly a year to finish the interior since so much of it was custom.
The unique materials meant some unique requirements: instead of carpenters, they used welders; a commercial roofer had to be hired, etc.
