What comes to your mind when you first hear the word “shipping containers”?

Is it related to moving cargo or housing units? Well, you might be surprised to learn that in the last years shipping containers have been quite popular with architects and home designers as an alternative type of housing.

There are many people who decided that using a shipping container as an accommodation would be ideal for financial reasons. If you are followers or supporters of the Tiny House movement you will not be surprised by this fact the slightest.

Many people around the world are “revolutionizing” the housing market, by choosing unconventional forms of housing like buying one or two shipping containers and turning them into their dream houses. Of course, they have to spend a great deal of money and time in order to remodel and equip them in order to have all the comforts of a modern home!

However, their choice to turn shipping containers into houses is still less expensive than a house mortgage and they can start their lives relatively debt-free without having to pay the years-long monthly installments to the bank.

In today’s story we will not see the traditional “shipping container” house, but a more futuristic version of it.

This is what happens when you give a bunch of shipping containers to a visionary architect!

London architect and digital artist James Whitaker designed this futurist office back in 2010 for a German advertising agency, but unfortunately, the project didn’t proceed then. However, by the stroke of luck, a film producer saw Whitaker’s design and decided it would look ideal for his desert property just outside California’s Joshua Tree National Park.

Whitaker was so thrilled by the prospect of bringing to life his project that directly accepted the producer’s offer!

And this is how it came to be the Joshua Tree Residence: a futuristic-looking 2,100-square foot property.

According to Whitaker, “The picture was of an office that I’d designed several years ago but had never been built. And so it came to pass that next time the client was in London he got in touch and asked to meet up”.

Although at the first sight the structure might seem a bit cramped, it is actually quite spacious and open, and beautifully minimalistic. The way the containers are positioned and the glass windows found on their end, fill the house with an abundance of natural light.

The Residence has a kitchen, a living room, and three en-suite bedrooms. The architect is also thinking of installing solar panels on the garage’s roof to make the house energy efficient.

As Whitaker explained to CNN, “There’s been a lot of care taken in aligning the internal halls of the containers, so when you go into the house at the start of the weekend and nobody else is there yet you can have all the bedroom doors open and enjoy standing in the middle and looking out into the desert”.

It’s really such a magnificent house that seems like it sprouts directly from the ground itself and gives an even more natural and earthly vibe to the residence. Would you like to live in such a house?

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Source: My Positive Outlooks, Whitaker Studio