This is a 4BR 2 bath 2880 square foot contemporary designed shipping container home we’ve created to add to our shipping container home design concepts. It is made from 5 steel shipping containers. 2 of them form the south wing, and 3 stacked atop each other form the north wing of the home.
The beauty of shipping containers is that they can be stacked and arranged to create a home pretty much however you want it to look. Looking to minimize? Use one container. Want something more extravagant? Use 5, or 6, or more!
Contemporary Container Home Design: 4BR 2 bath 2880 square foot
A key function of this house is the south-facing sloped roof with a huge solar array for the power system of the home. The panels sit flat on the sloped roof, however, the angle is adjustable to maximize the efficiency of capturing sunlight during any time of year.
The living space between the two wings is 16 feet wide by 40 feet long, 640 square feet on each floor, for a total of 1280 square feet of extra living space. The second story floor is connected between and supported by the two ground floor containers, which have been structurally reinforced with steel beams to support the added weight.
The sloped roof is also supported with steel reinforcement.
The total floor space for the entire home is 2880 square feet. The top floor living area has 16-foot vaulted ceilings. The master bedroom is on the second floor and opens out onto the rear balcony.
The solar array consists of 60 250-watt PV solar panels, for a total of 15,000 Watts of electricity! The sharply angled roof is aligned to the southern sky to maximize solar energy capture.
Technically, this number of solar panels is really overkill on the power system, and it’s not cheap at $30k for the solar panels alone before the inverter or any other parts. You only really need about 5000 Watts for a home this size, which means your cost would be around $10,000 for the panels and say $5k for the remaining wiring and equipment.
This is another very simple design, maximizing the space and through simplicity and a minimalist approach with regard to the placement of containers.
Comments, suggestions, and opinions encouraged.
quinner
Thursday 8th of May 2014
Could you please share the Google Sketchup file for this?