The first shipping container house probably cost around zero dollars because someone found an abandoned one in a field, took an angle grinder to it to make windows and a door and set out the welcome mat. Shipping container houses have come a long way. Infinitely cool, and effortlessly modern, even people in the Hamptons are going for that indestructible, DIY aesthetic.
MB Architecture out of Manhattan usually makes what they call the insta_house, a prefab 1,200 square foot house built from four shipping containers. In Amagansett, however, the clients wanted something a little bigger. Called the Amagansett Modular House, this black metal and glass-walled wonder is an 1,800 square foot, four bedroom, three bath house complete with a glass tunnel connecting the two sections of the house.
Instead of the usual four 20-foot containers, this one called for five and half. Stacking the containers on top of one another, removing the top of one and the floor of the other, a huge vertical space was created for the open plan living room, complete with a floor to (second story) ceiling windows. Another container was cut in half and attached to the side of the second floor to build the master suite.
But probably the most impressive part of the whole thing is the fact that it was all prefab. All of it — from the windows to the drywall to the paint — was done off site. Once it was all trucked in, it took two days to hook up to utilities and install. The family who lives there now probably never once saw an angle grinder.
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