This is “Containers of Hope,” a 1,000 square foot home built with $40,000 US.
The couple, Gabriela Calvo and Marco Peralta, dreamed of living 20 minutes from the city, a little away from the bustle, but close enough to enjoy all the benefits of downtown San José, Costa Rica.
A container house has some flexibility in the choice of land, which helped the couple to obtain the life they had dreamed of and, most importantly, affordable.
The designer of this shipping container house is Benjamin Garcia Saxe, who does a number of square-style residential buildings. They are filled with light and color, despite being so linear.
He also makes extensive and interesting use of wood and wood products in his designs.
“It was important for me to provide them with the sunrise, the sunset, the spectacular views, and overall try and create a feeling of comfort and home<” said Saxe. “A roof between the two containers, made from the scrap pieces of metal taken to make the windows, not only creates an internal sensation of openness but also provides a cross ventilation which is surprisingly sufficient enough to never have to turn the air conditioning on.
“Perhaps this project begins to expose the importance of design as a tool to provide beauty and comfort with a very low budget in the 21st century, whilst using creativity to not only redefine a scrap material such a disused shipping container, but perhaps to even show that there are viable, low cost, passive alternatives of temperature control to adapt to a very intense tropical climate.
“Already this proposal has began to spark a great deal of interest and could become one alternative to solve the issue of disposing of disregarded shipping containers in developing countries, as well as begin to solve the large gap which first time buyers encounter when purchasing a home.”
Architect:Benjamin Garcia Saxe. Photo:Andres Garcia Lachner. For more of his work, find him in our prefab house and modular home directories.
