Building in the countryside can often raise a few eyebrows, and when architect Patrick Bradley explained his plans to build on a treasured spot on his parents’ farm, he divided family opinion. “They all agreed I could build on a picturesque area with a stream bubbling through it,” says Patrick. “But my idea was for a bold contemporary home made of boxes balanced on top of each other. They thought it was a bit wild and my mother was worried that I was going to ruin her favourite view forever.” But Patrick was confident the house would work. His design is an arrestingly simple one, with the house having two principal faces. For the view from the road, Patrick created a toned-down facade, with one box laid over another in a natural palette that blends with the countryside. But the rear elevation is far more sculptural, with a large statement chimney and a cantilevered first floor, balcony and terrace. Fortunately, the one place where the design didn’t cause concern was in the planning office, which embraced the boldness of Patrick’s scheme. “It’s not as dominant in the landscape as you might think, either, when you compare it to the enormous white bungalows that are the norm around here,” says Patrick.

To help his home fit in with the setting, Patrick turned to agricultural buildings for inspiration. “There are plenty of large barns locally, but your eyes don’t pick them up. Their raw materials and dark colours mean they recede into the countryside rather than stand out,” he says. Consequently, from the start, the property’s cladding was to be in a natural palette, with two distinct materials zoning the private and shared spaces of the house. Downstairs, the sleeping area was to be clad in rust-red Corten steel, with the top floor sheathed in a dark grey, coarse metal mesh.

In addition to this daring design, Patrick’s build route was also far from conventional as he planned to upcycle four shipping containers to create the frame of the house. The containers were a creative solution to a budgetary problem, he explains. “I always design and build with a quantity surveyor, so I know the cost down to the last screw,” he says. “But when we priced up the plans, I just couldn’t afford to progress with the design using a conventional build method. I’d seen shipping containers used before, so I thought why not use them for the structure?”

Containers are enormously strong when stacked conventionally thanks to their load-bearing properties, but Patrick’s plan was to stack them in a cruciform arrangement across the weakest point. This meant a new steel skeleton had to be made for the containers by off-site steelworkers so the weight could be supported centrally.

Once the new steel was in place, it was time to try the containers in their final configuration to see if the structure had the integrity it needed. “This was probably one of the most nerve-wracking experiences of any of the houses I’ve built,” says Patrick. “Thankfully, though, they were as solid as a rock.” While the containers were being transformed off-site, work on the foundations had slowed to a crawl. In addition to being economical, using containers had the advantage of not requiring the deep foundations of a traditional block build, only pad foundations. But during the excavation, the team hit an enormous seam of basalt — a tremendously heavy and strong rock — which really slowed down progress and stretched the budget. “The rock was a nightmare to get out, although we did eventually put it to good use by creating a wall on the site once the build was completed,” adds Patrick.

Finally, the containers were moved to site and stacked in position, and for the first time, the building’s mass became apparent in the landscape and the family’s opinion hit an all-time low as all they could see was giant white boxes piled on top of each other.

However, the project moved on at a speedy pace, with insulating as well as first and second fix quickly following on from one another. “Having the Grand Designs TV crew scheduled to visit at regular intervals was a real catalyst to get us working our socks off,” says Patrick. “And, to be honest, if I had to do it all again, the only thing I would do differently would be to give myself an extra three months to complete the build.”

Despite the frenzied pace, the finished house is everything Patrick dreamed of and more. “I only ever wanted to build a house with enough space for a small family, not some massive place with rooms I never go into, which is what so many people think they need to live in,” he says. As a result, his 115m² of space is open plan, with the living areas upstairs making the most of the views. From the restrained entrance — a simple orange door set within the dark grey metal facade — a corridor takes you past an office/third bedroom before opening out into the open-plan living zone.

Here, the kitchen, backed with the stairs to the lower floor, leads on to a spacious room with dining and seating areas, large windows and a balcony and terrace. Downstairs, a small corridor links bedrooms one and two, a bathroom and utility area. The litmus test for the project was always going to be how the completed house was received locally and, most importantly, the reaction from Patrick’s mother. “She didn’t visit until it was completed,” he says. “But the minute she saw the finished building, she loved it. She’s round every day for tea and to look out at her treasured view.”

While the completed property is testament to Patrick’s vision, the architect is quick to point out that the house is the sum of the skills of the contractors who worked on it. “I designed it, but the credit of creating it has to go to the people who actually built it. The dedication and craftsmanship of everyone involved is what makes it such a success.”

“It’s not until you actually live in a building that you really understand what you have and how it performs as a space,” says Patrick. “To be honest, I just feel so privileged to live here,” he adds. “Every day, I wake up to the view and it just feels as if I’m on holiday.”

Photography by Aidan Monaghan

The post Grand Designs: County Derry shipping container house appeared first on Completehome.

HOUSE Shipping Container

LOCATION Brisbane, Queensland

COST $580,000

DATE COMPLETED July, 2013

In the flood-prone area of Graceville in Brisbane, where homes are typically traditional Queenslanders and new builds are high on stilts, Todd and Diana Miller and their two young daughters were living in a small three-bedroom post-war-era brick home.

Todd is a builder and the family had spent about a decade building homes, selling them and moving on, but it was time to settle into something a little more permanent. Following the devastating 2011 Brisbane floods, a new house had to be sensitive to the possibility that the waters could rise again. The family needed a bigger home and Diana was adamant on having her own space for an art studio as well. “We basically needed more room as a family,” says Todd. “We wanted another living area so that we could have separate entertainment away from the kids … and we needed to do it all on a shoestring budget.”

After looking at the concept of a shipping container as a cheap backyard studio idea for artist Diana, Todd got the “crazy notion of building an entire house out of them, and so the process began. Once we decided to use shipping containers, it got bigger than our initial vision,” says Diana. “The most important factor was to create more space for us but as the project evolved, the design elements and the look of the house became a big priority.”

The scale of the house grew in size and Todd’s innovative concept led to plans for a three-level home made from 31, 20ft steel shipping containers. The steel structure means the ground level can be flood-proof, and at just less than $4000 per container, it’s certainly a cost-effective building solution. Even more so when you consider that for that price you essentially get a structure that includes walls, floor and ceiling. It was an idea that ticked all the boxes and Todd is the kind of guy who was only spurred on harder by people who weren’t sure it would work.

“Todd loves a challenge so he really just wanted to do it to prove to the world it could be done,” says Diana. Constructing such a unique build was daunting though, and Todd himself was never quite sure if his plans would work. Bringing the concept to life was definitely a challenge. Fortunately for Todd, his careful planning, dedication and commitment meant this fascinating project succeeded, though not without its hitches; the weather for one was not on their side. Todd’s original plans were to complete the house in an incredible 16 weeks but the weather had other ideas. A considerable downpour at the start of the build slowed the project progression down. Things were looking back on track when the 10 containers for the flood-proof ground floor were laid in place in just four hours, followed by the next level’s 11 containers, craned in two weeks later. At eight weeks the entire three levels were in place and made watertight.

Another vicious storm hit the unfinished house, sending roof panels flying into trees and doing damage to windows. It’s no surprise the continuous bad luck with weather dampened their motivation levels at times.

Once each level of shipping containers was stacked, Todd used an angle grinder to cut away huge panels of steel to create openings, joining the containers and forming rooms and voids. As the build took place, the design and layout of the home changed, with rooms evolving and new spaces taking in the spectacular views created. One of the big considerations of the design was that the size of each container was locked in, so that the home could only increase in increments of 20 feet. “It was an entirely new way of building and designing for Todd,” says Diana. “He had to learn on the fly about how to put it all together as this sort of build had never been done on this scale in Australia, if not the world.”

The family spends most of their time in on the second levels, which is open plan and features the kitchen, dining and living area. “Our favourite feature is the massive raw-steel i-beams that span the ceiling of the living space and the double- and triple-height void as you come up the stairs,” say the couple.

Prior to the new build, Todd made a point of salvaging building materials that would have otherwise ended up in landfill. Looking at the eclectic mix of materials inside the house, his knack for creative design using a range of materials is clear — and the result is stunning. “Mismeasured or wrongly ordered windows, timber, panelling and lighting were all brought home and stored in our garage and around the home — yes, our house looked like a tip!” says Diana.

This has not only added to the unique style of the home, but has greatly reduced the overall cost while being good for the environment. “The entire vision behind the container home was building something cheaper than a conventional build, out of sustainable, recycled and upcycled materials,” says Diana.

Creative re-use of materials like this has not only added to the unique style of the home, but has greatly reduced the overall cost of the project, while also being good for the environment. “The entire vision behind the container home was building something cheaper than a conventional build, out of sustainable, recycled and upcycled materials,” says Diana.

The intention of the house was never to hide its shipping container roots, however with so much hard, cold steel it was important to bring in other elements to create a home. The handmade garage and front doors were created by the family out of individually cut cedar offcuts to “warm up the facade”. The same idea of warmth was applied to the interiors, with timber flooring used on the top two storeys. “We wanted to create an industrial yet homely atmosphere, which I think we have achieved,” says Diana.

The carefully considered interiors and creative overall design of this project has resulted in a truly individual house that functions beautifully and has warmth and character too, ensuring that what is essentially a stack of steel boxes feels like a real home.

Project details:

Builder & architect Todd Miller, Zieglerbuild

Structure

Container Gateway Containers — Brian
Steel Mayfair Steel
Facades Metro Facades
Pool Rogers Pools

Fixtures and fittings

Windows/doors Trend Windows and Doors
Stone/tile studio Stone and Tile Studio
Tiling Compass Tiling

Furniture and furnishings

Carpet Choices Flooring
Commercial interiors Danny, NWCI
Interior/blinds Concept Interiors
Timber Wayne Norman Timbers
Timber flooring Jasmin Sehic Timber Flooring
Interior design Marina Hirst Interiors

Services

Crane lift Logistics Cranes
Demolition Arties Demolition
Electrician Bruce Green Electrical Services
Graffiti Wade/lucks Graffiti
Landscaping Cruice Creations Landscaping
Micro piling PCA Contracting
Painting Usher and Sons Painting
Plumbing JRK Plumbing
Roofing Classico Roofing
Waterproofing Superseal Group

Written by Emma Wheaton

Photography by Christopher Frederick Jones

Originally from Grand Designs Australia magazine Volume 3 Issue 4

The post Grand Designs Australia: Shipping container appeared first on Completehome.

This plant-filled show garden amply demonstrated how “leftover” spaces in a city can be transformed into attractive and functional green pockets. Aptly named Left Overs, the Ian Barker Gardens creation featured a converted shipping container that functioned as a pop-up cafe, which, in a real-world setting, could work as either a temporary or permanent commercial installation or as an unusual outdoor room in a large backyard.

The container-cafe opened out onto paved areas, small groups of seating and lawn, all of which were surrounded by a cornucopia of plants to create an inviting place for people to meet and socialise.

Left Overs, which won a Silver Show Garden Award at this year’s Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show, featured a highly naturalistic perennial planting scheme to show new ways of using plants in an urban context. The goal of the planting, which included Echinacea purpurea ‘Alba’, Helenium ‘Dark Beauty’, Cosmos ‘Chocoholic’, Achillea ‘Terracotta’ and Geum ‘Blazing Sunset’, was to make the garden feel like an urban oasis where people could soak in nature, even if they were in the midst of a bustling and fast-paced city.

“With naturalistic perennial planting becoming more popular due to the way it encourages people to make an emotional connection to nature, many home gardeners are beginning to ask, ‘How can we achieve this look in our own backyards?’. This is not surprising, after all, who wouldn’t want their own personal oasis to escape the stresses of everyday life,” says Sally Plottel, marketing manager at Ian Barker Gardens.

“Naturalistic planting can be adapted for any sized garden, from a large rural property to a suburban backyard – even a small courtyard or balcony. It is not only beautiful to look at, bringing enjoyment and satisfaction as the garden evolves over the seasons, but it is also relatively low maintenance.

“There are various systems of planting design that can be employed to achieve the overall effect,” continues Sally, “such as intermingled, matrix and scatter planting. There is also the ‘planting by numbers’ method. For example, in our 2014 show garden, Left Overs, we used a mixture of intermingled, matrix and scatter planting to produce the end result.”

And by using a converted shipping container as the shell for the cafe, Ian Barker Gardens showed how found or unwanted objects and materials can be recycled and integrated into the design of a new space. Creating a new green pocket in a city – or creating a backyard for that matter – doesn’t have to be about completely transforming a space. It can be about working with what is already there, reintroducing what existed in the past and combining this with new design elements.

This garden also showed how a naturalistic perennial planting palette can complement and enhance any style of garden or structure. Explains Sally: “It’s a good idea to start with a key plant that will inspire the rest of the colours in your garden and establish a cohesive palette. In our garden Left Overs, the key plant was Coreopsis ‘Rum Punch’, which starts off yellow in the centre and graduates to burgundy on the outer edges. From there, we chose plants that complemented these colours, with the overall palette becoming warm and autumnal. Don’t overthink your colour choices, simply look to nature. It will tell you what colours work together in harmony.”

Words: Karen Booth Photos: Patrick Redmond

Originally from Backyard & Garden design ideas yearbook issue 12.3

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We all know that recycling is important. Reuse your plastic bags, keep energy consumption to a minimum and place your glass bottles in the correct recycling bin. But what about recycling on a larger scale? Recycling for businesses, for example, or recycling in construction? Grand Designs Australia has always supported projects that embrace eco-friendly fundamentals, which is why this recently completed guesthouse in the US state of Texas caught our eye.

“The emphasis was on sustainable strategies,” explains Jim Poteet of Poteet Architects, mastermind behind this compact, but environmental, design. “Of first and foremost importance was the recycling of a ‘one-way’ container for new and permanent use. The planted roof is above the container top, providing shade and air-flow to reduce heat gain, and the interior is insulated with spray foam then lined with bamboo plywood, which is as equally appropriate for the floor as it is for the walls. The grey water from the sink and shower is captured for roof irrigation and the WC is a composting toilet.”

Environmental considerations stretch still further into the green zone. For example, the container floats on a foundation of recycled telephone poles and the deck is made from HVAC equipment pads, which are recycled drink bottles set in a steel frame. Further still, the exterior light fixtures are blades from a tractor disc plough, which draws on the location of south Texas as these ploughs are a common sight in this area.

The guesthouse is an artistic project in its own right. The final product doubles as an art studio for the two young daughters of the homeowners, but throughout the process, it was also an artistic experiment for the architects involved. Although Poteet Architects does a lot of work that repurposes existing industrial buildings for new uses, it had never worked with a container before, and the question of whether the same process and logic could be applied to an industrial artefact was raised. In this sense, the project was a type of art experiment. With it came the added opportunity to explore a material that isn’t commonly used in the US: steel. “We may never have the opportunity to build a steel dwelling in our careers,” explains Jim. “Therefore we see this project as our best chance to pay homage to one of our heroes, Australian architect, Glenn Murcutt.”

The guesthouse is special for many reasons, but one of the most striking is its ability to relate to the surrounding landscape. Its conception originates in the homeowner’s desire to experiment with shipping containers, and while the family house on the site is a former small warehouse, the container is the only other industrial presence. Greenery surrounds the guesthouse and even seems to grow from it. The rooftop is covered by a garden, and wire-mesh panels to the rear will eventually be covered in evergreen vines, allowing the container to meld with the natural beauty that grows around it.

“Since many other small houses have been created from containers, we have been left wondering why this particular project has proved so popular and has been so lauded,” says Jim. “Our answer is that, although we altered almost every part of this object, we did it in a way that deliberately calls attention to itself, so that the container reads as a container and stylish dwelling simultaneously. The container is not lost in the modifications.”

Essentially, the guesthouse container is a success story. It embraces its fundamental properties as well as the nature that surrounds it. It isn’t a large space, but offers a number of different functions — guesthouse, art space or garden retreat to name a few. And lastly, it shows how beautiful recycling can be — both aesthetically and environmentally.

Container guesthouse details:

•  The Container guesthouse is not a large space but can be used for many different purposes, such as a guesthouse, art space or garden retreat.
• Poteet Architects did not draw attention away from the fact that this is a recycled container, rather it celebrated it, which sets this project apart from other projects that use recycled containers.
• Environmentally friendly elements infiltrate many levels of this design, including the rooftop garden, which helps to reduce heat from the sun and increase air-flow in the interior.
• The floor and walls are lined with bamboo plywood — a very sustainable option, as bamboo is a fast-growing, renewable resource.
• The guesthouse relates beautifully to the outside world through drawing it in via large glass windows and doors.
• The guesthouse features a composting toilet and utilises all grey water from the shower and sink to irrigate the rooftop garden.

By Alexandra Longstaff
Photography by Chris Cooper
From Grand Designs Australia magazine Vol.2 No. 3

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