Shipping containers repurposed for off-grid home in South Africa

Who doesn’t love a good shipping-container home? Here’s a new one for your container crush list: Cliff House is a 100 percent off-the-grid abode largely built with recycled materials.

A pair of old shipping containers makes up the bulk of the 1,400-square-foot structure, sitting atop a steel frame (whose components were transported to the site inside of the shipping containers, natch).

The house was designed by the shipping-container-architecture mavens at Architecture for A Change (A4AC) in Johannesburg, the same firm that designed a set of rad shipping-container banks. But Cliff House utilizes more than secondhand transport containers. The floors are made of recycled wine corks and repurposed plastic bottles were used for insulation in the walls.

The home is powered by solar panels and gets its water from a well on the property. Strategically placed windows let in enough light to keep the power off during the day, and natural ventilation eliminates the need for an air conditioner. The homeowners even cook with bottled gas.

Via: Inhabitat