Containers of Hope

Containers of Hope is one of the most recognizable shipping container houses ever built, despite (or maybe because of) its small size and low cost. The home exemplifies what containers homes represent for many people: an affordable home that is architecturally unique and incredibly livable. And thanks to its innovative application of container construction, it’s won international acclaim.

The Peralta family owned a piece of property about 20 minutes outside of the capital of Costa Rica, San Jose, where they enjoyed riding their horses and relaxing in the natural landscape. They wanted a home to take advantage of the land but had a fairly tight budget. However, they were willing to do a lot of the construction work themselves.

Through their designer’s help and vision, what resulted is the trend-setting Containers of Hope house. It was one of the first container homes to successfully execute the now commonplace arrangement of having two parallel containers separated by an enclosed gap. While the two containers are parallel, they are slightly offset from each other length-wise to give more form to the building.

One quick note on the size of this container house before we continue. While many sources credit Containers of Hope with about 1076 square feet of space, our analysis of the plans and photos puts the number closer to 900 square feet. The difference may be due to a 3rd container, barely seen to the side in some of the photos, that is possibly used as storage but not included as part of the house.

A good place to start our study of this home is the foundation. Sixteen concrete pilings were used to lift this home off the ground while giving it a secure attachment to the earth. This serves two purposes: first, it ensures air can circulate under the containers for maximum ventilation, and second, it reduces the home’s footprint on and disturbance of the land.

On top of the foundation are the two containers themselves, separated by about five feet of space. As you can see in the floorplans, this additional space is used for the home’s entrance, greater width for the living room, and even a partial hallway. This is due to much of the container walls being removed in this section of the house to create a more open area.

But what to do with those huge pieces of corrugated metal that were cut out? Use them for the roof, of course! The ceiling in this center section of the home is raised, framed on both sides with clerestory windows, and topped with the excess metal from the container cutouts. A smart and innovative reuse.

Those clerestory windows on the raised center section deserve more than a passing remark, though. In addition to cascading sunlight throughout the interior of the house, their ability to open and close gives them a bit of a wind catcher or solar chimney effect. This helps ventilate the air in and out of the house, making this home comfortable to live in without the air conditioner most of the time!

There are plenty of aluminum-framed windows throughout the rest of the house as well, most of them spanning from floor to ceiling. Together with the elevated ceiling in the center of the home, they really help make the space feel larger than it is. And it embodies something the homeowners realized through the design process: the size of their home wasn’t what made them happy, it was the location.

Still, the inside of the home is very nice, outfitted in a thoughtful way, and arranged to take maximum advantage of the somewhat small space. Wooden floors, white walls, and modern fixtures and furnishings all make this home seem much more expensive than it was. Thanks to the efforts of the homeowners in the construction process and their desire to remain debt-free, they kept the cost down to $40,000!