Wattle Bank Container Home

In most container homes with more than one box, the containers are all placed together. But what if instead, you placed the containers with a little bit of separation? The Wattle Bank Container Home answers that question with a surprisingly fresh design that uses three shipping containers for three separate spaces in the house.

This small container home sits in the equally small community of Wattle Bank, a few miles north of the coastal town of Inverloch. The area is tucked into a scenic, rural region of southeastern Victoria, Australia known as Gippsland that’s full of lakes, mountains, beaches, and national parks.

Here, you’re surrounded by farms and bushland, though the coastline, hikes, and plenty of interesting places to visit are a short drive away. The home itself is set on a 10-acre parcel of land, half of which belongs to the owners Amy and Richard. The other five acres are owned by Amy’s parents, Mark and Melissa, who have their own home nearby. In a detail that will become more relevant as you continue reading the article, Mark and Melissa own the modular construction company that helped build this container home.

Looking at the home from outside, the last thing on your mind is the floorplan. Instead, you likely notice the general appearance of the landscape and overall structure which has some features you don’t normally find on container homes. To begin with, the front of the home is graced with a massive wooden deck on the left side, plus a large gravel bed with planters and chairs on the right.

The home’s three 20 foot containers are placed parallel to each other but separated by a gap of approximately five feet. Bridging these gaps are perpendicular passageways that completely connect each of the three containers so that you can move between them without exiting the building. It also opens up the future possibility of expansion by adding additional containers and passageways, though nothing is planned.

The roofs of this container home are designed for several purposes. And notice we said roofs because each of the three containers actually has its own roof. 

First, you’ll notice that each roof is raised above the built-in roof of the container underneath, promoting airflow in between these two layers to aid in cooling the structure. Second, each roof is sloped toward the back of the home, where a system of gutters collected the rain runoff. Third, each roof has several solar panels used to generated electricity for the home.

The other thing that’s quite noticeable about the home at first approach is the cladding. There’s no sign of shipping containers here because the entire exterior is clad in Colorbond steel panels. In addition to giving the home a smooth finish, the panels also allow for the addition of exterior insulation outside of the shipping container.

Insulating outside the container helps with condensation without reducing interior space. Another small detail that aids in condensation reduction is using wood-framed windows trimmed with local silvertop ash, which not only looks great against the steel panels but serves as a much better thermal break.

You enter the home from that wooden deck where you step into the first shipping container. Here you’ll find a dining table large enough for six people, plus the modern L-shaped kitchen at the other end of the container.

Throughout this container, and all the others, the aesthetic is the same: Tasmanian oak flooring and plywood walls and ceiling lightly coated with a low-VOC finish. Again, not even a hint of shipping container corrugated metal is found here either. Instead, everything is warm with an almost Scandinavian design. The intentional gaps between the pieces of plywood give the wall a depth and texture that makes you forget its simplicity. It’s very similar to the technique used in the Kangarilla Container Home in South Australia.

About two-thirds of the way towards the back of the container, just before the kitchen begins, you’ll find the first passageway to the next container. From the inside, there’s no indication that the exterior construction has changed, everything appears the same. One side of the passageway has folding doors covering a small pantry and laundry area. It’s a great way to utilize what would otherwise be an empty hallway.

The next, middle shipping container is the one where the family spends most of its time. The front of the container is full of windows and has an L-shape couch built with storage underneath. The other end of the container has his-and-her desks with shelving above. In between is a wood-burning stove used on the coldest days.

One thing to note about the furnishings in the home: except for things like chairs, almost all the furniture is built-in. The owners had their cabinet-makers custom-build all the pieces in the house to not only make everything fit perfectly but also to maximize storage. You’ll see creative space-saving designs in almost every room that were made much easier with built-in furniture. 

Finally, there’s the second passageway to the last container. This passageway has a similar set of doors as the first, though instead of hiding laundry equipment, this one is the couple’s closet. As you pass the closet and look to your left toward the back of the container, there’s a door entering the bathroom.

Despite being a relatively small home, the couple designed a spacious bathroom. They made it a wet room with white subway tile running up the ceiling. A shoulder-height wall separates the shower area from the rest of the roof, otherwise, everything is open.

So what led Amy and Richard to go down this path in the first place? The couple has always enjoyed traveling, often to Richard’s family back in the United Kingdom. And on one of their trips, they came to realize that by living in a smaller home, they would have more time and money to spend doing the things they loved instead of cleaning, maintaining, and earning additional money to pay for a traditional home.

The fact that Amy’s parents had available land and that both Amy, Richard, and Amy’s parents all worked in the building industry certainly helped give them the confidence to pursue container construction. By making use of Amy’s parent’s company’s connections and resources, the couple was able to have the home built in about five months, chipping in when they could on evenings and weekends. And despite substantial costs for the solar system, design fees, septic system, and custom cabinetry, they still kept the overall cost to AUD 145,000 (~ $100,000 USD at the time of the build).