Shipping Container House By Ross Stevens
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto 
on 04.30.08
all photographs used with permission of Petra Alsbach-Stevens
It is a wall of containers, built against a hill in Wellington, New Zealand, designed and built by Ross Stevens. It uses the spaces between the containers and the hill to expand its living space beyond that limiting interior dimensions of a standard ISO box.
They are not conventional steel containers; with their smooth skins, they may have been "reefers" or refrigerated containers, although there are a number of smooth-skinned types out there.
no, a reefer would have an insulated floor.
clipped-on exterior deck
using the space between the cliff and the house
Stairway
Love the table made from a door.
Inside it is very spacious!
except in the bedroom, where one really sees the limitations of shipping containers.
We will try to follow up with plans and perhaps an interview. Lots more pictures at ::Petra Alsbach-Stevens' Flickr site, via Jetson Green
More on Shipping Containers
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Shipping Container Prefab
When Shipping Container Housing Goes Bad
Shipping Container Funhouse
Shipping Container Houses Get Bamboo Floors
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I remember this house from a tv show. the railings use scrap metal from a metal stamping plant.
if I remember correctly there is also a rainwater collection system that catches the rainwater that runs down the cliff face
I believe this house was featured on a show on HGTV (?). Not 100% sure about the channel, but the program was looking at the 'oddest' houses in the world. -not odd in a negative way, just unusual and interesting. I don't think it's still on, unfortunately, as it was something my kids and I more than happily watched together.
They featured a lot of houses which probably qualify as 'green' because many were built of recycled materials or built to enhance the connection to their setting by being open, made to be part of their environment rather than changing the environment to suit the house, and energy efficient, a few used no infrastructure at all, using no electricity, and collecting water from rain or wells, etc and so on.
Love the idea but having metal walls isn't too cold? Does it have a special heating system or just small electric ones?