Cargotecture For Micro Lots

Brooklyn-based couple Michele Bertomen and David Boyle have built a one-family house out of shipping containers on a very small plot in their neighborhood Williamsburg. Using containers as a building material is not something particularly new, as cargotecture has taken a massive rise over the past years. This single-family house, however, takes it to the next level. It’s well-integrated in the existing urban context, looks good and brings in a solution for small plot-building.

After Bertomen and Boyle had bought the 6×12 meters sized lot, that had been empty for 60 years, they had to come up with solutions to build a fitting house. Building using traditional methods and materials would have been really expensive as the small lot, situated between other buildings, would made the production process very complex. That’s where the container solution came in.

For only $50,000 a complete house was built out of five shipping containers. Besides from getting the right permits, which lasted ten months, construction went very fast. In the morning there was only an empty lot, say Bertomen and Boyle, but before lunch the complete house was already built. The owners are really happy with their new house and can’t believe that this is the first house in the States made out of shipping containers. Besides the fact that building with recycled shipping containers is cheap and fast, their house is also incredibly strong and even earthquake-prove, explain the owners in this interview.

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