Coolest shipping container house catches everyone's eye

Jun 07, 2023

Inexpensive housing options hold plenty of appeal, but no-one really wants to sacrifice the cool stuff.

Architect and artist Ty Kelly created this amazing example of a tiny house in a prairie in Montana that's not a compromise. It's made from two shipping containers, and Kelly recently put it on the market for US$125,000 (NZ$169,000).

He tells Stuff there was "a ton of interest". "My realtor said he'd never had his phone ring so much. I think it actually started to wear him out. What I found interesting, was how many people called from afar. There were folks from all over the country (including the East Coast and Los Angeles) who actually considered moving it that far. To me, it seemed very impractical (and expensive) to transport it that distance, but I was open to ideas. In the end, a great woman just down the road about 10 miles ended up with it."

But it's not hard to see the appeal – Kelly says he put a lot of thought into the house, which sold for the asking price.

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"Being an architect, I was always fascinated with shipping containers as a way of building, even before it was a popular thing to do. For the shape and size of house I wanted, containers were the perfect building module. Economy also played into the equation as well as recycling and reuse of material, which was a big component of the project."

Kelly chose the perfect site for his build, prairie land he calls "big sky country". "There are wide open views, with three different mountain ranges in all directions, mes of rolling prairie, blanketed with native grasses, and with zero light pollution, the starry nights are truly unbelievable."

He sited the house so no other properties were in view.

The house itself is made from two ISO shipping containers that were were welded together to form a 65 square-metre modern home with one bedroom and one bathroom. "Two interior walls form a 'T', dividing the space into a great room, bathroom and bedroom," says Kelly. "Most of the finishes, such as the redwood flooring, plywood wall panels and deck planks, were salvaged off site and reused."

The box sits on concrete piers at the corners, disturbing the ground as little as possible and allowing the natural terrain to flow beneath. Three exterior rainscreen walls wrap the perimeter, while the south side is entirely glass, providing views of the Absaroka Mountain Range and taking advantage of passive solar heat gain to combat the harsh Montana winters.

Kelly says he likes that long glass wall best. But the outdoor shower comes a close second. And yes, the architect does have plans for more container houses. "I'd love to build more houses similar to this one. I've imagined a cluster of them with communal, shared, outdoor spaces. I've always wanted to build something in the desert, so that's on the radar if I can find the right piece of property.

"Another venture into foreign territory would be an earth home using eco-blocks, those huge 2'x2'x6' concrete monsters used for barricades and retaining walls."

It's also likely Ty Kelly will blend his love of art into the architecture in different ways. "With the container, I actually wanted to hire a graffiti artist to paint the long blank side of the house, but I decided to save that for another time," he says.