5 Amazing Australian Homes made from Shipping Containers

In recent times, Australia has fallen into a country-wide housing crisis – with ridiculous house pricing the average Australian struggles to afford. In the search and analysing of our options shipping container homes have arisen as a cheaper replacement to a traditional family home.

Shipping container based homes have become the attractive and ecofriendly alternative to traditional living options of late. Their availability to repurpose them into beautiful, functional homes, their strength and their price are all factors that make shipping containers the ultimate tools to build with. Let’s have a look at 5 of Australia’s amazing homes made from Shipping Containers for you

1. Beach Box: Buddina
Sunshine Coast, QLD, Australia

Using 3 shipping containers as the primary base blocks and replacing the end doors with fully glazed panels for windows, surrounded by crisp white awnings to protect from the elements; this shipping container home was built around council and neighbourhood controversy.

Made to be a bespoke holiday house, the home uses the space between containers, deck areas and internalised roof to tie all the pieces in together.

Using angles and distinctive modern landscaping, this property won the Queensland Architecture Awards 2014 – selected for the Gabriel Poole Award for Building of the Year, the jury stated that the Beach Box utilises shipping containers to provide a “robust and cost-effective opportunity to re-engage with the beach culture and mixed-use zoning of Buddina”.

2. Shipping Container Home in Graceville
Brisbane, QLD, Australia

After the 2011 floods in Brisbane, Todd and Diana Miller started building a new house – larger, flood resistant and with a separate space for Diana’s art studio. It was looking at options for the studio that the couple came across using shipping containers for building – and sprung the idea to build an entire house from them.

Todd being a builder, and both having built and renovated houses for the previous decade helped give the pair confidence enough to take on a momentous design – a 3 story house using 31 x 20ft steel shipping containers; but the weather didn’t help the build at times, with more than one vicious storm delaying deliveries and breaking windows. But they powered on, collecting mismatched items to try and stay environmentally friendly in the decorating and ended up with a warm, friendly house with loads of character.

3. 2 Story Cronulla Home
Sydney, Australia

Using eight 20 foot containers, and three 40 foot containers, this house in Sydney has three bedrooms, 4 bathrooms and a separate office. This particular house was completed in-factory, delivered to site and then installed – by doing this, the house was fully completed with landscaping in 6 weeks!

4. Crystal’s Palace
New South Wales, Australia

An unconventionally striking home from the materials to the layout, this container home has been built on a sloping block with a shipping container acting as storage and footing for the top structure. Again built in factory and delivered onsite, this family home features three 40ft containers, and one 20ft container creating a frame of sorts, with a conventional build for the section in the middle.

With 3 bedrooms, a laundry, large kitchen, once the containers were installed by the local builder, timber floors were installed and a roof constructed, and a family of 5 moved in!

5. Small is Smart House
Geelong VIC Australia

From the architects Fulton & Salomon comes a tiny sustainable shipping container home which can be placed on virtually any site in Australia. As a fully self contained house, it comes complete to live in, with solar panels, a composting toilet, and a hydroponic green vegetable wall.