The Container House commissioned by RSDA offers wild refuge in the Aravalli hills near Udaipur
Building with shipping containers is gaining traction these days as they are seen as an eco-friendly & affordable alternative to cemented homes, Gurgaon based Rakhee Shobhit Design Associates has designed eco friendly residential units having woven bamboo roofs and decked wooden terraces at a farmland near Udaipur using shipping containers.
The Container House was commissioned during the pandemic as a countryside escape for the client and his family, who wished to leave the city during the pandemic to feel closer to nature.
Following the client’s briefing, RSDA refurbished old shipping containers to create a series of bright living spaces that would provide an “escape from reality” with minimal impact on the landscape.
Become a Premium Member to access our exclusive contents: https://authindia.com/premium-community-membership/ “According to the designers, “The Container House is distinguished from conventional residential design ideas, instead, it employs industrial materials as the exoskeleton to create a homely, cosy setting with a spatial dialogue between the interiors and the surroundings.”
“As an attempt to be mindful of resource consumption and ecology in a highly modernise world, this distinctive dwelling redefines consumption in real estate by being made up entirely of shipping containers,” elucidates the studio.
The Container House has two structures namely Champa and Chameli as a tribute to the family’s two dogs – which are erected at the farther ends of the site to provide each with a sense of privacy.
The larger of the two units is created using five containers of eight by 20 feet. The smaller Chameli is created by combining two containers measuring eight by 40 feet.
The ceiling of both units are designed with woven bamboo roofs and decked wooden terraces to stave off the sun. The units are elevated and structurally reinforced and insulated above the ground to prevent the risk of flooding or corrosion.Their exteriors were finished in green to blend in with the surrounding landscape.
In Champa, a more traditional layout sees the bedroom, living room, kitchen and a small gym separated by wooden partition walls. For the smaller Chameli unit, RSDA created a more open layout with a living area on one side with the use of expansive glass walls framed with insulated aluminiums and a bedroom and bathroom on the other, separated by a kitchen with a suspended fireplace.
It may look like a mark of hipster modernity in the west as the shipping containers are often used as a way of building quickly and economically but it certainly puts abandoned shipping containers to use by integrating other reclaimed materials.
Photographs by Andre J. Fanthome, Naughts & Crosses
