Located in San Jose, Costa Rica this container house is the result of a close collaboration between a very good local architect and his clients, who went on to construct the building themselves. The 1,000 square foot home is composed of two 40-foot used shipping containers set together with a raised mid section and clerestory windows.

The young couple dreamed of living in their own home 20 minutes outside of the city, where they could enjoy the natural landscape with their horses. They made the bold choice of exploring with their architect the possibility of creating an inexpensive shipping container home that allowed them to live the life they always dreamed of and be debt free. One of the important goals for the architect was to provide customers with the spectacular views, the sunset, the sunrise, and overall create a feeling of home and comfort.

The final cost of the house ($40,000) is lower than the cost of social housing provided for the poor in Costa Rica. Perhaps this project begins to expose the importance of design as a tool to provide beauty and comfort with a very low budget in the 21st century, whilst using creativity to not only redefine a scrap material such as a used shipping container, but perhaps to show to the world that they are viable, low cost, passive alternatives of temperature control to adapt to a very intense tropical climate. A shipping container is a versatile alternative to the old outdated concrete buildings.