Hill Sustainable Prefab Container House in Texas by Jim Poteet

Home » Prefab House » Hill Sustainable Prefab Container House in Texas by Jim Poteet

Stacey Hill lives in a San Antonio artists’ community who recently asked architect Jim Poteet to build her a unique dwelling architecture. Jim then grabbed an empty steel shipping container, turning it into a playhouse, a garden retreat and a guesthouse. As a dwelling space, Jim asked to retain the square footage portion as a gardenshed and the rest serve as the living space.

The empty container itself measures a narrow and long 8 by 40 feet. In the interior, Jim added floor-to-ceiling glass doors and windows, heating and air-conditioning, a green roof, bamboo flooring and wallcovering, a small sink and shower and a composting toilet, and placed the structure on a base made from recycled telephone poles.

Light is the main element to create a light and wide atmosphere inside a small container space, thus a large steel-and-glass lift-and-slide window wall are added, replacing the steel wall. Outside, the porch allows Stacy to sit and relax, admiring her garden.

A sustainable feature is also added to this architecture. Jon Ahrens of Madrone Landscaping, who layed out the plantings around the container, implemented a green roof on a drip watering system. The cantilevered overhang at rear is planted with cacti.

“Stacey hopes that we can use this as a prototype for a development of artists’ studios someday—we talked about maybe siting several of them together, like an old mobile home park.” The steel sculpture is by San Antonio artist George Shroeder. Photography by Chris Cooper. Via

Related items

• Modular Cottages Architecture Design in Yokohama – Bayside Marina Hotel by Yasutaka Yoshimura Architecture
• Villa 1 Eco Friendly Design in Netherland by Powerhouse Company
• San Francisco Bay Modern House Design – Garay Residence in California by Swatt | Miers Architects
• Elevated House Structure Oakpass Residence in Beverly Hills, California by Heusch Architecture
• Minimalist House with Outdoor Lifestyle in Montauk, New York by Bates Masi + Architects

Woodworking is a piece of cake …

With tons of blueprints (over 16,000!) for different furniture designs and outdoor woodwork projectsyou can have a great insight into how to build different things with wood. In it, they tell you about wood, how to design projects, the detailed photographs, patterns, blueprints, materials list and step by step instructions on how to put build them.

The second part shows you the different tools and how to use them, and a complete guide to woodwork carpentry. And the color photographs and drawings are beautiful and show a lot of detail.