Off Grid Life

Subtitled 'Your Ideal Home in the Middle of Nowhere', this book by Foster Huntington (author of the popular Van Life) is more aimed at the tiny house market but does include plenty of huts and shedlike buildings. It's heavy on images as you'd expect from a photographer and film-maker but still very pleasant. Here's the publisher's blurb:

After spending three years on the road living in a camper van, Foster Huntington continued his unconventional lifestyle by building a two-story treehouse. Foster, like many others, are finding freedom, tranquility, and adventure in living off the grid in unconventional homes.

Perfect for fans of Van Life and Cabin Porn and those who long for a quieter life, Off Grid Life showcases unique dwellings from all around the world. Organized into sections like tree houses, tiny houses, shipping containers, yurts, boathouses, barns, vans, and more, the 250 aspirational photographs feature enviable settings like stunning beaches, dramatic mountains and picturesque forests. Also included are images of fully designed interiors with kitchens and sleeping quarters as well as interviews with solo dwellers, couples, and families who are living this new American dream.

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The Cave Company

Building garden rooms using former shipping containers became very popular half a dozen years ago and Wetherby-based The Cave Company speciailises in doing just that. Obviously made of metal, they come with fully-insulated walls, roofs and flolors, built-in vapour barriers and a de-humidfier. Because they can be easily craned in and out, you can take them with you if you move home. Optional extras include wooden decking, green roof, and sun awnings.

Door and window openings done. Now the hard work starts. pic.twitter.com/zn3dYjmgrl

— thecavecompany (@thecavecompany) July 14, 2018

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Shed Box of Delights: Green roof container garden office

Turning shipping containers into garden offices and buildings was flavour of the month half a dozen years ago and there are some signs that it is on trend again. The Grass Roof Company is among those putting forward some lovely designs, the one above built from two used containers and clad in larch featuring a wood burning stove. The company supplies them straight to site with green roof and habitat walls. Here's what they say about them:

We love used freight containers, they have already spent at least 10 years at sea, they are immensely strong and versatile. A perfect base to fix green roofs and habitat walls. Take the side away and you have a shelter for interpretation, cycle store, outdoor classroom or stage? A truly sustainable building, they can move with you or sell on complete!

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Shed Box of Delights: Crossroads Garden Shed

Every year the 'that's not a shed' cry can be heard on the interwebs when the Shed of the Year shortlistees are drawn up. So here's something to be going on with in the meantime which also falls neatly into our recent looks at shipping container sheds.

The Crossroads Garden Shed is part of a 49-acre development in Calgary with a community garden and around 100 raised planter beds. The shed which stores gardening tools and outdoor furniture designed by 5468796 Architecture which suggested the shed would make an ideal gathering space. It's made out of three shipping containers, Cor-Ten steel sheets in hexagonal shapes, and rusted metal mesh which fit together to give it a pavilion vibe.

Lots more photos of the 'shed' at architectsmagazine.com --------------------------------------------------------

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The return of the shipping container garden office - Part 1

Using shipping containers as garden offices was very popular a few years ago and it seems to be on the way back into favour (see here for a recent example in York). An interesting article on the BBC site by Simon Fry - Boxing clever: The firms based in shipping containers - which concentrates largely on the 50 containers that make up Pop Brixton and Boxpark, both in London. Here's a snippet

Each offers start-up businesses a more affordable way to get a roof over their heads, and the opportunity to rub shoulders with other like-minded firms... In 2015, 2.48 million standard-size 40ft (12m) shipping containers arrived in the UK, but only 2.41 million left again, according to official figures from the Department for Transport. The ones that stay are typically retired from service due to wear and tear, and put up for sale. And if you fancy one as a large garden shed, you can pick one up for about £1,100.

Well worth a read. More on this subject tomorrow. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Container shedworking spaces plan for York

An interesting article on the always well-informed YorkMix site reveals that plans are afoot to add a shedlike 'third place' working space to Piccadilly in York. It forms part of a new 'box park' plan called Spark: York to use shipping containers for shops, cafés, performance spaces and community projects in the city centre.

The plans for 15 containers over two levels come from local entrepreneurs Tom McKenzie, Sam Leach, and Joe Gardham and would be the first of its kind in the region, with free wifi and desk space for members of the public on a drop-in basis, as well as operating as a shared workspace hub for start-ups.

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Cantilevered shipping container garden office

Nice piece on designboom about architect Patrick Bradley's new shipping container office, designed and built in collaboration with Thornton Modular which specialises in turning shipping containers into a range of sizes suitable for working and living in (Bradley's is a TO45 model). Grand Designs fans will have seen their work on an episode aired last year (more details here).

The Brokedown Palace

A perfect post with Christmas coming up, the Brokedown Palace is an online shop selling worldwide from its shedquarters, a wooden cabin on the bank of the River Lea in Hackney Wick, London. Here's what they say about it all:

Everything we stock is inspired by cabin lifestyle, from essential survival kit to décor and clothes. This doesn’t mean it’s only for cabins – we believe you can bring a bit of cabin spirit into any part of your life. Cabin life is about being close to nature and this informs everything we do. 

If you're an ethical shopper, this is very much for you - items are made from, and packaged up in, ecologically friendly materials made in fair labour conditions, and the shop positively supports small businesses and traditional crafts. Indeed, stock is kept in a secure storage unit powered by 100% renewable energy sources.

In terms of shedworking, the cabin is made from FSC accredited slow grown Swedish pine, while the interior is made from reclaimed floorboards from a demolished Edwardian factory. The roof is made from recycled tyres and cardboard. The decking area is made from reused oak sleepers.

And last week they opened a store at the Boxpark pop-up mall in Shoreditch, a shopping mall made entirely of old shipping containers. They are in Unit 24 (see below).

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Sneak preview of George Clarke's Amazing Spaces (video)

On tonight at 8pm on Channel 4. Here's what the production company say about it:

George Clarke's Amazing Spaces sees him travel around the country looking at amazing micro builds and the inspired people undertaking them. With people looking to maximise every inch of space in their homes or gardens, George discovers that size is no object in the world of micro design. He meets the people creating spaces in the unlikeliest of places: from disused toilets to shipping containers, horse boxes to state of the art airstreams. And George is no passive bystander. For just £300 he buys himself a knackered old 1970's caravan, but in just three months he hopes to transform it into the most extraordinary small space you've ever seen. Each episode is clearly themed according to the challenge facing George and his own micro build. From planning laws to maximising space, every programme is packed with jeopardy, ingenuity and wonderfully eccentric characters. The small space revolution is well under way.

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Shipping container garden office

After a huge flurry of interest a couple of years ago in using shipping containers as buildings/building blocks, the excitement seems to have died down a little. However, we rather like this charming design by Shane Peterson who - using 3D Studio Max 2012, Vray and Photoshop - has turned a standard 20′ steel shipping container into a garden office which could be put together off site and then delivered to a home. -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Calling Britain’s small space revolutionaries

Plum Pictures are making a new six-part prime time Channel Four series on micro design and are currently on the search for Britain’s most exciting and innovative small spaces.

Presented by Restoration Man George Clarke, Plum want to hear from anybody who is starting a small space build in the next few weeks or months to follow as part of the series. The projects could be anything from sheds, beach huts, garden rooms, eco builds, shipping containers, house boats, tree houses, as well as small extensions within a house – anything where a small space is transformed into something amazing, cool, quirky or beautiful (such as the first winner of the Shed of the Year competition, pictured above).

George also wants to visit some existing small spaces as part of the series. So if you have created an unusual, inspirational or ingenious small space – including sheds, shipping containers, garden rooms, boat houses, railway carriages and house boats or anything else small but perfectly formed – then please get in touch. Email kirsten@plumpictures.co.uk or phone 020 7184 6764 with contact details and any pictures if you have them.

Used shipping container architect's backyard office (video)

Shipping containers are built to carry huge loads and the refrigerated units are very efficient at climate control. So it's unsurprising that when they're retired from the sea, they're being used as the building blocks for homes and offices.

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Green Roof Shelters

Adding a living roof to your garden office started to become popular a couple of years ago and now is almost a mainstream option offered by garden building suppliers. But essentially you still buy a shed and then decide whether or not to go for a green roof. Now, Green Roof Shelters (whose team includes green roof experts featured previously on Shedworking including Dusty Gedge and John Little) are providing a range of ready-planted shelters which come all done and dusted and ready to crane into position for a variety of uses such as outdoor classrooms, exhibition pavilions and of course shedworking.

The buildings themselves are our old friends recycled shipping containers and optional extras include a rather attractive habitat wall and special bespoke habitats for birds and bats. Everything in the process is as recycled/salvaged/ecofriendly as possible.

Pictured above is an example in situ, the pavilion at The London Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust’s new Rain Garden designed by Nigel Dunnett.
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Container shedworking

This wonderful garden office is the shedworking workplace of music industry executive and artist Debbie Gibbs and built by MB Architecture using recycled shipping containers: the studio is two steel shipping containers on top of a foundation wall with an interior ceiling height of 18'. The first part of the video above deals with Debbie's house and the second her two-storey studio so do keep watching.

Photos at Archdaily

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Shipping container garden office

A nice piece by Ruth Mullen inThe Oregonian focuses on Mike Corvi (who sells luxury leather jackets) who has customised an 8ft x 20ft shipping container into a backyard office. It's a particularly useful article as it goes into some depth about just how the container was turned into something suitable for living and working (e.g. dealing with insulation and condensation issues). So happy is Corvi with the results that he's now planning to set up shop refurbishing containers as a business.Via Tiny House Design

Kitchen Designer expands container-based offices

A year on from when we reported on Mark Hanner's The Kitchen Designer shedworking space - recycled shipping containers - Mark writes with the marvellous news that he's expanding by adding two new containers to the site (his goal is pictured above). Here's what he says:

The centre container is my existing showroom and will remain just that. I'll then have one as an office, and the other will be a gallery room/storage. Thats the plan anyway.

You can follow his progress at his blog here and we'll be checking back too here on Shedworking.
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container-life

With the marvellous strap line 'thinking outside the box, living in it', container-life is a blog focusing on living (and working) in buildings built from shipping containers. Pictured above is an example of Greg La Vardera's marvellous ibu_revolution design using this method of building. Well worth a browse.
Via This Tiny House
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Cinco Camp

A marvellous slideshow at The New York Times (plus accompanying article) focuses on Cinco Camp, Roger Black’s West Texas retreat which is made of five shipping containers on his 3,000-acre ranch. Well worth a browse with cracking photos by James H. Evans.Thanks to Alan Bucknam for the alert

The Box Office

The Box Office is a new step forward in container shedworking: it offers a dozen office/studio spaces built using 32 recycled shipping containers in Providence. It was designed by Joe Haskett, principal at Distill Studio, and developed by truth box. It claims to be super ecofriendly e.g. low-energy light fixtures and daylight harvesting to reduce electrical usage. There's a spiral staircase option so you can multistorey shedwork.Via all over the interwebs including inhabitat

RSPB containerbirdspotting

Landroom has used shipping containers in a rather clever way for its bird hide/classroom complex at the RSPB’s Rainham Marsh site in London: the hide has been built by welding together two 12m-long corten steel containers from China via the Netherlands. Both hide and classroom are lined in softwood with marvellously large windows.
All photos copyright Sue Barr.
Via BDonline where there is much, much more detail. Thanks to Sue Butcher for the alert