GFA 250 m², 125.000 USD, 2 storeys
Design: Mattia Malavenda
Client: AC-CA

The container vacation house is an international competition project sponsorized by AC-CA to explore the possibilities of re-using shipping containers for hospitality use and the potentialities of new formal interactions with modern Architecture.

The project site is on top of the seacliffed hill overlooking the famous beach of Bondi in Sydney and the open Pacific Ocean.

Starting from the observation of the urban morphology in which is evident the regular rhythm of the buildings, rather long and narrow and sheering toward the sea, the first operation of the desing is to define a continuity and a break on this rule. 
 

The house is basically an assemblage of containers with standard dimensions of 6 or 12 m long, 2,4 m wide and 2,9 m high.

The first two container blocks are disposed parallel to the existing series of buildings, then the disposition of the other container blocks are shifted and rotated in a way to realize a sort of courtyard in the center of the house, while at the first floor a couple of containers, forming the master bedroom block, follow the orientation of the most scenic views, to Bondi beach, to the other cape and to the open ocean.

This block is designed overhanged similar to the nearby seacliff.

The inner landscaped courtyard extends and became a terrace of different floor materials ending with an infinity-pool that appears to merge with the ocean.

The supporting structure of the building is clearly determined by each container but with the addition of structural supporting elements for the staircase, for the garden roof/terrace at the first floor and for the sloped photovoltaic roof.

In the north facade, thermal insulation is realized externally to the container, this to avoid overheating and to maximize the space inside the container. 

For the other orientations, the insulation layer of the enclosures are provided internally so that the corten steel corrugated walls of the containers, painted in slightly glossy white, are almost always visible from the exterior.