The Wyss Family Container House

Our clients, a young family of 5, approached us asking us to design something bold, unusual, and adventurous.  Additionally, it had to add space for their growing, rambunctious kids, as well as bring their 1960s home into the 21st century.  And they really loved the idea of re-purposing shipping containers.

After analyzing the house and the way the clients lived in it, we proposed a series of minimalist metal boxes to replace their existing, poorly constructed garage.  In it’s place, we designed a multi-level space with a new garage, a guest bedroom, and two multi-purpose spaces which could be used by adults and kids alike for a variety of things over the years.  Within this stacked volume, we stacked two recycled shipping containers and put the more private, messy rooms like bathrooms and a laundry room inside.

Our budget didn’t allow for a complete renovation of the existing house, so we decided to let the existing house remain mostly as-is, and juxtapose it with a strongly contrasting, minimal addition. 

Scope:

Garage and Family Room addition and extensive remodel of a 1950s house on a wooded suburban site on Mercer Island’s south side. The project includes the incorporation of two repurposed shipping containers.

Category:

Remodel

Completion:

2019

Location:

Mercer Island, WA USA

Area:

3200 SF

Architect:

Paul Michael Davis, Tiffany Chow

Structural & Civil:

Mark Leingang, TransOlympic Engineering Inc.

Contractor:

Dick McDonald, Roger Reynolds Karlstrom Associates

Photography:

Mark Woods

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