PV14 Construction Tour: Shipping Container Architecture

On March 28th, the AIA Dallas Small Firms Roundtable and Committee on the Environment hosted a construction tour of the PV14 House. Matt Mooney, an architect at Corgan, described this house as a dream idea - something he always wanted to do.  Matt and his designer, Michael Gooden, gave an in-depth presentation on the design and construction of the unique home. One of the main points of discussion was how shipping containers are not sitting around waiting for designers to reuse them - they are actually beat up during their life as an authentic shipping container. Because of that, they were not a viable option for Matt and his house project, and he decided to purchase new shipping containers from China. However, when you make such a purchase, they don’t tie them up with a pretty bow and drop them on your door step. They actually use them to ship things from China to the US, and THEN they are yours.

The house is utilizes very industrial or raw materials and finishes, with concrete block, welded steel handrails and un-painted shipping containers. Also, I should note that they do not call them shipping containers - they are prefabricated Steel Modules. The connections and details of the home all appear very simple, but the view of White Rock Lake and downtown Dallas from the roof top deck or any of the many outdoor decks is quite spectacular.  The roof deck serves as a solar screen to protect the single-ply membrane roof and reduces the energy consumption and cost of the home. The house has low flow plumbing fixtures and has both closed and open cell spray-on insulation.  While they are not planning to seek any green certifications for the house, they are still doing their due diligence to meet many of the goals of sustainable design.

You can check out more images and get updates at their website: http://pv14house.com/.