Written by Preston Koerner

Using seven recycled shipping containers, architect Bernard Morin and wife Joyce Labelle built this contemporary residence in St. Adele, Quebec.  The home is the first of many to come for their new company, Maison Idekit, which will help homeowners turn containers into architecturally unique, and inexpensive, homes.  The company has two more residential projects set to break ground in the next couple months using a total of twelve container modules.

IDEKIT's first home is 3,000 square feet with four-bedrooms.  It cost about $175,000 to build and turns container design on its head.  Rather than feature the exposed containers on the exterior, the containers are exposed on the inside -- you can even see serial numbers, dents, and corrugated detail in several places throughout the home.  On the outside, the home has five inches of insulation that is topped by brown wood siding.