Inside an NYC Townhouse Made From 18 Shipping Containers | Unique Spaces | Architectural Digest

[Music] sustainability in architecture is typically thought of as the energy consumption of a building after it's built for us sustainability instead is about the way that you actually build the building when we first started using the shipping container about 30 years ago there was a lot of stigma attached to it and since then the shipping container and prefabrication have gained much more respect we just respond creatively to what Humanity pushes aside and that's why when we designed this house we wanted to use 18 shipping containers to push this object to another level I always hope

that that's the biggest Legacy that we can leave the idea that one can create something very exciting like this house out of something very humble like this 18 old containers that we got out in a yard in New Jersey it's a way to really understand that our creative potential is [Music] giant I'm jph perano adaa we are the founders of lotch the architecture Studio the building looks as if it was emerging From The Underground a quarter of the house is really cing over the slope to the garage and to the main entrance as you can

see so it creates a very Dynamic corner all the cuts that you see were all done off site and then transported one container at a time here and assembled within 3 days in cutting the stack of containers diagonally we reused all the pieces that we took out from one side onto the other side to complete the decks this was a way to create this continuous form and of course also a way to use the container as much as possible for these facade this is the side with the doors of the shipping container so you can

see all the features of the bars with the locks and it's a much more articulated side of the container and creates a very vibrating type of facade we were very excited and uh of course also nervous about how the assemblage was going to go in this very busy Corner as we can see so it's really really fantastic to see how this thing went up literally like a Lego toy in a matter of 3 days we grew up in the same neighborhood met on the bus in Naples when we were 14 on our in high school

we didn't really become very close until the very end of architecture school we traveled together for a couple of months which was kind of like a very immediate C whole shower test because we had only seen each other socially and suddenly we were basically living together we kind of started noticing all the stuff that we don't want to see the antenna the duct the air conditioning through your window all things that we pretend are not there but they're there very much and they are an inspiration to us so we started taking a lot of pictures

of these things we called it the urban scan and it's still an ongoing thing it's been 30 plus years that we've been taking pictures of this stuff and it's really the base of what lch is all about we're in the main space of the house now which is one flight up from the entry level obviously shipping containers are not meant to be lived in so there's a real effort in understanding how to transform them this is the cut that we did in these containers to combine them and multiply the space and this is the remaining

part of the corrugated wall of the container which of course acts as a structure in the other direction also the containers are joined wherever you see this which is a seill they connects the two containers so this floor is three containers wide by two container long so it's six containers basically the floors that you see here these are the original floors of the container the wood part is a species of hardwood plywood floor called apitong from Indonesia that is used for the production of shipping containers the metal bits that you see of the floor basically

corresponds to the point where a truck would connect is basically the hitch the outer walls are all insulated the insulation is contained between the outer corrugation and the inside wall you can see actually the section of the wall right that whole entire 6 seven Ines of thickness there it's all the insulation that goes on the perimeter walls the house was originally designed for a family of four so about 3 years ago the house was sold to a new owner single man Jonathan who obviously utilizes the house in a very different way when the house was

sold we understood why they were letting it go but there was something that was slightly sad for us I have to say that coming back here and seeing how Jonathan is occupying the house is very exciting the architecture of the house has not changed at all a lot of the finishes and colors have changed [Music] the kitchen is completely a stainless steel construction from a company that we've used for 20 years to build all our kitchens they do kitchens for restaurants and of course for this house it was even more fitting since the owners where

restur erss themselves the idea of this big stainless kitchen made so much sense for us like it's very utilitarian it's very efficient it's also somewhat theatrical right because it's the end of the entire open space of the house it's really wonderful to see you know all the activity back here because of this beautiful wood floor from the beginning we thought it would be nice to think about mirroring them and also enclosing the the ceiling uh the ceiling is also a way to insulate from one level to the next above all of this is insulation and

the finished material is Luan which is a fairly simple and basic wood but a nice counterpart also in terms of color to the apitong on the ground the layout of the furniture is still the same it's just that the furniture itself has changed we always thought we exactly we always thought of a very long table here for big dinner parties and a linear lighting coming from the ceiling and it's interesting to see how Jonathan is transformed it from a decorative and from a artistic point of view this is the living room proper the sitting room

Jonathan did an amazing job refurnishing the fireplace is a very interesting story number one because it's the last wood burning fireplace to be permitted in New York City it used to be this color which is a silver the other important thing to say about the fire place that of course the owners not only being restaurant but owning one of the most famous barbecue places in New York the joke was always that they wanted to be able to cook an entire Pig and that's why this is a very wide fireplace it wasn't a joke it wasn't

a joke exactly it wasn't a joke it was actual the requirement was I want to be able to put a a pig inside the fireplace yes and there we go the the furniture just feels like you want to take a nap right here I mean you want to take a nap here but it's even better to take even too better to take a nap over there exactly on this land so this is possibly the most interesting room in the house also the shape of this room comes from having cut the containers on the underside as

we saw on the outside to go down to the entrance of the house so immediately when we saw this space in our computers we said okay this is a home theater I love these pillows I want to come here I want to be invited to watch a movie because they're super comfortable there are three panels that allow you to close the room completely on this side and then darkening Shutters on the other side so that this is really working as a home theater [Music] so here we are in the primary bedroom there is at the

very top floor so let's say three and a half floors of the sidewalk we basically decided to not just have the ceiling in wood this is still the luon but also the entire back wall is also covered with the luon and as you can see the KingSize bed head is insect into this wall in this Niche also the projector with the screen that covers the window at night so that you can watch TV and film the shower is very fun and kind of over the top because the idea that one could have this big shower

looking out where again in brookin but at the same time is incredibly private because it's very much within the inner world of the house I think that the open shower is very much connected also to these request from the original owner of these two separate bathrooms right they really wanted two separate spaces with their own things and their own privacy so on the big wood wall there are these doors with the long piano inch that we love that bring to the powder room and then there's a back door that gives access to the walk-in closet

at the very end and then this is the symmetrical the second powder room here on the other side with the same layout and the same secret door to the walk-in closet there is one continuous closet although this is a section for the one person and here is the shared part for shoes and everything and it's interesting to notice that the top windows that we saw from the outside are actually the windows of these long walk-in closet and uh here is we are in the other powder room now exiting again towards the [Music] bedroom now we

are in the middle floor so to speak between the living room floor and the primary bedroom floor This was meant to be a flexible space for the kids and now Jonathan is using it as mainly as a studio and from the studio you can go this way to the guest room areas right here we are still on the second floor these are the guest rooms each one is the width of one container originally these were uh the one bedroom slash two bedroom for the twins because the original owners at twins they were designed with the

idea that they could have a single bedroom when they were smaller and then eventually this could be divided to create really two separate spaces that's why there are also two doors here the idea that these could be closed when they were ready to be a little bit more [Music] separate we're now back on the ground floor on the exterior in the ground floor Terrace right off of the living room and the kitchen and of course the idea was because every floor has a Terrace we wanted to connect all of them to be able to throw

a party where you have people on every floor there was also the uh fantasy of projecting movies on that wall and therefore the all the exterior spaces could become sort of a of a Theater from here you can take the stair to go up we should go this again is the Terrace of the middle floor so the extension of the indoor office and then from this floor on the trail is actually occupied by the solar panels it was very important for us to uh take advantage of these uh long diagonal surfaces perfectly exposed to the

sun here we are at the level of the primary bedroom and up here is the most fun this is the smallest space but it's more of a viewpoint because from up here you can really see all of Williamsburg Green Point no you can see downtown I mean and you can see you can see the Freedom Tower you can see downtown the Wall Street area yeah this is a small space but it's a perfect little perch to be here at Sunset maybe sit down and have a cocktail and relax at the end of the day it's

really a very a little Jewel at the very [Music] top this house is a very good example of a very comfortable and beautiful home created from this very common object it's a continuous invention because we're always trying to push against it and push new boundaries and go to other places 30 years of work is a lot of work it's very exciting to look back and to think about everything that we have accomplished especially because we really started from nothing every time we do something is a way to look at what else can we do with

this object right is a way to question how much more you can invent and explore starting from this very very simple box that we are obsessing with and there is the desire to continue and try to do more and more and more and things that we haven't done before and explore other kind of pro GS [Music]