DESIGNER: Tomecek Studio BUILDER: Brad Tomecek BUILD DATE: 2010

LOCATION: Nederland, United States PHOTO CREDITS: Tomecek Studio RATING: 3 Stars.

Nederland House by Andrew McMullin is a container home situated in Nederland, Colorado. The owner himself is as unconventional as his home. He became a contractor with a degree in Creative Writing and as an avid traveller, he got the idea for building the house when he was driving and observed a train hauling shipping containers, thinking “ they would be great to build a house with”.

The house is designed by Brad Tomacek, a Boulder architect with Studio HT and Andrew, being a contractor himself, saved a lot of the labour costs in doing much of the work himself. He started his journey and completed the house within 18 months and two harsh winters!

Build Method

The build is comprised of two 40ft high cube containers splayed either side of a large open space. You will find very few corridors here as the owner dislikes hallways preferring open spaces, dominated by polished concrete floors:

“I have strong feelings about houses,” said McMullin. “I don’t like hallways. I don’t like house designs that separate people. When you are in this house, you are with everybody. There is nowhere to hide.”

A Transparent garage doors from the south brings in a lot of light to the common space (and the views) – which itself helps to create a decent sized 1500 sqft home. Even though the bedrooms are small, the central space outside more than makes up for it. The spacious living room encourages the people in the house to spend time together instead of isolating themselves in the separate bedrooms.

One container hosts two bedrooms and a shared bathroom. The other container accommodates the kitchen, utility room, and an office with the middle space functioning as the entry, living and dining on the ground floor. A wedged staircase at the back leads to the second story where the master bedroom and the deck is located in a loft.

Built in 2010, it’s an off-grid, self-maintaining house with various green technologies including: solar water heating, passive cooling, pellet stove heating, the green roof which uses rainwater and snow.

The structure juts quite dramatically out from mountain but its rust and tan exterior helps it blend into its surrounds well. Interestingly, while many builds look like cargotecture externally and try to disguise it on the inside - with Nederland House though, you might not guess it was a container build until you see the inside – the grooves of the container walls are visible and each room is painted different colors. Visible steel beams and exposed ductwork gives the home a very industrial, modern feel.

Interbode Thoughts

We think Nederland House is interesting because of the way in which it has used a double height centre to really open up the space between the containers and doing so without over using them. The large transparent glass wall opening up to the deck, inviting easy “"glamping”, is a nice touch too.