Playful Container Cottage by the Sea goes Off-grid
Last Updated: Feb 23, 2025On the windy shore of Mira Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada, a jumble of bright blue and white shipping containers arrived one day. Curious neighbors and fishing boat captains asked, “What are you doing with those?” Amid the shaking of heads and raising eyebrows, architect Colleen Lashuk and her clients explained that they were building a summer cottage.
They met their goal with this playful structure, a hybrid of steel and wood that includes seven shipping containers – six 20-foot containers and one 40-foot container. The long blue one forms a high bridge over a sheltered outdoor deck from one side of the cottage to the other. Wood framing defines the rest of the structure around the containers.
Table of Contents
- Why containers?
- How They Used The Containers
- Passive Solar Design
- Local Sourcing
- Off-grid Solar Power
- Insulation
- Challenges
- Summer fun!
- Details
- Why we love it!
Why containers?
“They are a fun material to work with at a seaside site. They were made for the marine environment, which is what we have here,” explains Colleen.
The team bought used “single-trip” containers in Nova Scotia, which means the containers were used once for shipping goods, then put up for sale on the market. The 20-foot containers cost $3800 each, and the 40-foot containers were $4500, plus the cost of shipping to the site.
Colleen says, “I don’t think of it as a big recycling thing. Those containers could have been used for shipping again. But they were available and in excellent shape, with no rust. It’s just fun and inspiring to work with these block-like containers.”
Local Sourcing
Colleen exercised her sustainability values by sourcing the wood for the project through local sawmills. The deck boards from Nova Wood are made of larch, a local tree species that is naturally rot-resistant, requiring no toxic wood treatments. And the wood-framed windows are from Norwood in the neighboring province of New Brunswick.
With local employment a priority, Colleen hired local metal workers to cut out the windows and prepare the containers instead of, in her words, “having them kitted out in China,” as some people had suggested they do. This way, local contractors could show off their skills, and the result is beautiful.
Wayne Groszko
Wayne Groszko is a consultant, researcher, and teacher in Energy Sustainability with 13 years of experience. He has taught at Dalhousie University and the Nova Scotia Community College, in the Faculties of Engineering, Environmental Science, and Energy Sustainability Engineering Technology. Wayne is also President of the Community Energy Cooperative of New Brunswick, and has worked as Renewable Energy Coordinator with the Ecology Action Centre in Nova Scotia. He holds a B.Sc. (Hon.) from the University of Calgary, and a Ph.D. from Dalhousie University.
