Pune woman makes studio apartment from a shipping container

You could say interior designer Dhara Kabaria is quite the optimist mdash where others see PVC pipes she sees artistic lamps what yoursquod call a bulky shipping container she calls homeNow the Punebased 36yearold has taken upcycling to another level Kabaria recently finished building and designing Punersquos first studio apartment out of a shipping container which now basks in the sun at a site in Pirangut 35 km from Pune The 320 sq ft home is powered by solar energy and took seven weeks to buildBefore and After Left The shipping container used to make the home near Pune Right The exterior of the home is made of reused wood and the metal container has been insulated to prevent it from heating up Pics CourtesyDhara KabariaRecyling discarded materials is not new to Kabaria The designer an alumnus of Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology CEPT Ahmedabad says she has always been curious about the ways in which design can be merged with discarded materials ldquoIn 2009 after I set up my own firm Studio Alternatives I started designing lamps out of PVC pipes Later I built a wall out of computersrsquo motherboards and began convincing my clients to experiment by using recycled home deacutecor productsrdquoThe home is heated with solar energy and uses recycled materials for home decorHowever what Kabaria was really itching to do was use a shipping container to build a home ldquoFinally a few months ago I found a client who was willing to take the riskrdquo says KabariaThe client wanted a home which was not too intrusive to the environment Kabaria convinced him to let her build a portable home powered by solar energy and decorated with products made from discarded materialsShipping containers explains Kabaria are extremely sturdy and more than 10 of these full to capacity are often stacked in ships For the home she built Kabaria bought a used container from Bombay Port TrustKabariarsquos biggest challenge waste prevent the metal home from heating up So she built the exterior by insulating the container from the inside using cement sheets as the walls and lining the insulated metal with reused wood on the outside The bathroom too was difficult to build as the pipes couldnrsquot be concealed like they are in regular brick walls To fix the problem Kabaria has used aluminum composite panel sheets instead in a trendy charcoal colourThe home is powered with ecofriendly LED lights uses paint buckets as pouffes whose cushions are lined with discarded jeansldquoContainer architecture is not popular in India yet because portable housing is largely seen as a lowincome option Many clients also ask me the inevitable mdash lsquoIf it is made of scrap why is it expensiversquo Skilled labour is not easy to come by and I trained a large group to work on his homerdquo says KabariaInterior designer Dhara KabariaThe home cost the client R15 lakh but Kabaria claims she can design a much cheaper one ldquoThis particular home is a rather swanky one as per the clientrsquos brief mdash the highend fittings home deacutecor products amenities etc add to the cost But someone who wants a more modest home from a shipping container can have it for much cheaperrdquo she explainsKabaria now has five clients who have approached her for a similar project She says she will consider this design a success when she can shatter the hackneyed notion that shipping containers cannot be used for complex designs in homes and offices ldquoI am experimenting with them by building my own office which will use two containers which is a challenge Then I plan to stack multiple containers above one another and still build strong cheap spaces It will take some time to come out of the brick and mortar mentality and herersquos a startrdquo says Kabaria