Located in the Old Port of Montréal, this sea food diner presents a new concept – a modern re-interpretation for the old-fashioned canteen. The Resto Movbox is actually a recycled steel shipping container with a slick design, that opens-up in under a minute and transforms into a restaurant.

California-based ‘IC Green’ manufactures and pre-assembles homes, studios and cabanas from recycled shipping containers. Whether a small guest house or studio or an expansive residence, these prefab homes come with large glass openings, a well insulated envelope and a modular living green roof.

Keith Dewey, the man behind Zigloo, constructed his own home out of eight used shipping containers stacked on a residential lot. See below what you can achieve with standard prefab containers combined with contemporary style and creativity.

Paris-based Drop architects, created the Drop House Project, where a modern home and a comfortable living space can be achieved in the form of a prefabricated shipping container.

Located on a family property in northern Minnesota in a very small community called Holyoke, this small and cozy shipping container cabin was created single-handedly by two very talented brothers, Paul and Scott Stankey.

Transforming the common shipping cargo containers into houses, studios, shops and work spaces is a great idea. Cargotecture, as Joel Egan and Robert Humble call it, offers large, low-cost prefab housing solutions based on a vision of sustainability and a modular approach.

Located at Burlington, Wisconsin, the Manilow weeHouse is a prefab getaway-home with blue and yellow container sidings. Designed by Alchemy Architects, the weeHouse is a prefabricated, modular structure ranging from 341 sf studio and up to 2090 sf full home.

These are not container homes but three small retail spaces made from shipping containers. I love the styling of the timber cladding and pitched roofs – I never would have guessed these cute little shops are shipping containers in disguise.

This post is not about a trendy, new home made from a shipping container; it’s about one man’s creative initiative in providing affordable homes by means of steel shipping containers.

Zigloo is another great example of how your house can be prefabricated by shipping containers. An almost clear 20 foot glazed wall is overlooking the view while taking full advantage of the natural light. The ground floor containers all have their steel doors intact so the owner can lock down the building when it is vacant.

The Seatrain container home by OMD Architects is a unique, sculptural combination of shipping containers and steel found on-site in downtown LA.

Container homes by De Maria Design are architecturally designed shipping container based contemporary homes; a by-product of the architect’s total immersion into alternative construction methodologies.

Container homes by Adam Kalkin are inventive and contemporary. Among Adam Kalkin homes is the Quik House; a prefabricated kit house from recycled shipping containers. The shell assembles within one day at your site; from start to finish, it should take no longer than three months to complete your 2,000 sq. ft. shipping container home.

These container homes are actually three en-suite accommodation units, created by Container City, providing flexible and comfortable homes for the artists on residency and for other visitors to Cove Park.