Wyss Family Container House in Mercer Island, Washington by Paul Michael Davis Architects

Article source: Paul Michael Davis Architects

The Wyss family approached Paul Michael Davis Architects with a vision to design a bold, unusual, and adventurous addition to their existing ho-hum 1950s split level where they could raise their 3 active boys. And they really loved the idea of re-purposing shipping containers.

The remodeled house with the family room addition on the left, Image Courtesy © Mark Woods

• Architects: Paul Michael Davis Architects
• Project: Wyss Family Container House
• Location: Mercer Island, Washington
• Photography: Paul Michael Davis, Tiffany Chow, Mark Woods
• Landscape: Performance Landscape Company
• Shipping Containers: ITS ConGlobal
• Structural & Civil: Trans Olympic Engineering Inc.
• Contractor: Karlstrom Associates
• Clients: Balthasar + Stephanie Wyss
• Area: 3200 SF

The remodeled house with new siding and windows, and the rotting decks removed, Image Courtesy © Paul Michael Davis Architects

The clients, Balthasar + Stephanie Wyss, asked the house be designed to fit into the style of the existing traditional neighborhood, while at the same time integrate new, contemporary elements. The remodel should reflect the unique history and development of the Seattle area and Pacific Northwest, key themes include:

• The roots of the Pacific Northwest as a place of vast untouched forests and the wilderness of the Cascades and Olympic mountains
• Seattle as center for global trade and a door to the Pacific and Asia
• The region as a technology hub with hi-tech companies and global retailers
• The international roots of the Wyss family [Basel, Switzerland]
• The design should be a communal gathering place connecting various parts of the house in a simple flow with a living room and kitchen at its centers; at the same time there should be ways to have quite areas for contemplation and reflection.

The remodeled house from the backyard, Image Courtesy © Mark Woods

Detail view of the entry courtyard showing the new front door and entry path, Image Courtesy © Mark Woods

The firm found lots of great examples of buildings made entirely from shipping containers.  But in this case, in which most of the existing house was going to stay in place, and the neighborhood had a clear vernacular language, placing a big stack of shipping containers next to it seemed like the wrong move.

Instead, the firm opted to treat the containers more like found objects, even artworks. PMDA designed a simple rectangular volume on the west side of the house to create an informal entry courtyard and, more importantly, serve as a neutral container for the containers. The new addition has a garage on the street side, and a large multi-purpose space which steps down with the topography.

The new garage addition on the right and other improvements to the existing house and site, Image Courtesy © Mark Woods

The completed remodel from the street, Image Courtesy © Tiffany Chow

The project required a greater level of collaboration with the contractor than normal, as many of the things we were trying were completely novel, like welding together 3 shipping container doors and putting them on a 30-foot-long sliding track.  Dick McDonald and Roger Reynolds of Karlstrom Construction, and their team of about 25 subcontractors all rose to the occasion, inspired by the chance to try something creative and new, as well as rectify some unfortunate mistakes in the original house.

Now that the Wyss family has moved in, the shipping containers serve as both a backdrop and functional necessity for their lives the giant sliding door can divide the living space into two when sound or social separation is needed, the indoor container houses a small bath and mud room that get daily use, and the outdoor container is ready to be a work from home retreat.

The remodeled house with the family room addition on the left at dusk, Image Courtesy © Mark Woods

Image Courtesy © Mark Woods

The existing house and new addition are separated by a large opening which can be closed with a large sliding door made from re-used shipping container doors welded together, Image Courtesy © Mark Woods

Image Courtesy © Mark Woods

The new family room with a mud room and bathroom concealed in a repurposed shipping container, Image Courtesy © Mark Woods

The mud room in the repurposed shipping container, Image Courtesy © Mark Woods

The new addition to the house with the mud room inside a repurposed shipping container on the left, Image Courtesy © Mark Woods

Image Courtesy © Mark Woods

A new bath inside the repurposed shipping container, Image Courtesy © Mark Woods

Image Courtesy © Paul Michael Davis Architects

Before: the exising house from the back yard, Image Courtesy © Tiffany Chow

Exsiting house front from street, Image Courtesy © Tiffany Chow

Image Courtesy © Paul Michael Davis Architects

Image Courtesy © Paul Michael Davis Architects

Tags: Mercer Island, Washington

Categories: House, Residential

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