Meet The Architect Using Old Shipping Containers To Build Homes, Offices & Restaurants

Quick to offset, budgetable, and movable. 

When architect Akash Dudhe hears a requirement like the one he was pitched by a client six years back, his ears perk up with one solution: shipping containers. The building material, he reasons, checks all three boxes. 

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Ever since 2014, when he started his Mumbai-based firm, ‘SAGI Architects’, Akash has wielded his imaginative palette in the direction of using scrap metal as a premise for construction. And, shipping containers, the metal boxes used to transport goods, make an aesthetic argument for the tremendous potential that scrap holds.  

The project he was pitched six years ago was a vocational learning centre in Aurangabad commissioned by ‘Pratham’, an NGO championing educational equity in India. There were two reasons Akash toyed with the said material — the land was leased, which meant that, should it demand, the project would have to move base in a few years; the other reason was intrepidity. 

Metal as a building alternative was nascent in India, and Akash was keen to push the envelope. Within four months, the project transitioned from a concept note to being fully operational.   

For most of the year, Aurangabad is dry and hot. Nature has coloured the landscape in shades of brown. But the Pratham vocational training centre subverts the setting with its kaleidoscopic exteriors that mimic the creativity burgeoning within, where workshops and skill training are held. The centre is architecturally succinct — it sits on a 1,500-square-foot area of land — and the shipping containers lend it a kind of nomadism. 

As Rajesh Narayan Thokale, who heads the vocational arm at Pratham, also a civil engineer by profession, shares, “We liked the idea of building with shipping containers, considering we could establish a structure like this in the catchment villages and run programmes for all age groups, and also move if required. This centre would become a hub for all the villages in the region.”

It has an appeal to the children too. “The children were so overjoyed seeing the centre. The look is so different from other constructions; it is colourful. There is also ease of accessibility and movement.” 

He adds, “Recently, we conducted a science activity and had children coming from the neighbouring villages. We set up a telescope and encouraged them to watch the night sky. Children also come here to practice art and other activities.”

A quick recce reveals water tanks placed on the lower roof to minimise ground footprint, an exposed staircase “symbolic of a career ladder”, sun breakers created with local crates, side-opening doors offering both shade and aesthetic appeal, and an extended canopy roof designed to improve climate control by shading passageways. 

While this is a draw in Aurangabad, miles away on the outskirts of Mumbai, families on their way to the themed park ‘Imagicaa’ find themselves compelled to make a stop at Khopoli. The culprit is an eye-catching restaurant — its cascading roofs and 40-foot A-frame silhouette a draw. Look closely and you’ll spot the moodboard of shipping containers that make up its body. 

Elaborating on the brief, Akash shares, “The road to Imagicaa has a series of restaurants. The restaurant chain Kailash Parbat wanted to make a statement with this one. Since the land was a leased one, we pitched them the shipping container idea and they loved it.” 

Why do shipping containers make for resilient building materials? 

Most evenings, Akash can be found strolling along Mumbai’s Nhava Sheva Port (also known as Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT)), India's largest container port that handles a significant portion of the country's containerised trade. These rendezvous often have a purpose. You see, Akash is never alone. He’s accompanied by a meticulous design brief and scouts the port for discarded containers that match. 

Reasoning why a pragmatic approach holds in good stead while working with containers, Akash says they come with height and width constraints. So, you need to know what you’re looking for. Following a rigid process of elimination — “this one’s doors will be the right fit, that one is too tall, this one might make for a good kitchen wall, that one has openings in the right place” — the containers find their way to the warehouse where a rigorous process of cleaning, painting, and insulation is done. 

“The metal has a heat gain,” Akash reasons, underscoring why insulation is a must. “Insulation is done in two parts: there is roof insulation and wall insulation. An MS framework is created, filled with rockwool (matted fibre made from rock material) and finished with gypsum sheets.” 

The shipping containers are now ready to essay their new roles as potential walls in a home or office space.  

While his experience of working with the material has been free of qualms, Akash cautions about watching out for leakage. “You need to make sure that there is no water seepage happening from the roof. If you need to install overhangs or a double layer for the roof, do it.” 

Acknowledging that the weather can play spoilsport, Akash believes the beauty of shipping containers lies in strategic use. Assess the sunlight’s direction, he recommends. Illustrating this with the example of the Pratham mini campus, he says, “In India, the west and south are heated. So, we’d put blocks that are rarely used in these directions. For instance, at the vocational centre, we installed the toilet in the south facade. The rest of the spaces can be placed in the north facade. Install the punctures — openings — in the west facade; make use of the westerly winds for cross ventilation.” 

Scripting a sustainable success story 

While his projects featuring metal are being applauded today, a decade ago, when Akash ventured to break new ground, acceptance wasn’t easy. “It was tough explaining to clients that shipping containers could make for a good material. There’s also the fact that sustainability cannot always be budgeted. Expenses come with a certain look that you want to achieve.” 

Today, however, the material has surer footing in the building space. 

And, while SAGI Architects has undertaken a host of commercial projects across India, their Tiny House project in Goa makes a compelling case for residential spaces being modelled out of metal containers. “The house is a pilot project to show how homes can be made using this material, especially in cases where the homeowner is keen to move every few years. The house measures 20 feet x 8 feet, which is the smallest module a container is available in.” 

But, don’t be fooled by its cinched definition. The house is quite the accomodater — there’s the living area with a pull-out dining table that can sit four people, a motorised deck and awning, a kitchen with a convection and grill microwave, an induction cooktop with a chimney, and an under-counter RO water filter, a washing machine, a refrigerator, and a bathroom. There’s also an inverter and a four-hour battery backup. 

As you browse through SAGI’s projects, you’ll agree there’s a beautiful kind of architectural dexterity that shipping containers lend to the construction they embrace, all while adding a pop of colour to India’s skyline. 

And the biggest pro? It’s their longevity — timeless charm in the real sense. 

Edited by Khushi Aror;, All pictures courtesy SAGI Architects