Residential Shipping Container Primer (RSCP™)

Alan Stulberg, a vintage motorcycle builder and mechanic, has been thinking about this project for nearly six years.  Deciding to take the plunge, he drew a rough sketch one day and five months later, here’s the Studio Pod.  Stulberg built the container studio in his backyard in Austin, Texas, and it's now being used as a creative artist space. 

The 600-pound glass door, which took about a month to build and mount, rolls on a custom ball-bear rolling system that Stulberg put together.  The nine-foot square extends the interior and provides a good amount of natural light during the day.

Stulberg used plasma cutters for the openings and finished the space with soy-based foam insulation, sanded plywood, Homasote recycled paper, and a ductless mini-split air conditioner and heater.  Like the door, Stulberg built the box lights himself which take low-output halogens.

Not counting pizza and coffee for helpful friends, Stulberg tells us he spent about $16,000 building the Studio Pod, though he could do it for a lot less next time.  That’s because he bought some tools and made a few miscalculations fabricating window prototypes and other things.

Recognizing that others may have the same itch that Stulberg had when he determined to build the Studio Pod, the owner said, “You can slice and dice a container in amazing ways and simply reinforce the structure with steel when holes are cut into its structure.”  So there’s no need to limit your creative juices when working with shipping containers.