Converted Container House | Japan

After 20 years in Tokyo, Tomoaki Koga dreamed of an island retreat where he could nurture both his growing family and his businesses. The solution was simple: build a four-square fortress of stacked steel containers to live, work and grow old in. Sixteen 12m-long shipping containers were used to make the house, located at Kouri Island, on the Okinawa archipelago. At first glance, the building appears to be a stack of repurposed shipping containers. In fact, strict Japanese planning regulations are such that each unit was specially made from Japanese steel in a Chinese container factory.

Published in the October 2015 issue of The World of Interiors this beautiful house with bespoke baths, a crow’s nest of a kitchen and custom doors is the perfect formula!

Constructed from specially designed steel containers, rather like a mysterious, industrial fortress, the house looks out over the open expanse of the East China Sea, allowing for the standout feature of this bathroom – the exceptional panoramic view.

The exposed wall of the bathroom, which does not even have glass fitted, can naturally be accommodated when the remoteness of the locations means there is no risk of privacy violation, only perhaps of stray seabirds. This leaves the bather to lie back in the spacious Spey bath, relax and think of nothing but ‘the clouds, the sunset, the moon and the stars’. This Spey has a rough, raw cast iron finish on its body with polished cast iron legs, perfectly combining a classic look with an industrial edge befitting of the container house.

“In the panoramic bathroom is Drummonds’ raw Spey bath from which you can see the ‘clouds move, the sunset, the moon and the stars”.

Hidden inside a packing crate, which Tomoaki designed himself, The Eden Low-Level WC suite, The Kinloch Single vanity basin, and The Dalby shower can be tucked away behind a canvas and wood screen if required, offering a flexible bathroom space for the family that shares it. Tomoaki has not just built a home here but created an oasis of calm, the perfect getaway.

All Photography Credit to Simon Upton.