Pocket House | Cristina Menezes Arquitetura e Decoração

The project is a home inside a container for a single man, in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, named Pocket House. The owner asked the studio to do his project in a container because if one day he needs to change the place he lives, he can transport his small house wherever he goes. He asked the studio to do the interior design with materials which will remit him to nature and of course all with the precepts of sustainability. So, this project provides architecture with the principles of sustainability and mobility.
Architect: Cristina Menezes
Team Members: Laís Laine, Roberta Antunes, Jackue Kelly, Rani Melo
Country: Brazil 

The existing civil work was only the support base of the container. The rest of the construction was just an installation. This type of construction (dry construction) doesn’t have waste and it’s very quick, definitely the right method for future transportations. All construction took just ten days to be ready. The construction began on August 15th, 2013 and ended August 25th, 2013.

The measurements are of a standardized shipping container. For this project, the studio used a container of 40 ft, measuring is 12,20 m x 2,44 m externally. However the total area of the construction was 46,80 m² with the deck outside the container. Internally, after the coating, the final measures were equal to 11,80 m x 2,34 m. Due to the small width, the first change made to minimize this narrowing was to cut the container´s lateral steel walls to insert sliding doors of glass. In this way, a breadth and integration was achieved with the external area. The large glass doors also help with natural ventilation and lighting.

All furniture used is easy to move so you can use the deck, outside, as an extension of the living room and kitchen. To lose the reference of floor, wall and ceiling, just one material was used as coating: wood. Thus, the feeling of amplitude increases. The walls of the bathroom are of glass to bring more lightness and lose less space. A plotted film installed in translucent glass provides privacy between the living room and bathroom. The lighting by LED, values the interior architecture.
The novelty of this project is to have a house with a kitchen, dining room, living room, bathroom and bedroom with just 29,89 m² free area inside the container. This is sustainability, a new and current concept of living.