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Push Botton House 1 / Adam Kalkin

May 2009

By Sebastian J — Filed under: Houses , Adam Kalkin

Adam Kalkin’s Push Button House 1 demonstrates how industrial products can repurposed as architectural elements, or as entire homes. The Push Button House was originally displayed at Art Basel Miami in 2005, and uses a standard shipping container as the structure of a home.

Kalkin’s concept uses hydraulic power to lift and lower the sides of the shipping container, vastly expanding the usable living space. His design incorporates bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchenette, and living area. Though not actually viable for use as a home, Kalkin’s Push Button House is one of many shipping container concepts that utilize an object that might otherwise lie dormant.

Seen at SwipeLife. More images after the break.

17 comments »

Bo Lucky says:

Is this our future? I hope NOT!

# May 20, 2009 at 11:35

Mookie Wilson says:

Ugh. Enough with the freaking shipping container thing already.

# May 20, 2009 at 12:56

Heli says:

So how do you live on this? For what kind of people is this project for? Where is the main entrance? What if it rains? Do I have to rent a big warehouse also? I want to see more picture of the bathroom, also people living there.

# May 20, 2009 at 13:02

o+c says:

“Ugh. Enough with the freaking shipping container thing already.” – Mookie

I hope that you mean that you are working on proposing a method to cut down on the production of new storage containers as well as a place for them to go after they are used? Disgarded containers are a serious issue, or perhaps we should simply sink them all into the ocean to help create coral reefs like NYC-MTA did with the old Bluebird Subway Trains?

In the meantime, anyway to repurpose/recycle these giant metal behemoths is well targeted to our current times.

@Heli
There is plenty of more information about his other projects on his website, which answers many of your questions.

# May 20, 2009 at 13:14

Fino says:

I have seen better and more elegant examples of this that have actually been placed in an environmental context that makes the Containertecture somewhat desirable as a way of life. Right now, this project is presenting a living condition that is a container…..within a larger, darker, colder container. Not inspiring at all.

that is all.

# May 20, 2009 at 13:44

Jonjon says:

Love it!

# May 20, 2009 at 14:12

nb says:

what a stupid proposal…..you can see real examples of container use here http://www.containercity.com/

# May 20, 2009 at 15:00

loosman says:

yuk – i agree with mookie – sooo boring.
why are there so many redundant containers anyway? i’ve an idea – why don’t we use old containers as, well…containers……?

# May 20, 2009 at 22:11

dustin says:

Old containers are not used as, well… containers because as you may know Asia sends over way more containers than what America sends back. That means that in order for a container to be reused in many cases it must go back empty, this is not cost effective and it is better to recycle the container as scrap metal or in this case… architecure.

I think this will be part of our future, maybe not in America unless this crisis continues. But I can see it happening a lot in the poor parts of Latin America, especially coastal towns and cities.

This particular project is not my favorite. Why do people always want to disguize reality? It’s a shipping container, deal with it and make it look good without covering it with manuer. There are some really good projects out there though, I think we should be open minded and look at the huge benefits.

# May 20, 2009 at 23:32

utopianrobot says:

i suppose these shipping container homes would make a nice city in an abandoned circuit city store or linen’s & things. i don’t know why FEMA or someone else is doing this for people. especially in the colder climates. that being said, the detailing and furnishing of this is not cost effective. how do you make these containers comfortable anyways? do you just insulate it with a lot of rigid and slap on some gypsum board for a finished surface?

# May 21, 2009 at 08:15

rodney says:

love his work.

for those commenters who don’t seem to be aware, he was one of the first to work with containers….do a little research.

# May 21, 2009 at 09:32

luciola says:

I LIKE IT

# May 21, 2009 at 19:37

luciola says:

楼上的这里可以留中文么？不囧么？

# May 21, 2009 at 23:30

Frederick says:

This container is obviously to be taken as an artistic message more than a face-value architectural proposal, but never the less I think it is interesting.
O+C, there have been many attempts at using containers as buildings, but in most cases they are interesting but certainly not cost effective enough to be a viable way of reusing containers on an industrial scale (the thickness of steel makes any modification of the shell very expensive, and the structural system, comparable to an oil drum or an egg means that an enormous amount of reinforcing is required for any serious modification… But they have been used very effectively as crude shelters for art works, temporary exhibitions, the Freitag shop in Zürich etc.. And lets not forget the anti-sniper protection in Sarajevo, where they were just placed along side the roads, allowing pedestrians to work in a narrow corridor between the buildings and the containers, thus avoiding getting shot, and providing shelters in case of bombings.

But to come back to inhabited containers, in the netherlands there is a chain of hotels called “qbic” that developed a sort of container/space-shuttle/boxy-thing that contains all the elements of a standard hotel room and can then be placed into any available room. Although not made from a reel container, I think the idea of a living capsule, capable of being deployed in any environment and bring all the necessary comfort is really interesting.

Heli, can you think of a better way to inhabit a warehouse ;-)

# May 22, 2009 at 08:23

krister says:

Thanks Frederick

Your comment is the most instructive, inclusive, enlightened, and informed opinion of the bunch!!

I never heard about the sniper protection, that’s brilliant!

# May 22, 2009 at 12:16

Frederick says:

Krister, I’m very flattered… I’ll do my best to keep it up! ;-)

I happened to know about the containers in Bosnia after Patrice Duflos, a friend of my family was shot while installing these protections, he was one of the 200 UN soldiers who died there protecting civilians.
The death of another French soldier Eric Hardoin, was filmed by a television crew an led to a excellent documentary by French national TV on the work of the UN troops. It shows some quite good footage of the use of these containers, if you are interested, you can check it out here:

http://www.vodeo.tv/4-132-4320-moi-eric-mort-a-sarajevo.html
(VOD link, film in French, sorry…)
Sadly the only free extract I found is somewhat more macabre, although it gives you a pretty clear image of the problem…
http://video.cityvox.fr/video/iLyROoaftuzc.html

Sorry for drifting off a bit from the subject, but I also think, as architects we can learn things from this.
And don’t worry, it will be back to our usual good humoured but virulent debates next post. ;-)

# May 23, 2009 at 15:07

loosman says:

the ‘idea’ of living in a capsule maybe really interesting and folly, but ask a japanese capsule hostel resident what they think of actually living in a capsule…
I wonder what kind of power requirements are needed to run those heavy-weight hydraulic arms that keep those steel door flaps in place?

# May 28, 2009 at 03:43