PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The CrossBox is a dramatically cantilevered home designed by French firm CG Architectes, which is located in the middle of a housing estate in Pont-Péan, a small town in Brittany. The project is a prototype of a 104 sqm modular and industrialized house, built with four 40’shipping containers. Two containers form the ground floor while the other two sit atop the former. The crossing of the containers allows the top 2 create an overhang which provide a covered entrance and a carport on the ground floor, while the roofs of the bottom 2 containers create roof gardens. The sleek green and black finishes emphasize the stacked block concept and contrast with the wood of the adjacent garden shed.
Drawings courtesy Small House Bliss
The 3 bedroom home features a unique floor plan that splits up the public spaces into aneat-in kitchen at one end and a large living room at the other. These spaces are separated by the staircase and one of the home’s two bathrooms, which doubles as the laundry room.
While the cantilevers created by the crossing of the shipping containers may look simple enough to achieve just by mere stacking, it is worthy of note, that significant reinforcement were required on all 4 containers. The side walls of the containers were also removed to achieve the clear interior span. This also required significant reinforcement, as the removed sidewalls are engineered to support any containers stacked on top.
