This is how it’s done

Sometimes a shipping container house looks like a house made from shipping containers. Other times, it looks like this gorgeous home in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Local architecture firm River & Rain designed the Escape Den as a sophisticated reimagining of the medium. The house is built from four shipping containers that are arranged at various angles on a steel frame. Each of the containers sits on its own level, creating a series of plant-strewn terraces and stairs that lead from one volume to the next.

The house starts on the ground level with the den and kitchen. Upstairs, a long container that’s been welded together to stretch the length of the house fits both bedrooms. Across the terrace, the living room gets its own glassy volume.

The disjointed layout makes the house feel light and airy, despite being built from sturdy volumes of metal. It also helps that the architects replaced entire walls of metal with glass, turning the containers into sun-filled boxes.