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The High Performance Build Part 3: Rethinking What Container Architecture Can Be

Writer: Audree Grubesic
Audree Grubesic
Sep 22
6 min read

What happens when high-performance architecture meets modular construction?


In Parts 1 and 2 of our High Performance Build series, Mark Wille and Kelly Grace of Travis Price Architects explored storytelling, materials, historic preservation, durability, and the idea of "laying light on the land."


In Part 3, those same principles meet a very different building block: the shipping container.


What started as a solution to an incredibly tight construction schedule eventually opened an entirely new chapter for Travis Price Architects. From student housing and backyard art studios to hybrid homes and custom residences, Kelly shares how the firm learned to use containers not as a novelty, but as another tool for creating thoughtful, durable, high-performance architecture.



When Speed Led to Modular Construction


Travis Price Architects didn't initially set out to become experts in container architecture. Containers entered the firm's work in 2014 when a client needed an existing building demolished and its replacement completed in just four months.


Students would leave in May and return in September. The timeline left little room for traditional construction. The answer was modular.


The resulting building included a subgrade basement with three stories of containers above it. Eighteen containers—nine at the front and nine at the back—formed the primary modular structure. Most impressively, the containers were stacked in only three days.

The project demonstrated one of modular construction's greatest strengths: when design, engineering, fabrication, and site work are coordinated properly, a tremendous amount of construction can happen remarkably quickly.


Designing for Efficiency From the Beginning


Speed wasn't simply a result of using containers. The building had to be designed for efficiency.


Mark points out how carefully the bathrooms, kitchens, plumbing walls, drainage, venting, and other systems were organized. By concentrating those services, the team simplified connections and helped support the rapid construction schedule.


Mechanical systems were also thoughtfully incorporated, including ducted mini-splits and exposed ductwork that complemented the building's modern aesthetic.


Instead of trying to make the container pretend to be conventional construction, many of its industrial characteristics became part of the architecture.


Durability Without Losing Design


Student housing also presents a practical challenge: it needs to be tough. Kelly describes the interiors as intentionally durable, using materials such as wood and stainless steel that could withstand heavy use while minimizing maintenance.


Original container floors were cleaned and sealed rather than automatically being covered or replaced. Steel was ground back to expose its raw appearance. Where the budget couldn't support large amounts of traditional glazing, the team used translucent Polygal panels to bring light into the building.


These choices helped balance durability, budget, light, and design. At night, the translucent material transforms the building into a glowing beacon—proof that budget-conscious decisions don't have to result in forgettable architecture.


From Shipping Container to Backyard Art Studio


By 2016, the firm's container work had evolved into another project: a backyard art studio behind a narrow Washington, D.C. row home. The site presented significant constraints. The property was only 18 feet wide, and zoning requirements limited what could be built. The solution was a single 8-by-40-foot high-cube container enhanced with carefully designed "pop-outs."


These large bay-window-style extensions created additional usable space without being treated the same way as full floor-to-ceiling additions under the applicable lot-coverage rules. The project also required the team to navigate fire-rating requirements, setbacks, neighboring properties, and the realities of inserting a container into a dense urban site. The result was a compact space that could function as an art studio while also providing the owner with the potential for future residential use.


Making the Industrial Beautiful


One of the most striking features of the art studio is something many projects would have hidden: the corrugated container ceiling. Rather than covering it, the team celebrated it.

The container was taken through a tractor-trailer paint booth in Baltimore and finished in a glossy white before being transported to the site and craned into position. The preparation and finish transformed an industrial surface into a defining architectural element.


It's a theme that appears throughout all three parts of this series: materials don't always need to be disguised. With thoughtful detailing and execution, what is already there can become the architecture.


A Building That Could Grow With Its Owner


Then the story became even more interesting. Years after the original art studio was completed, the client came back. He needed more room.


Instead of tearing down the existing structure or starting over, the team was able to expand vertically by connecting back into the container's corner castings and adding another level. The former single-container studio became a more complete accessory dwelling unit with a bedroom, full bathroom, and additional art storage.


That's one of the unique opportunities of modular and container construction: a building can be designed with adaptation in mind. The architecture can grow alongside the person using it.


The Hybrid Approach


Containers don't have to make up an entire building. Another project discussed in Part 3 demonstrates a hybrid strategy.


For a home in the Washington, D.C. area, the team used pairs of 40-foot containers on either side of the structure and connected them with site-built construction in the middle. The result created a large two-story central space while maintaining the visual language and material characteristics of the containers.


Even the flooring in the site-built portion was selected to replicate the container flooring so the spaces maintained continuity. Instead of forcing a project to be either modular or site-built, the team used each construction method where it made the most sense.


That's an important lesson for the larger offsite industry: sometimes the strongest solution isn't choosing one method over another. It's combining them intelligently.


Containers Become Part of the Story


The final project Kelly shares takes that thinking even further. Currently under construction in Ohio, the custom home is being designed for a car collector. Rather than simply arranging containers to create rooms, the architecture uses them to help tell the client's story.


The concept draws inspiration from a raceway. Containers are spliced and combined with smaller sections of site-built construction, while steel elements continue the architectural language into spaces such as a screened porch.


One of the home's standout features turns the owner's car collection into art. A container is positioned to create a large picture-window-style opening across the living space, allowing vehicles to be driven into position and displayed as part of the interior experience.

The client's passion isn't something added after the architecture is finished. It helps shape the architecture itself.


High Performance Becomes the Standard


Toward the end of the conversation, Kelly makes an important point about high-performance design. Eventually, you stop talking about it as an extra feature. It simply becomes how you build.


Durability, responsible material choices, site sensitivity, efficiency, longevity, and healthy spaces aren't separate boxes that get checked after the design is complete. They're embedded into the work from the beginning.


As Kelly explains, once you've reached that point, high performance doesn't need to be marketed as an additional "green" feature. It's simply the expectation.


A Container Is Only the Beginning


Shipping containers are often presented as though the container itself is the solution. Part 3 makes clear that it isn't that simple. A box doesn't automatically create good architecture.


It still requires careful consideration of structural connections, insulation, mechanical systems, fire requirements, glazing, materials, site conditions, code, durability, and how people will actually experience the finished space.


As Mark points out, seeing a container building online doesn't necessarily mean it's something you'd want to live in. The difference is what happens after the box arrives.

When architecture, engineering, construction knowledge, materials, and intentional details come together, a shipping container can become something much greater than its original purpose.



Bringing The High Performance Build Full Circle


Across this three-part High Performance Build series, one principle has remained consistent: good buildings are intentional.


Whether Travis Price Architects is preserving a historic Washington home, designing around mature trees, laying a structure lightly on the land, or transforming shipping containers into custom living spaces, the materials and construction methods serve a larger purpose.


The building has to respond to its site. It has to respond to its people. It has to last. And it should still be beautiful. That's where high-performance building becomes more than a collection of products or specifications. It becomes an approach to architecture itself.


Thank you for following this three-part High Performance Build series with Mark Wille and Kelly Grace. At the Offsite Dirt Network, we're creating trust, connection, and collaboration across the offsite construction industry by sharing the real stories, expert insights, and lived experiences shaping what's next.


FAQs


1. What makes shipping containers useful for modular construction?

Shipping containers can provide speed, durability, and adaptability when incorporated into a properly designed building system. In one Travis Price Architects project, 18 containers were used to create three stories of student housing and were stacked in just three days.


2. Can container buildings be expanded or modified over time?

Yes. One project featured in Part 3 began as a single-container backyard art studio and was later expanded with a second level. By reconnecting to the container’s corner castings, the team transformed the original structure into a more complete ADU with additional living and storage space.


3. What makes a container project truly high-performing?

The container itself isn’t what makes a building high-performing. Successful container architecture still requires thoughtful structural connections, insulation, mechanical systems, fire protection, glazing, material selection, site planning, durability, and intentional design. High performance comes from how all of those elements work together.



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