Santa Paloma shipping container home built here in East London
If you live in East London you have more than likely either been to, or heard about Santa Paloma Guest Game Farm & Eco-Centre supporting Education. What you might not know is that their most recent addition is a self-built shipping container home.
If you, like me, have become a bit obsessed with the exciting new trend of shipping container homes and tiny homes, you will appreciate my excitement at getting the opportunity to visit one right here on our doorstep.
After being shown a ‘shipping container complex’ in Germany by a Santa Paloma guest, owner Jacques Jordaan immediately purchased 2 full length shipping containers and started building his daughter Nadia and son-in-law Morne TerBlanche, their very own home on the guest game farm.
Just 8 months and a huge amount of labour later, Nadia and Morne moved into their eco-container home on the family farm. This energetic 3 managed to build a stunning 2 bedroom 1 bathroom container home for around R350 000, thanks to all their hard work and manual labour.
This surprisingly spacious home has been insulated using green methods, with natural air flow being their basic cooling method. In addition, the floors and ceiling have been insulated using recycled materials such as packing plastic into containers, and packing those containers into other containers, forming an insulation barrier. The walls have been filled with polystyrene, the same insulation found in commercial refrigeration.
I am sure you would expect that this home might look like a bit of a mix and match, a hodge podge of ideas and crazy ‘greenie’ design. Well let me tell you… it is not… it is beautiful! Nadia and Morne have brought in warmth by using wood on the floors, beams and door frames. They have kept the container ceilings so you can tell what part of the build is containers and what part is the open space in-between.
The entire home is warm and inviting and surprisingly open and spacious. The outside has been left honest, with the shipping containers still sporting their original paint colours and shipping labels. With the added tin roof (housing the insulation) and the glass entrance, it is a handsome home, both inside and out.
I was a bit concerned to visit my first shipping container home as I had high expectations and fully expected to be a bit disappointed with the reality. What I experienced instead was a beautiful, warm and welcoming home… and if I had it all to do over again, this is definitely the way I would go.
Article: Sandy Loppnow
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