Small Liveable Space From a Half-Size Shipping Container

Two years ago I worked on a conversion of a garage into a one-bedroom one-bathroom apartment of 325 sf. Though small, it was actually quite comfy. Since that's been built, I found this Instructable challenge, and figured how can I come up with something smaller that still is liveable?

I had a workshop studio that was made of a half-size shipping container (in the business apparently they're called, "conex boxes"). The conex box can also come in 10', 20' or 40' lengths. Just for "fun" I thought I'd compete with the Japanese micro-apartments and use the mid-size conex, the 20' length. The measurements are 20' x 8' x 8' tall, or 9'6" tall for a high-top conex (exact dimensions are 19'10.5" long x 8' wide x 9'6" high). Roomy by Japanese standards!

Conex box buildings are an affordable option, definitely less expensive to use for building than wood framing ("stick built" homes), and steel framed buildings. There are many options, too, for adding swing or barn, or roll-up doors, a variety of windows, skylights, etc. Insulation is a must and in my model I've included it in the walls, hence, it won't be called out separately, and the corrugated texture normally found will be smooth on the model. The insulation would have to be inside and outside and covered with an exterior siding and drywall for the interior. The positive aspect of designing with a conex box is that wiring, plumbing and any inner wall fixtures can be accommodated easily with cutouts and without reframing.

This design will really push the limits!

This is for making a MODEL of the Small Space - not the actual space! Otherwise, start with a 20' high-top Conex box (about $1500+)... [yeah, cargo humor ...]

I used SolidWorks for the CAD programming as it was available at the time, but you can use whatever you have on hand or know. From the model I created STL files to send to a slicer to 3D print the parts of the model. The model is scaled down to fit the 3D printer (about 4%) - BAMBU P1S bed size of 10.08" x 10.08" x 10.08"

1. PLA filament 1.75mm - I used Copper Silk PLA

The following tools are mainly for the 3D printed parts:

1. Deburring tool
2. Nippers
3. Scissors
4. X-Acto Knife - as needed
5. Pick and Fine STRONG tweezers
6. Small needle-nose pliers
7. Sandpaper

Other materials:

1. Clear acrylic or plastic from a take-out container
2. Tyvek or equivalent
3. CA glue or Oil Glue Medium thickness
4. Gloves
5. Optional: acrylic paint

I've found having a sketch in hand, no matter HOW rough, is better than designing on the fly in the CAD program - though I do that, too. The sketch gave me a chance to review what I wanted in the project: modularity, duality, and space-saving. It also allowed me to think outside the box, literally!

One aspect of tiny living spaces is multi-functional furniture. Murphy beds were common seemingly eons ago, and are making a comeback. In addition, I've added a feature that some furniture designers have promoted with self-leveling shelving or as desks.

I found the closet I create was shallow versus a typical closet, and hangers couldn't be added as usual on a pole traversing the width of the closet. So I designed some racks with cut outs for hooking hangers to be hund on the back wall and project forward at an angle as needed. The idea came from store display racks that hold hung items at an angle. The hooked racks would hang straight down until a hanger was attached, then because the clothing on the hanger would push the arm outward a bit, it would expose more hooks on the arm for hangers.

Doors use a lot of space, so I incorporated a barn door for the bathroom; sliding closet doors, or fabric. IKEA sells some pretty cool lightweight fabric "doors!" AKA panel curtains.

Small spaces need a feeling of openness so glass blocks were incorporated for ambient lighting, as well as ventable windows in the bathroom and living area. Optional are skylights or sola-tubes, especially for dark corners.

To add more usable space, I incorporated an optional balcony atop the conex box, reachable via stairs on the outside. A realtor from Hong Kong told me that space being such a premium there, they build UP instead of outward.

I also considered different roofing configurations - flat top, as the conex box comes; tilt or slant for added height inside; pitched or barn. With a high-top conex, added height may not be as imperative, but still welcome. With anything but a flat-top, a balcony or 2nd level might be a bit more difficult to add.

All this daydreaming is great, but logistics calls for the layout! We need dimesions of the parts - minimums and maximums within our constraints, as well as logical locations for plumbing, drainage, etc.

For a 160 sf living space, ...

Essentially, there are three parts considered in the layout: Bedroom, Kitchen, Bathroom.

Bedrooms are typically in the back of an abode; kitchen and bathrooms are close to each other for drainage sake; entry location best not into the bathroom or bedroom. So playing around with the locations in an enclosed box ...

At this point, we need the dimensions of the Murphy twin bed tray and mattress, toilet spacing requirements, shower space minimums, heights of bed, desk, countertops, sinks, etc.

Storage spaces are planned in - the closet, space above and below hangers, kitchen cabinets, and even a free space by the bed by the front door.

Logically, the front door would swing outward, though it can swing inward from the left side (bedside). This would allow a screen door to be added.

Minimums (these will not be ADA compliant and are based on actual objects):

Conex Box: 20'L x 8'D x 9'6"H (NOTE: It's hard to find a "good" photo of a Conex Box that doesn't look so ... blah!)

Built-in multi-functions of:

1. Murphy twin bed, twin mattress: 38" x 75"
2. Bed support / Attached Desk: TBD

Shower stall: 30" x 30"

Bathroom sink: 14.6W" x 7D" x 3.6H" side mount faucet (Smallest sink I found!) - plus 18" in front

Toilet: 18"W x 27"D x 29"H - plus 36" in front and 3" on each side

Refrigerator - small size: 24"D x 18"W x 27"H

Storage / shelving: Varied

Stools: 14" x 14" x 18"H

Kitchen sink: 15" x 15" x 8"D

Solatube: 10" diam

Stove top - induction: 14D"x12W"x2.5"H

Air fryer / toaster oven - electric: 8"D x 9"W x 11"H

Glass blocks: 8" x 8" x 4D"

OK, so we have some dimensions to work with. Let's CAD about, shall we?

First off, it's a box. So extrude in whatever program you like or know the outer dimensions of the conex box.

I gave a thickness of 4" all around for walls, insulation and drywall. Outer siding might add more - but that I left off as I am focusing on the interior mostly.

After reviewing my sketches, I chose the layout that seemed possible - the front door at center of the side, bathroom to the end, bedroom to the other end, kitchen in the middle.

Define the walls for the bathroom by blocking out at least 30" x 30" for the shower, plus 48"x20" for toilet space, 15"x 24" for sink access, and any leftover can be used for storage of linens, toiletries. My bathroom roughly came out either 78" x 36" or 66" x 48", depending on the orientation of the toilet.

The minimum door width is 30" (28" is JUST a little too small), so I made sure my bathroom walls could handle twice that since it's a barn door slider. Create the slider and door as separate parts.

I butted the kitchen counter to the wall of the bathroom and made it into an "L" along the back wall, as we always need more counterspace, right!?!? Plus, we have to fit the mini-refrigerator, air fryer/toaster oven AND the induction stove burner there, too. Oh, and the kitchen sink. Dare we include a compact dishwasher, too? Hmm, ... maybe not.

At any rate, the countertop is typically 30" from the ground, cabinets about 29" high x 25" deep. Extrude the counters.

The last place is the bed. With what's left of the space, the bed will have to go alongside the end of the conex. It will just fit.

This was one of the fun parts of the process - creating the CAD models based on real dimensions - one can very easily go down a rabbit hole in creating every little thing (down to outlet plates!). I've found that most models start in one of these shapes: box, circular or spherical, or triangular. Details were extruded or cut to shape.

Creating each of these parts will be up to you, but for the bed, I started with the mattress to get an idea of the size of the bed tray. Then I added some minor storage for things like books, pillow, phone charger and anything that wouldn't mind getting rotated 90 degrees. Murphy beds typically come with straps that hold onto the mattress when the tray is being flipped upward. I added "walls" to the tray to help cover the mattress and give the tray some stability when it is being flipped and to account for the thickness of this cabinet. The bed will be pivoted on its side, versus the typical Murphy bed where it is flipped on its head. The benefit of a side pivot is less height and power needed to move the bed into place. Of course, a strong convertible-type bracket will be the main mechanism for rotating the bed tray.

For the desk / support, create it as a separate part. I made the desk / shelf part first, after determining the needed height of the bed, the location of the desk both before and after the whole assembly has been in each position. It couldn't land too close to the edge of the bed as it will be kicked when near the bed. If too far back, it won't provide any extra support. The end height of the desk, too, helped determine the size of the desk / shelf assembly. The exact measurements for placement of the desk/support on the back of the bed tray, and the height of the bed tray on the wall were best worked out on paper first!

I made the roof, railings, couplings, steps, sinks, faucets, toilets, refrigerator, doors, shelving, solatubes, window/glass block cutouts as well, though somethings didn't print right, so they might be left off of the model. Creating the stairway to the upper outdoor level was a challenge as I didn't want to have it be a ladder, or a boring set of steps, and needed to add safety features like handrails, and sides to prevent people falling off the steps.

Have fun creating the CAD files - I certainly did!

Then, Assemble and Mix. Er, Mate.

Attached are the STL parts I created in SolidWorks and used for my model.

The next fun aspect of modeling is the assembly of the parts. Since it's based on actual dimensions, tolerances for a small space would be moderatly tight. Space is a luxury. Having stayed in some Japanese capsule hotels, air space above the head is definitely expensive! I love handling the mating of parts. Constraints have to be limited, yet for some parts there needs to have a movement, to pivot, or to slide to function. Not all mates are coincidental, some are but with a distance, tangent, or other option.

Once all parts have been fitted software-wise and finalized, it's time to print the parts. Save each part with an STL or 3mf extension, send to a slicer (I'm using Bambu slicer). To fit to the printer bed, I had to scale the largest part down. 4% seemed to work until I added the roof. My model is printed at 3.6% scale after that, and for everything else.

Specify layer height (0.2mm default for Bambu), filament type (PLA for mine), place parts on the bed, small parts need a skirt or brim, figure the type of supports (I prefer the tree supports as they tend to reduce the print time, amount filament used, are easy to remove), infill amount, etc. Send to printer. And now we ... Wait...!

For glass blocks I lasercut them out of clear acrylic and sharpie markered the grout lines.

My parts popped off the Bambu bed pretty easily. Those with brims were easily cleaned off. Any tree supports were also easily removed. Any imperfections were sanded down or deburred.

Assemble the physical model. CA glue (cyanoacrylate) or Oil glue was used to hold parts together as necessary. Acrylic was laser cut for windows and solatubes. Clear plastic from food containers can be used.

I made the roof removable to show the interior. For parts that depend on a hinge, I used tyvek-like material as a simple solution, CA / oil gluing the parts together.

I'm not a model-maker, so please excuse the messiness.

This part oddly enough was harder than I thought to design! I even optimistically started in TinkerCAD, which with the Duplicate function is really powerful. But, I needed more control over the variations, and had to return to SolidWorks. I LOVE the Circular Pattern function (heck, I love the Linear, too)! Once I got my angle for each step, it was a matter of getting them cut down for each step. I added a top landing platform for access to the roof.

I felt the base was too heavy, so I added arches (in retrospect, maybe something more angular to match the boxiness of the conex would have been better - the stair shape included) to lighted the visual "load."

The last part for the stairway was to add holes for the handrails on both sides, leaving an opening at the top platform for connecting to the railing on the roof.

For this shape with the arches and circular stairway, it adds a whimsical touch, and hopefully a less chunkiness to the building.

This however is not the main design concept. Just an add-on.

Taa-Dah! The Final Model (sans stairway)!

What I found was that storage is available wherever there's nothing in the way. Of course, keeping the bed, desk neat would be helpful for utilizing both. Hoarding would definitely not be encouraged in such a confined space. Ha ha ha!

I wish I knew how to render better - and what programs would be useful for that. SolidWorks has rendering but I've not learned it all yet. I barely got the material for the parts!

If making a model I would send to print earlier next time, and / or use SLA printing instead of FDM as I ran into problems on my last attempts to print the stairway to the roof level (that's why it's now shown). Surprisingly, my print tolerances came out pretty tight, and were good enough for pressure fit for everything except the railings.

After creating this one example, more ideas came up and I would like to continue designing using conex boxes of various sizes and configurations. There are many commercial buildings using conex boxes. One is near where I live! Here are a few other ideas that have been done - from office buildings to homes to ... Amusement Parks? Maybe!

Conex boxes can be stacked easily and secured as well as placed side by side and connected all together solidly. Roofing options are just like other types of buildings: flat top, pitched, dormed, etc. spanning over multiple conex boxes.

I've learned that I really enjoy remodeling and desiging spaces more than I thought I would.

I hope you enjoyed this concept and apologies for going on so long. I found I really get into these boxes!