The Gaia Off-the-Grid House Is How You Duly Repurpose a Shipping Container

This living unit has almost all the advantages of a tiny house at a fraction of the price. It doesn’t have wheels, so you can’t tow it across the country or around the world if you suddenly get bit by the traveling bug, but it’s a repurposed shipping container and, as such, it could be moved around if you wanted to. At the very least, it’s more mobile than an actual house built on the ground.

That said, the focus of Gaia, the Off-the-Grid House, is sustainability. It was built as an experiment by Czech Republic-based Pin-Up Houses, as part of “ongoing research into the feasibility of recycled, environmentally friendly small houses,” based on the company’s experience with tiny houses. Meant as a one-off, it was put together in three months, at the cost of $21,000, including materials and the work done.

Pin-Up Houses says they could replicate the experiment if there was demand, and they’re also offering the plans for sale through the website.

Gaia is impressive through its reduced footprint, which seems to come at little expense in terms of creature comforts. Make no mistake about it; this is a tiny house as tiny as it gets, since the HC shipping container measures 6 m x 2.44 m (20 feet x 8 feet). Still, within this space is packed everything you need on the daily.

The entrance lowers into a terrace to reveal double-glazed sliding doors. Once inside, you’re in the kitchen, with the bathroom to the right. It has a sink, shower, and compost toilet, and despite the diminutive size, even manages to squeeze in some storage space for toiletries.

The kitchen has a sink, a refrigerator, and a propane-powered two-burner stove, together with cabinets and more storage space. In the middle of the room is a wood burning stove, and a collapsible bed serves as a sofa for lounging during the day. On the opposite wall is a collapsible table that doubles as an office.

The housing unit comes with its own folding table and chairs, just perfect for outdoor dining. More impressively, one of the walls opens up completely to the outside, further expanding living space.

The interior is made with construction timber in a light color, which creates the impression of more space. Spray foam insulation was used to render the living unit suitable for all-season living.

Pin-Up Houses says Gaia is completely self-sufficient. There’s a solar panel array on the roof (three solar panels of 165W each) and a 400W wind turbine hooked up to batteries. Energy consumption and exact levels of remaining charge can be monitored via a dedicated app. For good measure, there’s also an inverter available.

The roof is made of corrugated metal and is larger than the actual roof of the container, offering a bigger surface for rainwater collection. A 1,000-liter (264-gallon) water tank on the side of the unit feeds the bathroom and kitchen sink, and there’s also a water filter and heater.

“It’s necessary to look for alternative forms of housing that will have a less negative impact on the environment, as well as complement traditional approaches to housing,” Pin-Up Houses says. “We have decided to repurpose a discarded shipping container and fit it out with the most available building materials and latest technology to design a unique independent housing unit.”

The result is impressive if you’re into this kind of downsized lifestyle. It offers the basics for a quiet, relatively comfortable, and sustainable lifestyle for two, at a price no tiny house maker currently offers. The thought that you’re completely off-grid probably outweighs any other downside we can think of.