Business Central October 2016
ACCOMMODATION » Wellington Container House
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Container House a hit with guests Kelly Deeks Offering travellers the chance to stay in the kind of place usually only seen on TV, the Wellington Container House is a magical and unique holiday home built from three vertically stacked 40ft insulated aluminium shipping containers, with the modern comforts of a contemporary home and many more unique and quirky features. Designed and built by local building innovator and industrial design icon Ross Stevens, he created the Wellington Container House between 2001 and 2007, using discarded industrial products. Built up against a hill at Owhiro Bay, Ross used the spaces between the containers and the hill to expand the living spaces beyond the limited dimensions of a standard shipping container. It was his own home until he sold it in 2014 to Wellington accommodation entrepreneurs Giles Middleton and Zoë Marsden. The couple already owned popular waterfront holiday home The Penthouse on Evans Bay, and when they saw the Wellington Container House for sale, they knew it would be an instant hit, in particular with the Airbnb generation. “Zoë and I are both well-travelled,” Giles says. “We’ve stayed in many different types of accommodation from lighthouses to treehouses, and we have a passion for sustainability and design. “We knew the Wellington Container House would be a hit amongst people like us, and we also didn’t feel brave enough to build one of our own just yet. “We found this the perfect introduction to our own architectural journey.” Despite lots of interest, the Wellington Container House was passed in at auction. “We thought it was the perfect unique holiday home when perhaps others were looking for a home,” Giles says. “Everybody in Wellington knows where we are, are we were keen to offer up this Wellington landmark as a type of accommodation that will make people remember Wellington as a cool, and interesting place to visit.”
The Wellington Container House is a magical and unique holiday home built from three vertically stacked 40ft insulated aluminium shipping containers. He believes the idea of a holiday home also appealed to Ross, as then lots of different people from all parts of the world could experience the property. Giles and Zoë were then challenged to bring the property’s décor up to holiday home standard,
without compromising their sustainable ethos. Most of the furniture was sourced second-hand, and the couple found adding colourful quality linen brought an easy sense of style to the décor. The Wellywood theme has been harnessed with a full cinema room on the top floor and hundreds of DVDs, along with antique projectors dotted around. A spa pool was added to the landing to make use of some empty space, and a new heat pump was installed to heat the top two containers. Since January 2015, The Wellington Container
House has hosted more than 150 groups of guests and it holds a five star rating on all websites where it is listed. Giles says the Wellington Container House’s spaciousness is difficult to show off, as photos can’t do the spaces justice. The couple are now enjoying planning their next steps for the Wellington Container House, with some innovative LED lighting plans ahead, and perhaps even another container project of their own.
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