Container Homes | Modular Buildings That Give Life More Choices
This is a building designed for more than one species.
Its owners, Eva and Carlos, share the place with two Belgian Malinois (Bishu and Bomba), Harris the owl, several family units of swifts and kestrels, and about twenty sparrows. They live and learn together in this building about 30 kilometers west of Madrid. Educan School sits among the fields, in a rural setting that has changed in recent years through urban growth and intensive pesticide-dependent farming, and it is testing ways to restore ecosystem conditions.
Its architecture is a design for many species. When the two main classrooms are busy with dog–human pairs training agility or canine sports such as Schutzhund, birds nest on the upper nesting facade, with an ideal view and orientation. Small raptors feed on rodents and help keep crops and other local plants in balance. Small birds and bats also roost in openings on the south facade; they feed on insects, including mosquitoes that carry certain canine diseases, and form part of the pollination cycle for flowers and plants in the surrounding fields. Sparrows appear improvised in this self-regulating ecosystem, nesting in round holes along the container edges.
Serving multiple species is central to the design. Floors are usually made for people and their shoes; for dog-paw pads and joint-friendly training rooms, removable PTE synthetic turf rolls approved for canine training are used, while theory classrooms are finished in semi-polished, exposed aggregate concrete made with river pebbles. The average eye height drops from more than one and a half meters to only half a meter. Interior openings are raised above one meter to keep dogs from getting distracted; louvers shade the south facade and leave enough clearance below for dogs to pass outdoors; rainwater from the roof is collected in large troughs for dogs and birds. Spoken language turns into barking, and interior surfaces are lined with sound-absorbing pyramid foam insulation to minimize echo, noise, and reverberation.
The building uses many materials and combines different construction techniques, crafts, and production systems. Reusing shipping containers balances material ecology with waste reduction; cast-in-place concrete provides adaptability and thermal mass; leftover pieces from new trusses are used to make smooth, undulating concrete formwork. From the standardization and optimization of industrial metal sheets to the precision of CNC-cut joints; from the industrial standardization of base units such as 40' HC containers to handcrafted ironwork that supplies custom joints, custom components, and special pieces (bench legs, light fixtures, or large sliding doors that divide space); from automated air-conditioning systems to manually adjustable bioclimatic controls (perforated louvers or roller blinds); from heavy foundations and concrete walls to light dry-assembled elements. As an experimental project, Educan School shows that even parts of the discipline often treated as “secondary” can open a wide stage for exploration and architectural innovation.
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