Old containers make new home

Sven and Anna Pirkl are planning to build their Redondo Beach home from recycled shipping containers.

The Pirkls went for the idea suggested by architect Peter DeMaria because they weren’t interested in traditional designs.

“I’m not really turned on by crown molding,” Anna Pirkl said.

The house will be made of eight steel containers the couple bought in Florida to form the walls of their two-story, 3,500-square-foot home. Sven Pirkl said the home will cost $125 to $150 a square foot -- about half the cost of standard construction.

“We’ve found others that have placed a container within a structure,” DeMaria said. “But in this case, the containers are actually holding up a building.”