On a former ranch in Round Top, Texas (population: 91), Flophouze hotel is made of six converted shipping container cabins and one container pool. Built and run by Recycling the Past- the architectural salvage yard next door-, the former cargo boxes have been outfitted with recovered items like windows and cabinets from a school, railroad car floors, and countertops from an old bowling alley.
Owner Matt White spent years dreaming of container architecture before launching the business in 2016 with 3 units (adding 3 more the following year). Working with the long, narrow containers, White and his team created rooms- kitchen, bathroom, bedroom- in a shotgun-style using salvaged wooden sliding doors to separate spaces when needed.
We spent the night in unit #4 – the “Cow-abunga”- that sleeps six (bunk beds, a queen, and couch bed) and is separated by a central “Hollywood bathroom”. There was plenty of space for four or family of five and we spent plenty of time in the shipping container pool right next door (outfitted with a glass wall by Modpools).
We caught George Munoz at work on a few of the custom containers that the company fabricates and sells to individual clients. Munoz has spent the past decade working with salvaged materials at the 12,000-square-foot Recycling the Past site. He showed us the warehouse and custom units and explained how they offer materials for sale for those who would prefer to build their own.
https://flophouze.com/
recyclingthepast.com
On *faircompanies: https://faircompanies.com/videos/container-hotel-honors-2nd-life-of-salvage/
