When Doug and Jane MacDowall decided to build their dream home on the Isle of Coll, they faced a challenge familiar to anyone building in remote locations: how to create a stunning, sustainable solution without the delays and complications of traditional construction. Their solution? A shipping container home. They engaged Iron & Pine to build Scotland’s most ambitious shipping container conversion project to date.
A Container Home Built in Weeks, Not Months
The results speak for themselves. This remarkable shipping container home—complete with its striking glass facade offering panoramic views across the island’s dramatic landscape—was constructed in just 12 weeks. To put that in perspective, a traditional build in such a remote location could easily take a year or more.
“This has been an incredibly exciting project for us,” explains Alistair Fell, Co-founder of Iron & Pine. “We’ve been working closely with the homeowners and our planning and design partners Prospus Group to create a truly special and sustainable living space. The modular construction process has allowed us to complete the workshop build in just 12 weeks. A testament to the efficiency and flexibility of this approach.”
Where Industrial Container Living Meets Elegance
But for Doug and Jane, speed was only part of the story. Every element of their container home has been meticulously considered, from the kitchen layout down to the plug sockets and switches. The industrial nature of the shipping containers themselves became the guiding principle for the entire interior design of this remarkable container conversion.
“The shipping container has a very industrial feel so that also guided the interiors,” says Doug, who creates custom built Defenders. “Containers are made out of corten steel which turns to a stunning rusty colour as it weathers. To reflect that look inside we sourced some incredible corten steel-coloured tiles to bring the outside in.”
It’s a philosophy that runs throughout this shipping container home: let the landscape and architecture dictate the interior choices.
“The main thing for us is that we ensured the outside did all the talking,” explains Jane, a creative consultant and leadership coach. “When you have so much glass in one building it’s the outside that tells the inside what it wants to be! Choosing the correct paint colour was painful! I tried all the designer paints on the market to get the correct green but ended up getting a colour specially mixed.”
An Open Plan Vision for Container Living
The couple’s commitment to maintaining visual flow throughout their shipping container home influenced every design decision. Because the container conversion creates an open plan layout, nothing breaks the continuity. Dark wood flooring runs seamlessly throughout, while the same carefully chosen paint colour covers both walls and ceiling. Ensuring everything is easy on the eye and keeping the focus firmly on the dramatic views beyond the glass.
Details That Make This Shipping Container Conversion Stand Out
The MacDowalls’ attention to detail extends to every corner of their container home. In the shower rooms, they turned to designer Tom Dixon’s Liquid range, discovered at his London showroom. “We didn’t want things to be traditional,” Jane explains. “We wanted every element of our home to have products in it that were considered and different as well as being practical.”
Even the sink plinths in the toilets showcase Doug’s design ingenuity. “We didn’t like the way you could see the down pipe on the hanging sink so we designed a unit that could also hold towels to disguise it” he says. The units were manufactured by a company Doug uses for his custom vehicle builds—proof that good design transcends industries.
A Kitchen Worth the Journey
The kitchen anchors the large open plan living area in this shipping container home. “We fell in love with a German made kitchen from Scott & Gray in Edinburgh,” Doug recalls. “It was an ex-display and miraculously fitted to the nearest millimetre into the space we’d allocated. The only thing we needed to do was redesign the island unit to incorporate a work area. Jane and I work remotely and so having a workspace was hugely important.”
Above that custom island hangs a Tom Dixon Melt light. A piece Jane describes with evident delight: “I love the shape of this light, it’s like molten glass and reflects the exteriors and interiors when it’s not on. Because of the mirror effect on the side, when it’s on it feels like the moon is hanging right above you!”
Creating Heart in a Modern Container Home
For all its contemporary design and industrial aesthetics, the MacDowalls were determined their shipping container conversion should have warmth. “I feel that any living space has to have a heart, for me that’s always been a fire,” Jane says. “We’ve gone for a hanging Cocoon bioethanol fire which is simple to use and, with its curved lines it brings in a softness to the hard lines of the container.”
It’s this balance—between industrial and soft, modern and warm, functional and beautiful—that makes this container living project so compelling.
Sustainability in Shipping Container Homes
The home’s aesthetic achievements are matched by its environmental credentials. This container conversion features exceptional insulation levels, solar panels for renewable energy generation, an air source heat pump for efficient heating, and mechanical ventilation with heat recovery to maintain air quality while minimising energy loss.
All these features work together to create a shipping container home that’s not just beautiful, but genuinely eco-friendly. A rarity in luxury properties and proof that container living can be both sustainable and sophisticated.
The Island Installation
As the project moved from factory to site, Iron & Pine’s team prepared for the critical phase: transporting and reassembling the container modules on Coll itself. Co-founder Luke Mazs shared the excitement: “Our team will be heading up to the island tomorrow to begin the installation process, which we anticipate will take approximately 10 days.”
It’s a logistical ballet—shipping precisely engineered container modules across the water, then piecing them together on-site like a sophisticated architectural puzzle. But this is where container conversions truly shine, turning what could be a construction nightmare into a manageable, predictable timeline.
A New Standard for Container Living in Remote Locations
This shipping container conversion represents more than just another beautiful home—it’s proof of concept for a better way to build in challenging locations. Traditional construction in remote areas struggles with material delivery delays, weather-related setbacks, and the difficulty of coordinating skilled trades. Container homes sidestep many of these issues by completing the majority of work in a controlled factory environment.
“We believe that modular construction offers a sustainable and efficient way to provide high-quality housing. At Iron & Pine we’re committed to leading the way in this innovative field,” says Mazs.
For anyone considering shipping container homes in Scotland’s remote and beautiful locations, the MacDowall container conversion offers an inspiring blueprint. It’s possible to have luxury, sustainability, and the stunning design you dream of—without sacrificing years of your life to the construction process. And as Jane and Doug have proven, container living can be a space where every detail, from the corten steel tiles to the moon-like glow of a designer pendant, tells a cohesive story.
As this glass-fronted container home takes its final form overlooking the Isle of Coll, it stands as a testament to what happens when innovative thinking meets ambitious design and obsessive attention to detail. The future of container living and shipping container conversions might just be transforming how we think about remote construction.
