Screens made from black-painted wooden shipping pallets allow light to filter into this family house in Denver, Colorado, designed by local studio Meridian 105 Architecture.

Meridian 105 Architecture designed Denver Pallet House for a family living in the Sloan's Lake neighbourhood of the city.

The architects chose the recycled wooden shipping pallets to clad the house to provide the residents with privacy, while also letting in plenty of natural light and offering views outside.

Pallets stacked two storeys high cover the windows at the sides of the residence.

At the front, the wooden modules screen the first floor balcony and the pallets on the highest row open to form shutters.

"The house is clad in a module of wood shipping pallets, creating a screening, and light-filtering element for the interior spaces and front porch," said the architects.

"Operable panels of the screen allow for customisation of privacy on the master bedroom deck, giving a dynamic appearance to the street facing facade."

The balcony, which is accessed from the master bedroom on the first floor, is set on top of a porch created by a large gap in the pallet wall at the front of the house.

All of the wood is protected by a black-pine tar-surface treatment as a contrast to the white plaster covering the rest of the exterior.

Black wood is also used to clad the upper part of the rear of the residence, which projects over a concrete outdoor terrace, and to line the floors and ceiling of the outdoor terrace.

The residence measures 2,637 square feet (approximately 245 square metres), which the architects say is relatively compact for the location.

To achieve open and spacious interiors, Meridian 105 Architecture created a narrow atrium. It tops the kitchen, bringing in extra natural daylight and adding height to the space.

White-painted walls and ceilings also help to maintain airy interiors, while elements of black continue the monochrome palette of the exterior. The floor is covered in wooden panels.

The void also forms the core of the house. On the ground floor, it divides the entrance hall, closet and pantry at the front from the open-plan kitchen, living and dining room at the rear.

Glass doors on the back wall of this space open to the outdoor patio and back garden.

A nook besides the kitchen is fitted with a wooden bench and flanked by a set of black storage cabinets, which extend to form a wall covering the main staircase.

Windows fronted with pallets run alongside the staircase on the first floor, providing views down the void into the kitchen from the landing.

On this level, the master bedroom at the front features an en-suite bathroom with a large corner window to the central atrium. Grey tiles cover the walls and floors in the bathroom, and the bathtub is black.

A further two bedrooms are placed at the rear, while utilities including another bathroom and the laundry area are place in the centre.

Industrial pallets have also been used as cheap, modular building elements at two temporary offices – one in Tokyo and another in Amsterdam – while Berlin designer Daniel Becker created a set of wooden cabinets exclusively from the recycled material.

Photography is by Astula.

Project credits:

Architect: Meridian 105 Architecture
Project team: Chad Mitchell and Daniel Lipscomb
Builder: Caliber Construction