Brazilian architect Marilia Pellegrini has unveiled Casa Container in São Paulo, a micro home inside two shipping containers filled with Nendo furniture.

Pellegrini designed the 18-square-metre show home to demonstrate that reused shipping containers can be disguised and used for high-end housing.

The architect referenced modern, minimalist Japanese design with Casa Container's interiors, citing Muji art director Kenya Hara's style influence and including pieces of furniture designed by Nendo founder Oki Sato.

Casa Container was unveiled at the 2019 Casacor exhibition, an annual architecture and interiors show in São Paulo.

Two 12-metre-long containers have been laid next to each other, with their corrugated metal structures covered entirely in white Dekton.

This surface material by Cosentino is made from quartz, porcelain, and glass, fused together under high pressure to form a UV- and heat-resistant slab that is harder than granite.

Large glazed walls and doors on the front facade allow light in and can slide back to open out onto a landscaped patio planted with bamboo designed by Studio Clariça Lima.

Windows on the other side create a cross breeze, and slim white Dekton louvres shade the glass walls from direct sunlight. The floors, walls and all of the interior surfaces are also realised in white Dekton, along with marble-effect surfaces.

"Making it all white has the main purpose of giving it evenness, and enlightening the sense of space," said Pellegrini.

Casa Container is separated into two halves, with a living and dining space to one side and a bedroom with a private en-suite bathroom on the other.

The grey fabric sofa is by Sao Paulo design studio Estudiobola. Recessed strip-lighting emitting a soft glow runs through the rooms and over the bed.

Pellegrini is following in the footsteps of other architects who have repurposed shipping containers for housing.

Japanese architect Kengo Kuma used stacked white shipping containers for a Starbucks coffee shop in Taiwan, as did James Whitaker, who designed a house in the California desert made from white containers splayed at different angles like a star burst.

Photography is by Ruy Teixeira.