Shipping container homes: from tiny houses to ambitious builds

Mobile, versatile and potentially carbon neutral, shipping containers are finding their footings as the starting point for new homes

Mick Wright asks me not to give the exact location of his double-storey shipping-container home because of the “paparazzi”. That’s what he calls the gawkers who pull up outside to take pictures. “I’ve had to lock the gates,” he says.

In fact you’d have to be quite the shipping container boffin to identify them in some of the elaborate homes that they’re being fashioned into these days.

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Class conversion: chef’s schoolhouse home is a feast for your eyes

Food writer Anna Barnett’s black-and-white flat in an old Victorian school is an exercise in good taste and clever design

A few years ago, cook, food writer and podcaster Anna Barnett was doing pop-up restaurants and supper clubs in east London. There were endless courses and the venue logistics were dizzying. She recalls nights of “carnage, complete carnage!”

House-hunting in 2018, she knew that wherever she lay her spatula, her new home had to double as a photogenic, practical work space. Her two-bedroom flat in a converted Victorian Grade II listed school in Hackney does just that. It’s a double height, 940sq ft open-plan space with a fluid, ergonomic design.

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Class conversion: chef’s schoolhouse home is a feast for your eyes

Food writer Anna Barnett’s black-and-white flat in an old Victorian school is an exercise in good taste and clever design

A few years ago, cook, food writer and podcaster Anna Barnett was doing pop-up restaurants and supper clubs in east London. There were endless courses and the venue logistics were dizzying. She recalls nights of “carnage, complete carnage!”

House-hunting in 2018, she knew that wherever she lay her spatula, her new home had to double as a photogenic, practical work space. Her two-bedroom flat in a converted Victorian Grade II listed school in Hackney does just that. It’s a double height, 940sq ft open-plan space with a fluid, ergonomic design.

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How will coronavirus hit money, pensions and property prices?

We look at whether you should sell shares and hold off buying a home, or just sit tight

The conventional wisdom in the pensions and investment industry is that you should sit tight. Jason Hollands of advisers Tilney says: “Now is the time for investors to exercise nerves of steel and to avoid the temptation to kneejerk sell long-term investments in reaction to short-term turmoil; in so doing they will just crystallise losses. The market is now pricing in a worst case scenario and with such negative sentiment hitting stock prices, those in a position to do so should consider feeding new cash into the market, picking up shares that have been indiscriminately marked down. As Warren Buffet once observed: “Be greedy when others are fearful.”

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Alys Fowler: how to breed the perfect pumpkin

If you can grow pumpkins, you can breed them, says the Austrian who is creating the heirloom varieties of the future

Klaus Brugger loves pumpkins. In particular, he loves a certain flesh quality and the nutty flavour in winter squash, and because he is a curious type and a passionate gardener, the Austrian wondered whether he might be able to make his perfect pumpkin. I know this because his Instagram account (@klaus_brugger), which is full of pumpkin pinups, is documenting this journey. It’s a brilliant educational tour of how to go about creating your own vegetable varieties on a small scale.

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When in Rome: Swedish graphics meet Italian tiling in a joyful flat

Designer Liselotte Watkins raided flea markets across Europe to create a colourful jumble

When Liselotte Watkins moved with her family to Rome from Milan four years ago, it was in such a rush that she had time to look at only one apartment. The previous owner had lived there for 30 years, and wouldn’t let her take photographs, so “my husband, Jonas, had to take my word for it,” she says. It was painted dark colours and the layout wasn’t practical, but it was close to Jonas’s new job, a decent school for their children Wim, 10, and Ava, eight, and Villa Borghese park. Swedish-born Watkins, an artist, illustrator and designer who has collaborated with Prada, Marimekko, and the Italian porcelain company Bitossi, works from a studio at home.

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Gardening tips: plant pulmonarias

Then hack back honeysuckle and help a gardening charity

Pulmonarias flower this month right into May, offering a nectar-rich treat for bees. You can enjoy their silver-spotted foliage and their merit as a groundcover plant in shadier, damp borders. Cultivar ‘Diana Clare’ is one of the best, with its pinky-violet flowers. Height and spread: 40 x 40cm.

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