A new micro-apartment concept is redefining the meaning of urban living.
Jeff Wilson, nicknamed “Professor Dumpster,” is the mastermind behind the Kasita project. After spending a year living in a 33-square-foot, used Dumpster as a social experiment, Wilson wanted to apply the best aspects of Dumpster living—such as mobility and low rent—to a new kind of housing.
And so, Professor Dumpster conceptualized Kasita, a small apartment that can move across the country with its owner.
As a sort of superstructure for the 208-square-foot units, Wilson envisions the downtown cores of America’s major metros having nine-compartment "racks" where the individual steel-and-glass apartments could be slotted into any of the spaces available akin to a parking space. The racks themselves would be connected to municipal utilities, which would connect to the units via pipes.
When a resident wants to move to a new city—and take the apartment along—he or she could request a move via Kasita’s smart phone app, and the unit would be transported on a truck to its new location.
Kasita is equipped with smart-home technology throughout the unit, allowing residents to adjust temperatures, change the lighting, or start a music playlist through hands-free voice commands.
Each unit is designed with the fundamental components of a traditional home in mind and includes a walk-in shower, refrigerator, convection oven, dishwasher, washer/dryer combo, cooktop, and a queen-sized bed that can easily be folded into the wall to create extra space.
The units' interior walls are outfitted with modular tiles that residents can customize to create shelves, gadgets, and different finishes—anything from key hooks and cork boards to fish tanks and wall speakers.
Aside from being smaller than a typical home, Kasita doesn't consider itself a tiny house or a shipping container, but, instead “completely reimagines the home with industrial design at its core,” according to the company.
The first Kasitas are expected to appear in Austin, Texas, in 2016, and the company hopes to roll out the model in 10 additional cities—including Stockholm—by 2017. The rent price for a Kasita will be equal to half the market rate for a standard studio apartment in each individual metro, which would come to about $600 per month in its home base of Austin.
