The tiny house movement
We all know that less is more – and the same is true when it comes to housing. More and more home owners and renters are getting jazzed about tiny houses. People want to simplify their lives. After all, a bigger house just means bigger bills and more chores. The tiny house movement recently got a boost when Kasita, a tiny house design company, won a SXSW Interactive Innovation Award.
Based out of Austin
Kasita is a design company based in Austin, Texas, a “growing city in need of affordable, urban housing.” Kasita hopes to address this problem by building prefabricated housing units that are stocked with all the amenities, despite their diminutive square footage.
Kasita units are 270 square feet with nine foot high ceilings. By using thoughtful, smart design, these small homes are still able to house a queen sized bed, a dishwasher, and laundry facilities. Currently there are prototypes in use in East Austin, and you can sign up now to have your own unit by late 2016.
Emergency housing and more
The company is even “building close ties with city representatives” to see if Kasita could be used to alleviate Austin’s housing shortage. The units can be stacked on simple racks to create apartment buildings ten stories high, making quick work of adding much needed housing to Austin’s overcrowded downtown. Kasitas, which are quickly and easily installed, could also be used in the future as temporary and reusable emergency housing for crisis situations and natural disasters.
Good ol’ “Doctor Dumpster”
Founder Jeff Wilson is no stranger to living in tiny spaces. He’s known around Austin as Doctor Dumpster, having made a name for himself by living for a year in a 33 square foot, used commercial dumpster. The former Silicon Valley exec buried his Rolex in the late 90’s and has never looked back. He’s followed his passion for minimalism, all the way to South by Southwest, which has given Kasita its Smart Cities award “for innovations in eco-friendly or sustainable” enterprises that make “life in a connected world smarter, cleaner, greener, and more efficient.”
#KasitaSXSW
Gabe Sanders
March 25, 2016 at 6:19 pm
I think this tiny house movement has some real potential for both affordable living and help for sustainable resource use. Though, I think it will be left for the millennials to see if they embrace it, because I don’t see any other groups flocking to it with great numbers.
Lani Rosales
March 28, 2016 at 10:14 am
Hey Gabe, I don’t have the data at my fingertips, but I’ve read that it’s more regional than age-based, so that plays a huge role in the decision to downsize, for sure.