Is Kasita’s ‘Smart Home’ the Remedy for Urban Overcrowding?

September 13, 2016 5:00 am
Kasita Housing Units
(Kasita)

If you live in any of the major urban hubs—New York City, San Francisco, London, Madrid—you know how expensive it is to live there. And as demand for property grows, the costs will only skyrocket from there.

Then, of course, there’s the issue of space. You can only build so many high-rise condominiums (or, as one group of researchers predicted, super-skyscrapers).

That’s where Dr. Jeff Wilson—a.k.a. “Professor Dumpster,” because he voluntarily lived in a 33-square-foot dumpster for a year—comes in. He and his business partner Taylor Wilson, a real estate developer, have launched Kasita, which is set to produce “smart homes” for bustling urban centers—with a testing ground of Austin, Texas, already in the works. The “Kasita,” a play on the Spanish for tiny home, is basically a smallish, modular, glass-box-like housing unit that can be cheaply built, won’t cost its tenants an arm and a leg, and is aesthetically pleasing. (It sort of reminds us of the Wikkelhouse.)

Says Dr. Wilson of his project: “Urban housing is perhaps the single most important factor in facing the economic, environmental, and social challenges that face humanity today.” Check out what one of these buildings might look like below. For more information on the company, click here.

The InsideHook Newsletter.

News, advice and insights for the most interesting person in the room.