This Is Kasita, the iPhone for Housing: Compact, Smart, Modular, and Mobile

Tiny living has taken center stage in recent years due to a variety of factors ranging from the rising costs of living, heightened awareness of environmental issues, and the desire to lead a more mobile life. Tiny houses and alternative housing options also make for great Instagram content, which turned tiny living itself into a bankable occupation.

Before all this, there was the Kasita. Like the Boxabl Casita, a viral star since word got out that Tesla CEO Elon Musk lived in a prototype outside of SpaceX in Texas, the name comes from the Spanish word meaning "little house."

The Kasita idea goes back to 2014 when creator Jeff Wilson was living out of a dumpster and started thinking about a unit that would be ideal for densely populated urban areas.

Wilson is a former environmental studies professor at Huston-Tillotson University, who also goes by Professor Dumpster because of that project that saw him live out of a repurposed dumpster for a year. He then moved on to the Kasita, which he unveiled in 2015, and, even later, the Jupe glamping unit, which uses some of the modularity features from Kasita to create the perfect vacation accommodation wherever you might be.

Kasita looks like a container house and features a layout similar to what you might find in one of those. The difference is that it's not made out of a container but of prefabricated aluminum composite panels assembled on-site over a steel structural framework.

One such micro-dwelling is perfect as a permanent residence for two people, or it could be joined with other units to create larger, multiple-bedroom family homes. Stack more such units, and you get "instant" (-ish) homes for crowded urban areas where construction permits are impossible to get.

The Kasita has a linear layout, with an elevated platform at one end hiding the electrics and offering extra storage. The platform holds the kitchen and dining area, the bathroom, and a utility closet, while the front end is taken up by the bedroom slash lounge and an atrium-like living.

Wilson unveiled a functional Kasita prototype with this layout in 2015. In between having it on display at various local trade events, he used it as his home. It was a welcome upgrade to living in a dumpster tiny home, to be sure: the Kasita prototype offered 319 square feet (30 square meters) of living space.

Later that year, Wilson revealed plans for a series production unit that came with 352 square feet (33 square meters) of living space and took eight weeks to finish before the on-site assembly. It came equipped with the same IoT features as the prototype, so there'd be more than 60 connected gadgets and home devices meant to make life easier, more comfortable, and more convenient.

Aside from being a very compact, quite elegant, and relatively mobile tiny house (*assuming you hired a crane and truck to move it around), Kasita immediately stood out for its smart features. This was a home that came with everything from smart lights and blinds, remote unlock, home security, and permanent monitoring of all functions, including water consumption.

Wilson's unit even had a feature that recognized moods based on his voice when uttering commands. Preset, more obvious modes like "theater" were also available, dimming the lights, bringing out the TV from its hideaway, and opening Netflix.

"Kasita is on a mission to solve the housing crisis in America with our seamlessly smart, beautifully designed light homes," the Kasita team said in 2015 when the time came to bring the units to mass production. "We have taken a product design approach to housing in a way never before imagined."

The interior was equally modular, and it was part of the unique design approach. As photos in the gallery show, the open-plan interior allowed for multiple functionalities, from coffee shop to personal gym, office, or home. Wilson's unit was a home and was specced accordingly, including full-size appliances in the kitchen, a full bathroom, and elegant finishes.

The living area was wrapped in self-tinting glass, helping to create a home environment that was both airy and brightly lit by the sun. When you're dealing with compact layouts designed to double as permanent residences, it's gimmicks like these that help with making them feel less cramped.

At the time, Kasita was presented as a one-for-all solution, with customers ranging from urban millennials looking to put their own spin on home ownership to retirees, environmentalists, middle-class workers, and the well-heeled looking to switch it up with a smart tiny.

However, the base price of the Kasita was anything but affordable: $139,000 for a turnkey unit. This probably went a long way toward stalling the project, but Kasita lives on as a viable, if too costly, example of minimalist, smart, and mobile living.