If you need to move to a new city, this tiny apartment is designed to come with you. What's even better, it would cost about half the rent of space at market rate, even if you're in insanely expensive rental markets like Brooklyn or San Francisco.
The sleek glass-and-steel box slides into a narrow metal frame that squeezes into otherwise unbuildable lots in built-up urban neighborhoods. If you need to move, you'd push a button on an app. A moving truck will pull up, slide the apartment completely out of the building, and drive it to an empty slot in a building elsewhere. Forget packing; everything you own can stay inside.
The prefab buildings are also fully loaded with smart tech. You can tell the glass to darken if you want privacy, turn on the lights and music, or ask for the morning news. Though the first units will plug into the grid, the startup envisions eventually running them off solar power stored in Tesla batteries and adding features like rainwater collection.
Despite the long list of features, the size—and the fact that it can go on lots no one else wants—makes it affordable. "We are very confident that these will rent for about half of market for a studio," Wilson says. "So in Austin, that is about $600."
The company plans to build its first rack in Austin in the spring of 2016, and has agreements on land in several cities. Eventually, it plans to have a network of buildings that people can easily move between.
"Let's imagine you're in San Francisco," Wilson says. "You get on the Kasita app, you find the rack that you want to move to in Austin, you click move, we come along, pull you out of the rack, put you on the truck, move you to Austin, and plug you in. You don't have to go on Craigslist. The biggest nightmare for a millennial—or anybody who doesn't have a severely high net worth—is looking for a place. We hope to solve for that."