Walk inside a smart prefab home this weekend

See micro home living for yourself this weekend as Kasita, an Austin-based startup creating modular smart homes, touches down for a D.C. open house. The modern metal structure currently planted in a field near Navy Yard is available for tours by the public, so you can see how efficient the floor plan of this 352-square foot structure is in real life. Stairs open up to reveal storage space, and you can use Alexa to control the blinds, Sonos speaker or set mood lighting.

Plus, very little furniture is needed here. “You really just move in with your clothes and you are good — maybe some plates and a cup,” Kasita’s Benji Miller told Curbed DC. The idea is that D.C. developers could stack Kasitas to create apartments or condos (in Austin, these units rent for $1,300 a month, Miller said). Or homeowners in D.C. could add a Kasita to their backyard or a plot of land.

The Kasita is located at M Street SE and New Jersey Avenue SE, in the field across from the Navy Yard-Ballpark Station. The open house hours are 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. today and then noon to 8 p.m. on Saturday. Take a look at the Kasita unit in the video below, and then go and check it out for yourself in person.

• Kasita in D.C. [EventBrite]
• This smart tiny prefab could be an answer to affordable housing [Curbed]
• Mobile, modular ‘Kasita’ homes are now in production [Curbed]
• Tiny homes get more versatile, affordable with Austin company’s new modular line [Curbed Austin]