Beautiful Virgin Islands

Thursday, Oct 30, 2025

A Breezy Modular Home Keeps Cool in Austin, Texas

A Breezy Modular Home Keeps Cool in Austin, Texas

Inspired by local residential typology, this 850-square-foot modular home has high ceilings, light-filled rooms, and a central breezeway.

In 2011, a couple approached Ma Modular about constructing a "modest but generous" residence where they could stay while visiting their children and grandchildren in Austin, Texas. With this brief in mind, Ma Modular founding principal Chris Krager developed a custom version of the firm’s Casita 850 home.



The exterior of the home features corrugated metal, wood siding, and weathered steel panels. A V-shaped column helps hold up the front porch.

The Casita 850 is a modular version of the "Texas dogtrot," a vernacular style of home that was common throughout the southeastern United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The typology is also known as a breezeway house, because of the connecting link at the center of the home. This layout works well in hot southern climates because the open corridor allows for cooling breezes.



A central breezeway connects two parts of the home, allowing breezes to pass though.

In this home, one module holds the public spaces (the living, dining, and kitchen areas), while another module hosts the private spaces (the bedroom, office, two baths, and a utility closet). These two modules are bridged by a screened-in porch that is equivalent in size to the other units.



The home's asymmetrical gabled roof defines the ceiling heights of the interior spaces.

The single-level residence has a low, asymmetrical gabled roof with a distinctly modern, if not midcentury, feel. A shaded porch at the entryway helps to mitigate heat from the strong Texan sun.



The generous size and ceiling height of the home's central room make it feel gracious and generous, even though the whole residence is only 850 square feet.

The interiors feature high ceilings and clerestory windows that bring in tons of natural light. The central room acts as an open living space with glazed walls on either side and a skylight.

The two modules located directly off this room are clearly distinguished through their materiality. The kitchen/dining/living module is clad in weathered steel, while the module containing the bedrooms is clad in corrugated metal.



A variety of carefully placed windows fill the living/dining/kitchen unit with light while maintaining a sense of privacy.

Krager is also the founder of KRDB, a design/build/develop firm formed in 2001. Both firms focus on affordable design with a particular interest in modular construction and non-traditional development models.



The kitchen/living/dining unit has an open plan with an L-shaped kitchen and island.



One of the three modules houses the private spaces, including a bedroom, two bathrooms, a utility closet, and a laundry area.



The home's breezeway is glazed on two sides, while the other two sides are bound by the adjacent units.



The custom Casita 850 build at dusk.



The tripartite plan of Casita 850 shows the central breezeway, with more private spaces on one side and more public on the other.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
UK and Vietnam Sign Landmark Migration Deal to Fast-Track Returns of Irregular Arrivals
UK Drug-Pricing Overhaul Essential for Life-Sciences Ambition, Says GSK Chief
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie Temporarily Leave the UK Amid Their Parents’ Royal Fallout
UK Weighs Early End to Oil and Gas Windfall Tax as Reeves Seeks Investment Commitments
UK Retail Inflation Slows as Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since Spring
Next Raises Full-Year Profit Guidance After Strong Third-Quarter Performance
Reform UK’s Lee Anderson Admits to 'Gaming' Benefits System While Advocating Crackdown
United States and South Korea Conclude Major Trade Accord Worth $350 Billion
Hurricane Melissa Strikes Cuba After Devastating Jamaica With Record Winds
Vice President Vance to Headline Turning Point USA Campus Event at Ole Miss
U.S. Targets Maritime Narco-Routes While Border Pressure to Mexico Remains Limited
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
×