Since we at Kodasema published our map of KODAs in the world, it has been popular among you to play the game of finding your closest KODA. There are new dots on the KODA map, as well as a whole new country! The first KODAs have arrived in Switzerland and were privately installed in a beautiful mountainous setting. This marks a huge milestone for Kodasema, to have adapted KODAs to the extra stringent Swiss norms and regulations. KODA houses have always been known for their high quality and energy efficiency, but the Swiss norms regarding movable housing took our engineering creativity to the extreme. The challenge was an enormous work and intense joint effort from electrical engineers both in Estonia and in Switzerland. But… we made it!
Our team of CEO Birgit Linnamäe and COO Kelli Roosimägi recently travelled to the region to explore the new KODAs in Switzerland, discuss with new property developers there as well as meet up with our Austrian KODA owners near the Swiss-Austrian border.
In addition to the several new expansion plans in Switzerland and near its border – both in Austria as well as France – we also spoke to large holiday park developers from Germany who travelled down to meet us.
Back in the day when we designed and produced our first house, the much-adorned KODA Concrete, it looked like we were ahead of our time. People were not quite ready for the concept of environment-conscious downsizing and tiny living. The need to re-densify cities where on-site build is too complicated or not viable – and remember we need it as 1 million people globally move to cities every week – and meanwhile use of infill land was new to many, aside from the idea of simply holidaying in a tiny house.
The world has changed. People can often no longer afford to buy land, so placing a 50 sqm KODA Loft Extended, our movable 3 bedroom unit, in a backyard of a say 1000 sqm land plot, is an alternative and often less costly way for young people to be able to afford a home of their own. When needs change, the grandparents can swap to move into the KODA in the yard and young families enjoy the benefits of the main property. Adding KODA homes on existing plots with houses creates the space we need, at a price we can pay and in quality that is friendly to our planet.
Currently, we are approached more and more by developers with plans for long-term rental properties, and directly by people with plans for permanently setting up their lives in KODAs. Compared to where we started from, there is now an entire range of KODA models from 19.95 sq m to 50 sq m, to respond to the variety of needs and use cases.
For anyone looking into KODAs in Switzerland: please meet Sandro Glaus, our agent in Switzerland. Sandro has been supporting our operations in the region for some time now. He is actively participating in many businesses and projects, also running a family hotel business in Losone and the first global Swiss Chocolate franchise brand My Swiss Choco. Sandro is a valued team member in our distribution network and you can reach him via the contact details below
Z.hd Sandro Glaus
Uniko GmbH
Via dei Pioppi 14
CH-6616 Losone
[email protected]
+41 91 780 59 80