Satellite Base Station 400 is the first full-scale, one-bedroom micro-home designed to help address Vermont’s housing crisis—offering a permanent housing solution for workforce residents, as an accessory dwelling, or as a primary residence—affordably priced at $135,000.
After surviving the devastating July 2023 flood that destroyed most of Up End This’s workspace and materials, Vermont designer and entrepreneur Michael Zebrowski is launching a new kind of modular housing unit: the Satellite Base Station 400.
Crafted with CNC precision, focused on design integrity, and aimed directly at the heart of Vermont’s housing crisis, the fully plumbed and wired one-bedroom unit represents the culmination of two years of refinement at Zebrowski’s Johnson-based design and development studio, Up End This.
Up End This’s Base Station 400 Interior. Photo courtesy of Up End This.
The Base Station 400 offers 440 square feet of compact, beautifully detailed space, featuring high-performance materials, passive solar potential, and a streamlined delivery process. Units are designed for easy siting in Vermont’s rural and village settings. Now nearing completion, the Satellite Base Station 400 is priced at $135,000 and available for immediate sale.
Built to exceed Vermont’s 2023 Residential Building Energy Standards, the Base Station 400 integrates high-efficiency systems and envelope strategies, including an energy recovery ventilator (ERV), a continuous air-sealed siding system, R-67 roof insulation, and carefully detailed electrical penetrations that minimize thermal bridging. These components ensure both energy performance and occupant comfort, even in rural or off-grid settings.
“The flood nearly ended everything,” Zebrowski said. “But in the end, it clarified my purpose. Vermont needs housing that’s smart, dignified, adaptable—and fast. That’s what Satellite is built for.”
Satellite Base Station Open House Set for June 25 in Johnson
Up End This will host an open house on Wednesday, June 25, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Satellite micro-factory and company headquarters in Johnson, inviting the public, media, and prospective buyers to experience the unit firsthand.
Zebrowski, a former professor of art, design, and architecture, left academia to focus on solving one of Vermont’s most urgent problems: the severe shortage of attainable housing. A pivotal moment came in 2018 when community organizer and close friend Nathan Suter told him, “Michael, you need to make bread instead of sailboats.” That idea—to design for real, pressing needs rather than abstraction—helped set the foundation for what would become Up End This.
Satellite Featured at PechaKucha Burlington on June 26
Zebrowski will also be a featured presenter at PechaKucha Burlington Volume 40 on Thursday, June 26, at the Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center. His talk, titled “Head in the Clouds, Feet on the Ground: Designing a Modular Future,” traces the evolution of his public and gallery installation work into the founding of Up End This.
Framed as a journey from poetic inquiry to practical systems thinking, the presentation explores how years of artistic exploration and collaborative experimentation converged to form the Satellite modular housing platform.
The event, known for its fast-paced format, brings together Vermont’s most forward-thinking designers, artists, and change-makers.
About Up End This
Up End This is a Vermont-based design studio and modular housing company pioneering compact, energy-efficient, CNC-fabricated micro-homes. Founded in 2020, the company sold and installed its first product—the Orbiter—that same year. Since then, Up End This has produced small-footprint structures for clients including Higher Ground, the City of Burlington’s Elmwood Community, and Madbush Falls, serving as everything from green rooms and hotel cabins to mobile backyard studios.
Now in its fifth year of development, Up End This is launching the Satellite housing line with a focus on affordability, energy performance, and local workforce potential. With its modular system, Up End This is positioning to scale production through regional micro-factories and a future franchise-based factory model designed to strengthen both housing supply and local economies.
🌐 www.upendthis.com | www.satelliteinorbit.com
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