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Katrina Cottages aren't just great ideas anymore; many of them also include working drawings from which you can build your very own Katrina Cottage. You can find many of the Katrina Cottage designs for which there are working drawing on this site, but Katrina Cottage Plan Portfolios are now beginning to be released that contain some designs not currently carried here. And their variety is growing all the time. Katrina Cottage Types keeps track of all the variations, which include the following:

Katrina Tiny Cottages are the smallest, as you might imagine, with up to 500 square feet on one level. Katrina Cottage I (exhibited first at the Builders' Show in Orlando) is a Tiny Cottage, as is Katrina Cottage VII, which was the first Katrina Cottage ever produced by a housing manufacturer. Katrina Thin Cottages are between 500 and 1,600 square feet, and are 16' wide or less, measured to the eaves. Katrina Cottage IV, built from a prototype Lowe's kit at the first Katrina Cottage Court in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, is a Thin Cottage, as is Katrina Cottage VI, which was designed for the Florida Cracker vernacular. Katrina Double Cottages may be up to 32' wide and, if manufactured, are delivered to the site in two pieces. They are the only type of Katrina Cottage that may be larger than 1,600 square feet; they can be up to 2,000 square feet on the main level. Katrina Cottage III, site-built in Pass Christian, Mississippi, is a Double Cottage. Katrina Kernel Cottages may be any size up to 1,600 square feet on one level, and are designed to expand in many directions. The USA Weekend Katrina Cottage (Katrina Cottage VIII) began with a Kernel Cottage. Katrina Courtyard Cottages may be any size up to 1,600 square feet, and are composed of two or more wings surrounding a courtyard. Katrina Loft Cottages are built with a partial second story built under single-story eaves. Katrina Cottage II, built at the Arabi charrette in St. Bernard Parish just outside New Orleans, is a Loft Cottage. Katrina Tall Cottages have full two-story walls. Both Loft Cottages and Tall Cottages may be any size up to 1,600 square feet. Katrina Cottage V, built in New Orleans, is a Tall Cottage.

Katrina Cottages were originally conceived as Tiny Cottages to replace FEMA trailers with sturdy, permanent structures worthy of being kept for a hundred years or more. But they have grown beyond that original goal. Because the original goals of the Katrina Cottage movement were broad enough (deliver high-quality architecture appropriate to the regional conditions, climate, and culture that can be delivered using the five principal methods: manufactured, modular, kits, panelized, and site-built,) they easily included other building types. Today, many building types can be delivered the Katrina Way if the buildings are small enough and meet other state and local requirements (see Architectural Registration section below.)

Katrina Condos are a clever solution to the blandness of most multi-unit residential structures. The market range of architectural fees for apartment or condo buildings is unusually low compared to most other building types, which helps to explain the way they usually look. Katrina Condos help solve this problem by providing two things: complete manufactured living unit modules, and an Exterior Architecture Advisory Kit showing images of the sorts of details that would make a building composed of these modules beautiful. It is up to the end-user's architect, of course, to incorporate the ideas in the Kit into the building design. Katrina Live/Works build the live/work idea as an assembly of 2 or 3 modules. They can either stand alone or be attached with other adjacent units if allowable by law in your town. Katrina Commercial units are similar to Katrina Thin Cottages, except that they sit closer to the ground so adjacent ones can be connected by a boardwalk, and the interior is wide open with the exception of a bathroom, a kitchenette, and maybe an office at the rear. Most are designed to be free-standing. Katrina Civic units include a number of building types that can stand alone as very small units, such as a neighborhood-scale post office or freestanding classrooms, if permitted by law in your town.

These multiple-unit and mixed-use Katrina types (Katrina Condo, Katrina Live/Work, Katrina Commercial, and Katrina Civic) are more heavily regulated by state architectural license boards and other state and local regulatory agencies such as local building officials. Architect registration laws vary from state to state. They are usually based on the size of the unit and whether the unit is fee simple (meaning that you own from dirt to sky) or combined with other units above or below.

Because Katrina units are small, many hit below the unit size threshold of many states, and live/work units often fall under rowhouse rules in some municipalities, which allows them to be designed by non-architects. Also, some cities may have stricter requirements than their underlying state law.

Many of the designers of these units are licensed to practice architecture in at least one state in the USA, but almost certainly not all of them, so be sure that you check with your local building official before buying these plans to verify whether they can be used if the designer is not locally licensed.