Various embodiments of a modular unit for a topologic qubit and of scalable quantum computing architectures using such modular units are disclosed herein. For example, one example embodiment is a modular unit for a topological obit comprising 6 Majorana zero modes (MZMs) on a mesoscopic superconducting island. These units can provide the computational MZMs with protection from quasiparticle poisoning. Several possible realizations of these modular units are described herein. Also disclosed herein are example designs for scalable quantum computing, architectures comprising the modular units together with gates and reference arms (e.g., quantum dots, Majorana wires, etc.) configured to enable joint parity measurements to be performed for various combinations of two or four MZMs associated with one or two modular units, as well as other operations on the states of MZMs.