To inspire, train, and connect the next generation of collaborative problem solvers — to design and implement effective solutions for social impact around the world.
Tiny Hacker House empowers remote tech professionals to thrive in collaborative environments by delivering curated co-living and co-building spaces. Our casual yet tech-driven approach equips digital nomads with the tools they need to innovate and connect.
We are a community incubator, an advocacy campaign, and a working set of grassroots projects taking on homelessness, affordable housing, and gentrification through community-driven entrepreneurship, sustainability, and innovation.
With Tiny Hacker House, professionals can focus on what truly matters: building the future.
Weekend-to-week-long sprint events. Builders, designers, and engineers ship working prototypes solving community-scale problems.
Public-facing showcases. Robotics, IoT, fabrication, hardware — open to families, students, and the curious. Live demos, build stations, prize tables.
Brief-driven design sprints. Recent: Challenge 6.0 at UT Austin, Challenge 5.0 with 8,000+ attendees, Challenge 4.0 with GirldayUT.
Geodesic dome structures and TinyDomeHomes. Includes WonderDome — a 13.5-ft truncated icosahedron — and steel-framed studios built in under four hours.
Large-format additive fabrication. Print structures, furniture, prototype parts at architectural scale. Open to resident makers.
Networked-device prototyping bench. Sensors, microcontrollers, mesh networks, and ML on-device — wired up and ready to be hacked on.
Mattresses are one of the hardest objects to recycle. We pull them apart and design ways to repurpose every layer — steel, foam, textile — into usable goods. A working case study in circular-economy waste repurposing.
A chess education program built to rebuild the way kids learn pattern, patience, and long-range thinking. Distributed through partner schools and community centers.
A mobile app that matches volunteers with community needs in minutes — and won first place at HackForLA. Now an open template for cities to adapt.
Gourmet meals delivered to people experiencing homelessness — built from rescued food, prepared by trained cooks, served with the dignity of a real restaurant plate.
An emergency-response mobile app for the moment after 911 — letting neighbors, schools, and community responders know what's happening on their block in real time.
A real-estate development partnership with the City of Austin to bring affordable housing online — pairing tiny-house construction, community land, and a Community Innovation Center.
A purpose-built outdoor classroom constructed for and with girls in STEM, in partnership with GirldayUT — serving 8,000+ students across multiple program years.
A 13.5-foot truncated icosahedron art installation — built, hauled, and reassembled at Burning Man and Great American Tiny House Show. VR / AR / MR / XR experiences inside.
Anil Pattni founded Tiny Hacker House in 2010 as a small experiment in what would happen if you built a workshop where the people who think about housing, technology, and community actually shared the same room.
Sixteen years later, it's a permanent fixture in Austin's design and maker scene — a community incubator that has run hackathons, makerfaires, design challenges, and field-built housing partnerships with the City of Austin.
Anil's practice spans futurism, content, and digital media — and the hospitality of getting strangers to build interesting things together over a long weekend.
An occasional email on what we're building, who's coming, and where the next event lands.
Subscribe → ApplyDesigners, builders, engineers, makers, hosts — we're always looking for people who finish what they start.
Apply now → DonateEvery dollar funds prize pools, materials, food, and the next outdoor classroom for girls in STEM.
Give → FollowLive event updates, recaps, and weekly Workshop Wednesday photo dumps.
Follow → AdoptSponsor a tiny house build through the affordable housing partnership with the City of Austin.
Learn more → MerchLimited-run workshop hats. Worn by mentors, makers, and the occasional mayor.
Inquire →An occasional email from the workshop — new events, new builds, calls for makers, and the next time we throw the doors open in Austin. Hacker. Maker. TinyHouse. Pick your lane.
First name · Last name · Email · Plain dispatch · Since 2010