Hyperion inks deal for 3D printed house

A Perth company founded by a 24-year-old and already famed for its ability to print an entire boat hull in a day will turn its attention to housing, with the first-ever 3D printed home from entirely recycled plastic in the southern hemisphere.

Hyperion Systems revealed today it inked a deal with Fremantle-based residential property builder Little Castles Small Homes for the construction of the first modular 3D printed tiny home built out of entirely recycled plastic.

The home will be built using Hyperion Systems‘ TitanCell mobile 3D printing unit, which is housed inside either a 20-foot or 40-foot shipping container, and can be deployed in under 24 hours, print up to 30 kilograms per hours.

Capable of 3D printing parts up to 10-metres in length and dubbed a ‘factory-in-a-box’, the self-contained, industrial scale 3D printing unit is transportable and can be immediately operated on-site or managed remotely.

The technology combines custom-built hardware with proprietary software and pellet-based plastic feedstock – either new or recycled – and offers integrated machining capabilities, allowing parts to go from design to final product in a single setup.

In this particular case, the feedstock will be entirely recycled plastic.

Hyperion Systems founder and chief executive Joshua Wigley, who started the company at just 24, said the contract represented a major milestone in sustainable construction and advanced manufacturing in Australia.

Now 28-years-old, Mr Wigley said core components for the tiny homes will be manufactured in modular sections at Hyperion’s facility in Henderson, before the final fit-out and completio nby Little Castles on-site.

“We will be using recylced polymers as our base feedstock and through the intellectual property we have developed in-house we will be able to print the core structure for a tiny home in around 48 hours,” he said.

The entirely recycled polymer build will be termite resistent and have beneficial thermodynamic properties.

“This build will mark the first 3D printed polymer house in the Southern Hemisphere, positioning Western Australia at the forefront of innovative, sustainable housing solutions,” Mr Wigley said.

“This project represents a breakthrough in how we think about construction. By using recycled plastics and advanced manufacturing techniques, we are not only reducing material waste but also significantly improving production speed and labour efficiency.”

Hyperion must meet all relevant Australian building codes as part of the contract, ensuring safety, durability and compliance while advancing circular economy principles.

It’s those codes, practices and norms Mr Wigley hopes to not only satisfy, but surpass.

“By accelerating build times and freeing up skilled labour to focus on more traditional home builds, the technology offers a pathway to delivering more housing at scale,” he said.

Little Castles Small Homes director Mark Hughes said he was excited to the involved in the first residential use of Hyperion’s technology.

“We’re not juts building a tiny home differently; we’re shaping how homes should be built into the future,” he said.

“More sustainable, more considered, and making better use of what we already. It’s about creating spaces and proving that smaller homes can still deliver a higher standard of living.”

The contract with Little Castles is the latest in a string of wins for Hyperion and Mr Wigley, who was last year named Young Innovator of the Year at the Indo Pacific International Maritime Exhibition’s pitch fest and awards.

Adding to the $40,000 won from that award, in July, Hyperion was awarded some $385,000 in a matched funding grant through the federal government’s innovation growth program, aimed at helping to commercialise its technology.

Since its 2022 inception, the company has 3D printed Australia’s first boat hull, a 3-metre vessel completed in just 36 hours; built the country’s largest 3D printed structure – a public artwork at Kalgoorlie TAFE; installed a robotic 3D print system for design students at Griffith University; and secured a Henderson warehouse to position itself alongside defence and subsea businesses within the Australian Marine Complex.

The company has already secured backing from Perth businessman David Budge, who co-founded 3D metal printing firm Aurora Labs Ltd, and is now the Hyperion’s chief technology officer.

Seasoned chief executive and entrepreneur Tim Dean, founder of Credi, has taken the role of commercial lead at Hyperion.

Perhaps one of its biggest wins yet was its technology’s marriage with another WA upshoot, maritime autonomy software and hardware developer Greenroom Robotics.

The pair agreed to collaborate to create and test 3D-printed unmanned surface vehicles for naval use.

The boats would be designed and manfuctured by Hyperion, with Greenroom integrating its GAMA software solution to the final vessel to make it autonomous.

Hyperion is also partnering with the University of Western Australia to focus on transforming decommissioned subsea plastics from oil and gas infrastructure into high-quality pellets for feedstock.