I’m sure it’s a basic shape because the technology is in its infancy, and they wanted an actual building in the end. The fancy stuff comes later.
Comment on Starbucks' new drive-thru in Texas is the coffee giant's first 3D printed store in the US
tal@lemmy.today 3 weeks ago
I kind of think that if they’re going to do 3D printed structures, they’d do better to do buildings that can really play to the technology’s strengths: the ability to create fairly-arbitrary, organic shapes.
I mean, what they’ve got there is basically a rectangle with rounded corners. I guess the rounded corners are aesthetically unusual, but it doesn’t seem like it’s buying Starbucks a whole lot.
CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
drosophila@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
Yeah, I’m not an expert in construction but I don’t really know what this buys you vs using, for example, insulating concrete forms.
prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
It’s outlined in the article, fwiw.
The benefit is not needing workers to do the construction
protist@mander.xyz 3 weeks ago
The more complex the design, the more expensive it’s going to be, even with this construction method. Starbucks is looking to do this as cheaply as possible.
tal@lemmy.today 3 weeks ago
Complexity doesn’t really add difficulty to 3d printing. My 3D printer doesn’t much care whether a head is moving in a straight line or doing a zig-zag.
SpraynardKruger@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
Just coming from a civil engineering/construction perspective, the straight lines are probably more about alignment. In these kinds of buildings (and considering US zoning laws that require a certain amount of parking), sometimes the alignment is critical to ensuring the building, parking, and drive-through fit. Straight lines are easy to measure, draw, and check in the field. Not to mention the actual way these 3D printing concrete machines work. The ones I’ve seen online are on some kind of track, and these ones are no different. From the looks of it, they’re kind of set up like those cranes you see at shipyards: youtube.com/shorts/igQ9G_Brkl8
Sporkbomber@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
Your 3d printer doesn’t have other utilities to accommodate. The printing is basically just the walls. Every other utility (Power, water, sanitary, HVAC, foundations, windows, doors, metal fabrications, networking etc) are all still done by people, all made with options made by other manufacturers.
Your printer also uses quick setting thermoplastic, not a concrete slurry that needs to set over the course of days instead of fractions of a second.
This and typical FDM printing are related, but truths about printing our a plastic trinket don’t necessarily translate to large concrete structures.
shalafi@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Beat me to it. I was imagining the horror involved in wiring or plumbing such a space. Don’t know much about HVAC, but there would be weird hot and cold spots in an oddly shaped structure.
Num10ck@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
there was a moment in the 1990s when a computer application didnt have to be rectangular. stoner fantasies of wonderful possibilities blossomed and a couple of interesting examples showed up like Sonique media player for windows. however it quickly became obvious that rectangles were the most useful, everything else was a compromise within constraints. if you were to build a sculptural house, imagine having to also build the furniture and lighting and everything to fit without being annoying or wasteful.
KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
I would think like with wavy brick walls, wavy or curved walls would end up using less materials due to reduced surface area.
barsoap@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
Casting concrete requires building formwork to cast the concrete into. For any standardised shape constructing the formwork is easy: Just assemble it from the parts you have. Straight sections? The most common case. Rounded corners? As long as you’re fine with “should be round” and don’t require some very specific radius, those are probably also at hand. A gargoyle? Well that’s not an easy form to produce but once you have it, you can cast 1000 gargoyles.
Where 3d printing comes in is places where you have a shape that’s literally or nearly unique, where building the formwork would be a PITA. In all other cases, the traditional method is quicker and cheaper.
Also interesting is stuff like solar sintering plain sand.