Comment on Starbucks' new drive-thru in Texas is the coffee giant's first 3D printed store in the US

• SpraynardKruger@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ 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

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• Sporkbomber@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ 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.

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  • shalafi@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ 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.

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• Num10ck@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ 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.

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• KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  I would think like with wavy brick walls, wavy or curved walls would end up using less materials due to reduced surface area.

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