this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2025
121 points (89.5% liked)
Technology
70415 readers
3022 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
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.
Starbucks clearly has been willing to set up custom locations using all kinds of architecture in the past:
https://www.klook.com/en-PH/blog/beautiful-starbucks-around-the-world/
Same thing with McDonalds:
https://www.businessinsider.com/weirdest-coolest-glamorous-mcdonalds-restaurants-in-the-world-2020-5
You'd think that if you're going to use this exotic new construction technique that permits for a lot of unusual stuff, you could figure out a way to make some kind of eye-catching thing that leverages its strengths. Cost saving on construction is nice, sure, but...
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.
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. It's gonna just keep extruding that concrete.
Kinda like how a 2D printer doesn't much care whether you're printing a detailed image or a very simple one.
I guess that there's a material cost. But, then, that's also true of existing buildings, and they clearly don't optimize for that to the exclusion of all else, else there'd be no aesthetic used in designing those buildings.
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 out a plastic trinket don't necessarily translate to large concrete structures.
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.