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Show HN: Brutalist Concrete Laptop Stand (2024)
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- __mharrison__ 6mo agoThis is cool. It's not for everyone and probably very heavy. But I love the hacker feel of it.
- jerf 6mo agoI would personally pay money not to have this thing. It's wonderful and I love that someone else loves it. The care put into it is fantastic. Vive la différence. (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vive_la_diff%C3%A9rence https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vive_la_diff%C3%A9rence for those who may not recognize that phrase.)
- ada1981 6mo agoHow much money are you willing to pay? If sufficient I won't commission one and have it sent to your house. @AnthonyDavidAdams on venmo!
- wolfi1 6mo agook, it's stable (at least from the photos), but I would prefer a more lightweight approach
- Anmol-Baranwal 6mo ago[dead]
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- jb1991 6mo agoThere are some subtly weak desks out there, quite a few actually, where placing this on top could be brutal.
- ramon156 6mo agoNext up: Brutalist desk
- mft_ 6mo agoNext up: structural engineering assessment of my office floor
- HPsquared 6mo agoThere are some subtly weak floors out there, where placing such a desk could be fatal.
- bpavuk 6mo agoif we give it a little more polish, colder/greyer tones and "newness," it would fit very nicely for a Control fan :) EDIT: https://store.steampowered.com/app/870780/Control_Ultimate_Edition/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/870780/Control_Ultimate_E...
- polyterative 6mo agoMy favorite video game of the universe.
- jesse_faden 6mo agoas a control fan, i agree. the art direction in that game is something else.
- queuebert 6mo agoI was delighted to see that a sequel is coming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJTBoQhWaC0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJTBoQhWaC0 The maze level on the original game has to be an all-time best level design.
- bpavuk 6mo ago> I was delighted to see that a sequel is coming the sequel trailer got me into the first game, actually :)) and I'm already sold on these recursive pigeons. is it multiplicative resonance? > all-time best level design well, the only worthy contenders are DEATHLOOP and Dishonored 2 :> but yeah, Remedy does deserve every award they got with Control
- jesse_faden 6mo agoalso fun little project i discovered randomly https://control-records.netlify.app https://control-records.netlify.app source: https://github.com/louh/control-records/ https://github.com/louh/control-records/ > the sequel trailer got me into the first game, actually similarly the first game got me into Alan Wake, and now onto Alan Wake II
- xpe 6mo agoAlso known as an inertial mass dampener for your sit-stand desk. I appreciate++ the design except for the too-perfect rebar and the exposed wire directly _in_ the concrete. Pros would use a conduit methinks.
- sam-bee 6mo agoThe conduit is a good idea. I'm working on a Raspberry Pi stand in leather and walnut right now. Think I'm going to incorporate that somehow
- crimsontech 6mo agoThis is pretty cool looking, I like it, it must be really heavy though. > For a medium-sized piece like this, a vibrating dildo is actually the best thing to use. Just think of it like any other power tool.For a medium-sized piece like this, a vibrating dildo is actually the best thing to use. Just think of it like any other power tool. I used work on foundations for warehouses, huge concrete blocks as anchor points and this is exactly how we got the bubbles out, we had a huge metal vibrator they call them high-frequency concrete pokers.
- tokai 6mo agoIsn't the ornamental 'urban decay' detail kinda the opposite of the utilitarian and functional style of brutalism?
- seeeeebt 6mo agoYes, Sam is probably just having a bit of fun here, but I think it's worth presenting brutalism correctly as it's often so misunderstood. Concrete is simply the mass production medium of the time, many of the patterns and moulds used in Barbican for example feature pretty timber imprints, scalloping patterns, painstakingly pick-hammered textured panels, or pleasing swooping shapes. Further there is always space for glass, brass, Terrazzo and lighting. Sam's design does feel cold, unnatural and broken, definitely not what brutalist living is about. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2016/feb/22/building-the-brutal-barbican-peter-bloomfield https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2016/feb/22... https://www.structuralrenovations.co.uk/portfolio/barbican-estate-city-of-london https://www.structuralrenovations.co.uk/portfolio/barbican-e... https://www.barbicanliving.co.uk/barbican-story/construction/hammered-and-brushed-finish/#:~:text=Only%20when%20it%20was%20in,have%20got%20away%20with%20that. https://www.barbicanliving.co.uk/barbican-story/construction...
- pjc50 6mo ago> cold, unnatural and broken, definitely not what brutalist living is about. This can often be the actual experience of it, though. Part of why it's so divisive. Personally I'm on the "looks great, wouldn't want to actually live there" side. The Barbican is an example of how good it can be when properly maintained by a community. There are plenty of less prestigious examples where the community cheered their demolition.
- isolli 6mo agoMy subjective appreciation of building materials depends essentially on how gracefully they age. I find that concrete does not age well... and dislike brutalism for this specific reason.
- 6mo ago
- gcr 6mo agoIf you like brutalism, you might also enjoy the Quake Brutalist Map Jam 3, which released last month: https://www.slipseer.com/index.php?resources/quake-brutalist-jam-iii.549/ https://www.slipseer.com/index.php?resources/quake-brutalist... My favorite map is ‘One Need Not Be a House’ by Robert Yang, which was inspired by Louis Kahn's "brick brutalism" masterpieces in Bangladesh and India, as well as contemporary level design like The Silent Cartographer. The artist writes about their process on their blog post, https://www.blog.radiator.debacle.us/2026/01/one-need-not-be-a-house.html?m=1 https://www.blog.radiator.debacle.us/2026/01/one-need-not-be... The map jam is standalone and uses custom assets so you don’t need a copy of Quake to enjoy it. Check the website for the ‘standalone’ variant. Sorry for derailing! Cool laptop stand!
- mock-possum 6mo agoYang also regularly writes really interesting blog posts, mostly around game design. Very much recommend keeping tabs on him.
- gcr 6mo agoagreed! i was reading his posts this morning on the subway and he's now a part of my RSS reader :-)
- bitwize 6mo agoWas just gonna say this is a great accessory to put your computer on while playing QBJ3!
- ge96 6mo agoJust finished reading Masters of Doom crazy Quake is still a thing today I do really like the fast pace of Doom Eternal and Dark Ages which you can see here I think
- bityard 6mo agoNeat! I was big into Quake years ago. This looks like something I could waste a weekend on. Are these all single-player maps? Are there any that are designed for (or would at least be suitable for) 1-4 player deathmatch?
- cm2187 6mo agoYou just need to cover it with graffitis to fully depict the experience of the poor souls living in brutalist buildings.
- xgulfie 6mo agoThe author mentions urban decay and dilapidation multiple times and very clearly worked that into the design here
- mghackerlady 6mo agoI've always loved this style of architecture. People think commie blocks are ugly but I've always appreciated their simple utilitarianism
- CSP_LIBRARY 6mo agopost-apocalyptic vibes
- jagged-chisel 6mo agoDid they actually show the tools used to remove bubbles?
- sam-bee 6mo agoThat got cropped out of all photos in the interest of taste and decency.
- jagged-chisel 6mo agoA pic of a post-apocalyptic cement vibrator (perhaps not the dildo kind) would definitely have fit the aesthetic
- sam-bee 6mo agoSure is! It was a lot of fun to make, and I think it ended up with a nice urban decay feel to it
- pjc50 6mo agoI wonder what the practical limit is on how thin and light you can make concrete for non-structural items? I can see someone selling concrete mugs on Etsy, for example. Maybe with clever use of fillers and thin walls you could have a version of this you could actually lift. It looks great, especially in contrast to a white IKEA-style office. Re: decay, I regret not taking more photos of the final days of the RBS "Ziggurat": https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/edinburgh-news/stark-photo-shows-iconic-edinburgh-24619058 https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/edinburgh-news/stark-ph... ; at the end it had plants growing from much of the upper levels, making it look extremely Horizon Zero Dawn.
- swiftcoder 6mo ago> Maybe with clever use of fillers and thin walls you could have a version of this you could actually lift You could likely also pour something like this out of aircrete, which would make it a lot lighter even at the same thickness
- throwthrowuknow 6mo agoPeople who make concrete counter tops use a lot of fibreglass fillers to get them fairly thin but if you wanted it truly light weight you’d probably need to make it out of a dense foam and coat it with something that looks like concrete.
- ssharp 6mo agoConcrete counter top mixes usually use either much smaller, or no aggregate and use more sand. The mixes resemble mortar more than concrete and they are typically a little harder and less forgiving to work with.
- scottyah 6mo agoMy bathroom is a couple mm of microcement over Schluter Kerdi-Board foam, it's fairly strong. I think it can hold a laptop no problem.
- pseudohadamard 6mo agoThere are a range of rendering mixes that look pretty much like concrete, or at least mortar, that would do the job. In fact just rendering it entirely (base coat, plastic reinforcing mesh, top coat(s)) should give a concrete-ish look while keeping things fairly light.
- jnwatson 6mo agoI certainly haven't heard of that technique to get rid of bubbles in the cement.
- jagged-chisel 6mo agoVibration? Thought it was pretty common.
- Rygian 6mo agoThe article does mention a very specific choice of vibration equipment.
- jagged-chisel 6mo agoSame method though. There's a plethora of vibrating things to choose from. I suppose you could mold a large silicone tentacle to put on a jackhammer, too, and use that to fish for bubbles in your cement soup. Call the tool what you want, you haven't changed the method.
- sam-bee 6mo agoYes, I did feel a bit silly buying and using it, but to be fair it did get the bubbles out.
- prmoustache 6mo agoAre you guys all trying hard not to say the words dildo, satisfier, or sex toy? Why so? AFAIK it is neither a rude nor a prohibited word.
- jagged-chisel 6mo agoNah, I was just being pedantic about the “method” of removing bubbles.
- alnwlsn 6mo ago
- xgulfie 6mo agoWhen I first look at this I think "hey it would be nicer if it wasn't falling apart", but you could argue that's kind of the point. Well done
- qwertytyyuu 6mo agoIs that surface concrete? Will it scratch the laptop?
- sam-bee 6mo agoMy laptop has little rubber feet, so it dosn't scratch on its underside. But yes, the piece is solid concrete, so you wouldn't want to bash anything fragile against it.
- weirdmantis69 6mo agoI love concrete as a medium but that's got to be heavy af and I would manage to smack my elbow on it all the time as well as smash my coffee mug on it.
- sam-bee 6mo agoYeah, getting it into the office was non-trivial!
- gwbas1c 6mo agoRelated: Anyone know where to get that kind of keyboard in the photo? Specifically, where the number pad and arrow keys are on the left? I've been looking and looking, but the best I can find is using a narrow keyboard with a separate number-pad only keyboard on the left. I'm in the US. (It's better for your right shoulder to keep the mouse closer to your body like in the picture.)
- chipaca 6mo agoI went to https://www.keyboardco.com/ https://www.keyboardco.com/ and searched for left-handed and the keyboard in the photo popped up, as well as a bunch of weirder and wonderfuler ones.
- wmwragg 6mo agoI believe it's this keyboard[1] from Posturite, but doing a web search for "Left-Side Numpad" of "Left handed keyboard" should show a few options. [1] https://www.posturite.co.uk/left-handed-mechanical-keyboard https://www.posturite.co.uk/left-handed-mechanical-keyboard
- sushibowl 6mo agokeychron does make one: https://www.keychron.com/products/keychron-q12-max-qmk-via-wireless-custom-mechanical-keyboard https://www.keychron.com/products/keychron-q12-max-qmk-via-w... found this one as well, don't know the brand: https://www.bloodyusa.com/product.php?pid=11&id=166 https://www.bloodyusa.com/product.php?pid=11&id=166
- vunderba 6mo ago+1 for Keychron. I have a Q5 Pro with brown switches (which is almost identical to that Q12 model) and it's one of the best keyboards I've owned.
- sam-bee 6mo agoThe keyboard in the photo was bought from Amazon in the UK, as "Black Left-Handed Mechanical Keyboard". I am indeed a right-handed user, which is why I want my mouse within reach on the right.
- ssenssei 6mo agoIs it just me or can you all hear the sound of the metal/aluminum scratching against the concrete? Loved the brutalist movie, this actually seems quite nice assthetically.
- bpavuk 6mo agotry playing Control then! that's your dream come true :) (well, maybe except the Hiss part)
- deafpolygon 6mo agogo visit any major “third world” country city … probably see those everywhere.
- tonymet 6mo agoe.g. Philadelphia
- robotsquidward 6mo agoThis is sick but sad that it has to live in that open office cubicle world :[
- aquir 6mo agoLooks awesome! I like raw concrete. Plays well with the tech around it.
- sam-bee 6mo agoThank you!
- Qwuke 6mo ago@dang, I'm not sure what's changed with the Show HN lately, but it's been much more lovely to read. Thank you for whatever changes which were made.
- sam-bee 6mo agoI'm glad to hear you liked the post!
- xnorswap 6mo agoLooking at https://news.ycombinator.com/show https://news.ycombinator.com/show , it's definitely no longer a raw feed of show HN: from /new. It's not clear what the change is, whether it is curation by hand or some other metrics, but it's a positive change, the old Show HN was getting flooded, as recently discussed. ( Although I can't work out how to find that discussion. )
- ryandrake 6mo agoHuge and positive change from the old “Show HN: Another vibe coded filesystem that I won’t even use but it was done with an LLM!”
- dang 6mo agoI suppose the main thing so far is https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adang%20showlim&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu.... The hope is to be welcoming to new users while also nudging them toward the intended use of the site. I don't know how well this is going to work over time so your comment is encouraging!
- niccl 6mo agoAnother anecdatum: it definitely seems better to me in the last few days. Thanks again to you and tomhow for all your stellar work on keeping the site as close to its original intent as practical these days
- einpoklum 6mo agoSuch a heavy stand might serve as a nice heat sink too, I would think. Doesn't have fins, but it could radiate evenly, and not even get that hot.
- ricardobayes 6mo agoWe need to see a benchmark with a Macbook air during extended workload.
- progforlyfe 6mo agoI love it! I just wish I could enlarge the photos! EDIT: ah, it works to right-click open image in new tab.
- chasd00 6mo agothis is really cool, what a great Show HN. i will try to make one this weekend :)
- smnplk 6mo agoLooks like a rat hideout.
- dodomodo 6mo agoI don't like it, from a pure brutalistic view point this obviously doesn't make any sense, it isn't practical and it doesn't make any effort to create a shape that is esthetically pleasing. The urban decay is even more outrageous, the whole appeal of urban decay is that it is "real", it's the thinking about all of people that went through the same structure throughout the years. Of cause it doesn't mean you can't make art about or featuring urban decay, but you have to be smart about it.
- gred 6mo ago> this obviously doesn't make any sense That's debatable, but it's a moot point; it's pastiche, so it doesn't have the same goals or motivations as the original. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastiche https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastiche
- vunderba 6mo agoExactly. This is more like the pre-ripped jeans version of brutalism.
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- augustk 6mo agoSomething that would be useful in my case is a monitor stand stand. Does anyone know why almost no current monitor can be raised so that the upper edge is at eye level? Is it due to incompetence among the current breed of designers? Quite a few of my colleges have a stack of books beneath the monitor stand.
- biofox 6mo agoIt can't be a good idea to condition yourself to be comfortable around an exposed wire that's near to a real power socket.
- red-iron-pine 6mo agofair point. gotta trust that everything is properly hooked up and won't shift. you'll only know when you find out the hard way
- sam-bee 6mo agoIt's soldered to the rebar, which is grounded through the actual power cable
- jamesjolliffe 6mo agoThis is so weird. I love it. Thanks for sharing!
- zer00eyz 6mo agoI love this! The pure weight of it is amazing, and distinctly makes a statement. Its a fun concept one could play with if they were making their own! I think a "clean" and "contemporary" version of this would look amazing as well: Along the lines of: https://www.modustrialmaker.com/blog/2018/8/14/making-an-impossibly-thin-curved-concrete-bench-find-out-how https://www.modustrialmaker.com/blog/2018/8/14/making-an-imp... Maybe with: (for weight) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foam_concrete https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foam_concrete (there are plenty of DIY versions of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4_GxPHwqkA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4_GxPHwqkA
- ricardobayes 6mo agoThis one immediately came to mind: https://www.architonic.com/en/p/ivanka-concrete-genezis-clutch-1320225/ https://www.architonic.com/en/p/ivanka-concrete-genezis-clut...
- graypegg 6mo agoOh man... I've never worked with concrete, but I would love to make a desk stand that looked like a little montréal métro station. They're all rather brutalist, and have flat tops haha https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Station_Radisson_Metro_Montreal_10.JPG https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Station_Radisson_Met...
- wheybags 6mo agoThat thing looks like giant pillbox bunker.
- lostlogin 6mo agoOr a cheap plastic/pressed steel footstool.
- graypegg 6mo agoThey (tend to) open up to big spaces on the inside! So they feel like... bunker cathedrals maybe? I find them to be interesting spaces! https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Station_Radisson_Metro_Montreal_15.JPG https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Station_Radisson_Met... I'll accept that I'm biased by living here though haha
- chasd00 6mo agoyeah i really want to try and make something like this. I was thinking of getting some spraypaint and making it look like part of it had been tagged with graffiti. Maybe one edge is broken so it looks like something I just found. I don't have the faintest idea of architecture styles, just thinking what would look cool and contrast with polished, refined, technology like a macbook or something.
- pavel_lishin 6mo agoThere's lots of makers on Youtube who have good tutorials for getting that sort of look. These two come to mind: - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06OQmIiYQMA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06OQmIiYQMA - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUA0tOrNgpc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUA0tOrNgpc
- masfuerte 6mo agoHow much does it weigh?
- khalic 6mo agoCool project, but not brutalist
- WesolyKubeczek 6mo agoShould have stolen a broken piece of concrete off a street and repurpose it to be a laptop stand. At least that would be authentic, and contributing to urban decay at his location.
- recroad 6mo agoCan't say I'm heavy into brutalist architecture and then sit on an Ikea chair
- atlgator 6mo agoThis man poured concrete around a power strip, chemically aged copper with ammonia, rusted rebar with peroxide, faked a damaged cable for vibes, and vibrated out the air bubbles with a dildo. This is the most unhinged and delightful Show HN I've ever seen.
- vunderba 6mo agoThis looks pretty funny paired with a sleek fancy MacBook though. You need a proper Soviet-esque workstation of a laptop to sit on that concrete block - go get yourself a nice, chunky ThinkPad T530.
- quijoteuniv 6mo agoAnd while at it… Why not a concrete laptop case?
- fjlunky 6mo agoOr a hi-fi? [1] I’ve heard concrete is a popular material in the DIY speaker crowd for reducing resonance [1] https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1227026/concrete-stereo-stereo-system-arad-ron/ https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1227026/concrete-stereo-...
- goestoo 6mo agoIt's hideous.
- ghm2199 6mo agoIf you want to get a feel of what brutalist architecture is like up close, go to the Barbican in london if you can. Its quite surreal. Very much in-your-face concrete exposure. Yet, to walk and experience it with your eyes is a study of contrasts: a giant, comparitively modern, greenhouse, has a glass roof open to the sky and yet many floors have no light or windows at all. And in the outdoor spaces, like the fountain/canal running through the complex the concrete will sort of be in the background and lets you focus on everything else: the water, the swans and the people around. Juxtapose that to low hanging exposed concrete roofs and walls in closed passages could make one feel constrained/claustrophobic/yearning for light.
- rors 6mo agoThe Barbican is not a typical brutalist construction. The term brutalist refers to béton brut, which means raw concrete. I.e. you can see the shape of the wooden slats used as a cast. The concrete in the Barbican was finished by drilling to create a dappled pattern, which obliterated the shape of the slats. There are also lots of post modern elements. For example, the columns of the girl’s school have pyramids at the top to resemble pencils. The south bank has more buildings that are a purer expression of brutalism.
- benjijay 6mo agoIf you find yourself in West London, also check out Brunel University, all of the older buildings are pure brutalism
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- stavros 6mo agoSure, but as someone who likes the aesthetic, the Barbican hits all the right spots for me.
- Nursie 6mo agoThe best thing about the South Bank is that you can look over the river and admire the North Bank.
- falsemyrmidon 6mo agoLiterally just looks like some trash sitting on their desk. Well done if that's the goal?
- ricardobayes 6mo agoI love it, although if you're not into urbex or didn't grow up with brutalist architecture (soviet union, east germany, even parts of Zurich downtown) I guess in that case you don't really have anything to tie it to and without that connection it just looks like a piece of junk.
- JoeAltmaier 6mo agoI asked for a monitor stand at work, back in the day. No money! So I went to the loading dock, found a wooden pallet for the little AC units we installed in racks, put that on my desk. Voila - monitor stand.
- GaryNumanVevo 6mo agoThat's one way to prevent people from taking your desk at work
- zoom6628 6mo agoI'm waiting for the man to make a laptop case out of concrete. That will be truly brutalist!
- sam-bee 6mo agoI had to wheel the stand into the office on a trolley, I'm not making a laptop case lol
- devcraft_ai 6mo ago[dead]
- thesuitonym 6mo agoDo I like it? No. Do I want one on my desk? Absolutely not. Do I think it's even brutalist? Not in the least. But it's still a cool as hell project. People need to do more things just because they want to, and to hell with what anyone else thinks.
- sam-bee 6mo agoIt's very liberating, crafting something for yourself with no intention of selling.
- Gracana 6mo agoYes! Trying to make something that other people want is a good way to take the joy out of a project, and it dulls the uniqueness that could the result something truly special.
- Fnoord 6mo agoSums up my mother's sculptures, or my kids' drawings. If it serves the artist, it served a purpose. Personally, I have an aluminium laptop stand which makes the laptop dockable but which isn't portable or makes screen/keyboard usable (secure for cats though) and I have a portable, foldable, lightweight plastic one [1]. I also do not enjoy the idea of using the bottom of a laptop on concrete. The latter material isn't nice for scratches (and every time it is put or leaves concrete is a potential mark). So in this case, I believe a second monitor (or larger primary one) plus a vertical laptop stand would fit in the shown office. [1] https://nexstand.eu/collections/foldable-laptop-stands https://nexstand.eu/collections/foldable-laptop-stands
- NathanielK 6mo agoPerhaps having a scratched up laptop matches the concrete stand.
- overfeed 6mo ago> I also do not enjoy the idea of using the bottom of a laptop on concrete. How else could your laptop echo the theme of "Urban decay?"
- ricardobayes 6mo agoThis is awesome, one of my friends actually wanted to make a laptop top and bottom case from concrete. Thin enough it could even work but would still be heavy. Definitely very stylish. Related: this design studio in Hungary creates a lot of concrete products, including designer bags. https://www.stylemagazin.hu/kiemelt-hir/A-het-designere-Ivanka-Beton-Design/9043 https://www.stylemagazin.hu/kiemelt-hir/A-het-designere-Ivan...
- brunoTbear 6mo agoChalk it up to far too many hours in the Sci Li but I quite like this.
- bherms 6mo agoFor a larger piece, I used a massage gun and walked around the mold hitting the sides with it. Worked out
- thenthenthen 6mo agoNow I need to make a concrete laptop
- erickhill 6mo agoOK I thought this was a late April Fools until I kept scrolling.
- declan_roberts 6mo agoThis is the kind of content that I come to HN for. Well done, OP. I love the product and inspiration.
- sam-bee 6mo agoThank you!
- jherskovic 6mo agoSo many naysayers. I love it! So what if it doesn’t come from the Brut region of France and thus it’s just sparkling cement, it looks great and is clearly a labor of love.
- sam-bee 6mo agoThank you!
- DrewADesign 6mo agoPeople who are insecure about their expertise in many subjects, (especially within art and the humanities, in my experience,) will unfailingly use any opportunity to point out when they know something someone else doesn’t. However, if someone posted “check out my super rad FP framework,” but it was actually OO with some bolted-on FP ideas, even if it was neat in its own right, people here would be totally justified in saying “hey… about that whole FP thing...” Even if they look similar, there’s a big difference between sour grapes ego boosting, and people with subject matter expertise pointing out common misconceptions. A major problem with Engineer’s Disease is mistaking the former for the latter based on maybe having read a few blog posts and falling down a research rabbit hole once two years prior.
- OrvalWintermute 6mo agoMore Industrial interior design than brutalist architecture
- valeriozen 6mo agolove the brutalist vibe of this. concrete is such an underrated material for desk setups. It looks way more premium than the plastic xD
- zelphirkalt 6mo agoAnd yet that laptop stand is not even the slightest bit slanted, one of the crucial details. I could simply take a book and put the laptop on top of that, to get the same ergonomic features. I am aware that ergonomic use is not the main point, but it would certainly not have hurt to consider that angle at least a little bit.
- eru 6mo agoThat would have destroyed the brutalist cred.
- throw-the-towel 6mo agoHaha, consider that angle. (I'll show myself out.)
- zelphirkalt 6mo agoI found your comment funny and I only realized this pun when I read my own comment after posting it. I hope you keep your humor, despite being downvoted. You are probably downvoted, because people think it doesn't add much to the topic, and not because it isn't funny. (I hope so, at least.)
- throw-the-towel 6mo agoThat's a heartwarming response, thank you!
- 6mo ago
- bepitulaz 6mo agoBefore I was scrolling down the web, I was thinking that this guy went to any construction site and just took any good looking rubbles.
- throwanem 6mo agoWell, from the look of it, to touch the thing wrong must be its own punishment, which is brutalism indeed. It insists on itself far too loudly, though, in what I would call a pseudapocalypticist or "Falloutpunk" manner. Too bad. There's nothing much wrong with it for its own sake, other than the ergonomy, but it sticks out from its environment like a sore thumb, adding nothing of value save the demand its presence be flattered and celebrated for its own sake - you know what? I take it back; you've not only recapitulated the brutalist concept, but apotheosized it. Congratulations on a successful work! It must have been a blast to build, which is where the real joy always is to be found of course, and I look forward to seeing which school of design you satirize next. (Did you really immure a power strip in cement? The MOVs in those are wearing items, you know, and can though rarely do fail short circuit...)
- xguz 6mo agoI imagine its good on heat disipation...
- qq66 6mo agoI don't like it but I like that you did it.
- dominictorresmo 6mo agolooks like trash. congratulations man
- ibm-freak 6mo agoThis is quite tasteless… a betrayal of brutalist honesty. And the dildo thing is plainly disgusting. Let’s all be gentlemen and keep that sort of thing off the Net.
- stuff4ben 6mo agoFirst day on the Internet huh?
- ThrowawayR2 6mo agoThe tool used in construction for releasing trapped air bubbles out of poured concrete is called a concrete vibrator (SFW if anyone cares to Google for it). A vibrating ... ahem, personal toy is actually rather a clever substitute for a small scale project like this.
- jmrgz 6mo agoThe contrast between raw industrial material and polished tech is what makes it work. There's something satisfying about building things purely for yourself with no product roadmap attached, the "dildo for air bubbles" detail alone proves this wasn't designed by committee
- bluescrn 6mo agoA really complicated way to scratch your shiny expensive Apple device
- zephyrwhimsy 6mo ago[flagged]
- elmean 6mo agomy annoying ass coworker has one of these, he keeps trying to migrate us to raw sql and C
- spiralcoaster 6mo agoI guess "I poured some concrete into a mold and put a power outlet in it" wouldn't be as eye catching of a title. This is one of those things where someone does something incredibly simple, but dresses it up in pretty language and even some totally irrelevant chemistry equations (because they r so smrt) to make it look like more than it is. Which LLM did you paste the equation from? And of course those who also have no idea how anything is made are unbelievably impressed. You can tell by the amount of exclamation points in all of the toxically positive reactions. Good work in that respect! But hey, I guess it's not another vibe coded project with an LLM writeup. Progress.
- marssaxman 6mo agoI have not done much with concrete, but I have made lots of things out of many other materials over the years, and in general I have found that making things - and making them come out the way you want them - is never as simple as it looks. "Reality has a surprising amount of detail", it was once wisely written: http://johnsalvatier.org/blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-amount-of-detail http://johnsalvatier.org/blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-... This project is not to my personal taste but I respect the work which went in to it, and I'm glad its creator got what he wanted.
- JAG_Ecalona 6mo agoThey'll never steal it gg
- bookofjoe 6mo agoI read every comment. What HN can be at its best.
- herecomesthepre 6mo agoSummarily ruined yet again by massive British sockets requiring removing 25% of the volume. Brits build their homes around the sockets, not the other way around.
- nunez 6mo agoThis is beautiful. Definitely beats the minimalist "cardboard box" stand. Bravo. I wouldn't want to move it though.
- mhh__ 6mo agoI'm not an art theorist but I think the decay makes it something other than brutalist IMO
- NetOpWibby 6mo agoThis is dope af. I love concrete (was just gifted a book about concrete buildings for my birthday last week). I see things like this and remind myself that I have free will. Thanks for the inspiration.
- mobiledev2014 6mo agoI see things like this and remind myself that I have free will. What a compliment for an artist- I hope somebody says something like this to me some day
- tonymet 6mo agoI'm about 75% confident this content is AI generated. Just intuition , no tools used. And I'm assuming our audience is autistic enough to put in the effort to build this. Composition, shadows & lighting seems synthetic. Kudos to the creativity and no offense to the author. Partly running off a-priori risk model for internet content. Curious to see if my prediction holds up.
- ssz7820 6mo ago[dead]
- ssz7820 6mo ago[dead]
- hacker_88 6mo agoUse a Keychron concrete keyboard with it .
- kriz9 6mo agoThis is pretty cool. How much does this weigh?
- liendolucas 6mo agoIt's too much concrete for me, but hey, not every day you see an original and unique piece like this!
- holoflash 6mo agoReally solid laptop stand!
- nephihaha 6mo agoThe most obvious issue here is that there needs to be a mat on the top to avoid scratching the bottom of the laptop.
- sharadov 6mo agowork of art!
- hypnot 6mo agoLooks amazing, I love it. Nice work!
- rambambram 6mo agoNice! I've always wanted to build a computer like the iMac G4, with the half sphere, the arm and the monitor. In my street there was a pebble/rock (the size of a rugby ball, pretty smooth surface) laying around near a tree, and I thought of taking it with me as the base for this computer. It's beautiful stone. I should have grabbed it, because now it's gone. But it required a lot of grinding and sanding to make it ready. I think pouring concrete is a better option for my idea. Thanks for the inspiration!
- CapitalistCartr 6mo agoThe professionals actually use a tool that looks about like a big (BIG) vibrator, along with various other vibrating tools.
- zephyrwhimsy 6mo ago[flagged]
- MegagramEnjoyer 6mo agoMe when the contractors forget a bag of cement after their job
- smsm42 6mo agoI hate the brutalism and would never have anything like that in my home, but I certainly admire the work. Great job. It is true art, even if not for me.
- lukasholzer 6mo agolove it! WHERE CAN I PUT MY MONEY?
- Vektorceraptor 6mo agocrazy idea - but no thank you :)
- stavros 6mo agoI love it. I also really really like the brutalist/derelict aesthetic, and I think this nails it. Well done.
- sergiogjr 6mo agoMissing some graffiti.
- pcdoodle 6mo ago[dead]
- Jimini-Snicket 6mo agoTo be balanced, the reaction needs only 2 molecules of water. Solid stand though.
- zephyrwhimsy 6mo ago[flagged]
- nielsbot 6mo agoHonestly curious--does this project "need" rebar? Not a concrete, but seems like rebar would only be needed for larger constructions?
- absynth 6mo agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brutalist_architecture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brutalist_architecture A sudden desire to have a concrete monitor stand appears in my mind. Practical considerations: I feel like simply adding some cork to the underside of most things would increase compatibility between plastic/alum and the hardness of concrete.
- bublyboi 6mo agoI want to hate it. But I think I really love it.
- peppinho89 6mo agoThanks for the inspiration! I'll ask my wife if I can start crafting something similar to put on my desktop. Let's see.
- arc_light 6mo ago[dead]
- davenporten 6mo agoI 100% would not want this on my desk, but I absolutely love it! Just the execution of making it is impressive. Have you worked in concrete before? Or were you just like youtubing it the whole way?
- JediClown 6mo agoWoah, he actually built it. I thought he found it on the side of the road, or something.
- gangstead 6mo agoHow did you make the "missing" corner? I'm assuming it wasn't chiseled out. In the last picture is the to-be-removed section made of plaster and then concrete poured around it?
- erikmalk 6mo agoI love it, and imagine it acts somewhat like a heat sink too.
- CharlesLau 6mo agoI might choose moss; it better fits the Urban decay aesthetic.
- linuz 6mo agoDoes it have to be real concrete?