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This might work nicely as a wall system, and making it CNC-style construction is REALLY nice. But the tetris-style 2nd story floor they were doing is a non-sta

This might work nicely as a wall system, and making it CNC-style construction is REALLY nice. But the tetris-style 2nd story floor they were doing is a non-starter. First off, you couldn't hold the kind of tolerances necessary to make that floor stay level -- rather than slowly curving downwards -- as it cantilevers out from the wall. And second, even if you could somehow (and you can't!) that's not how concrete works. Concrete is strong in compression and weak in tension. The only way that floor cantilevers out is through a lot of both tensile and compressive strength. That's how horizontal beams work. This is a concept, not a reality. It looks like it was done by someone who understands a lot about the problems that face architects and builders, but not much about the structural engineering required to make a building actually stand up. But if you're willing to forego the brick-together build-a-floor/ceiling it seems like there's a lot of good design in it. Design, not engineering.

warfangle 12y ago
The illustrated second story floor is a non-starter, to be certain. Could not crossbeams be manufactured in the same style? The article mentions hollow bricks with slots for reinforcement. I would assume a crossbeam style brick with a reinforced core would fit the bill just fine.
- msandford 12y ago
  Maybe you could do that? I think you'd be much better off making "hardpoint" bricks where you can slot actual steel or concrete beams. Monolithic ones, not something that snaps/clips together. One of the reasons that beams work is that they're basically unbroken over their length. If you want to take two halves of beams and bolt that together into a single beam you're going to lose strength because the joints are often weaker than the unbroken beam. Introducing more joints reduces strength a bit further, but the first one is the killer. Ultimately you're much better off buying steel beams which are long enough (or too long and cutting them down) and placing them in whole. Or getting concrete beams pre-cast somewhere and shipped to the site. Yes they're not plug-n-play the way you'd like. But the extra materials that it would take to make the click together type of system work will substantially increase costs to the point where you can overrun the labor savings. The point of this system is that it's (theoretically) cheaper. It's kind of like saying "well we'll just index EVERYTHING on disk and that'll make all the queries fast!" Yeah that might work in some cases but at some point there are diminishing returns to further indexing and if you're in a write-heavy enough environment more indexes can actually slow things down. Engineering tradeoffs are everywhere.
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zo1 12y ago
I don't know much about this. But I pretty much glossed over the details about whether this would be structurally sound due to the sentence: "Steel bars can be slotted through dedicated channels in the bricks to provide the same support as traditionally reinforced concrete." Would that not solve the problem you mention? Or is it somehow unsolvable if you use per-fabricated concrete blocks like this even with steel reinforcement?
- marcosdumay 12y ago
  Depends on how the bricks were designed. If you insert the bars during the fabrication of the bricks, yes, that'll do. If you insert them later, the steel will oxidate, and the building collapse in a couple of decades.
nitrogen 12y ago
The aspect I found most interesting was the built-in horizontal and vertical routing channels. It would be fantastic to be able to remove some detachable wall panels instead of tearing out and replacing drywall when adding to or upgrading home infrastructure.

warfangle 12y ago

The illustrated second story floor is a non-starter, to be certain. Could not crossbeams be manufactured in the same style? The article mentions hollow bricks with slots for reinforcement. I would assume a crossbeam style brick with a reinforced core would fit the bill just fine.

msandford 12y ago
Maybe you could do that? I think you'd be much better off making "hardpoint" bricks where you can slot actual steel or concrete beams. Monolithic ones, not something that snaps/clips together. One of the reasons that beams work is that they're basically unbroken over their length. If you want to take two halves of beams and bolt that together into a single beam you're going to lose strength because the joints are often weaker than the unbroken beam. Introducing more joints reduces strength a bit further, but the first one is the killer. Ultimately you're much better off buying steel beams which are long enough (or too long and cutting them down) and placing them in whole. Or getting concrete beams pre-cast somewhere and shipped to the site. Yes they're not plug-n-play the way you'd like. But the extra materials that it would take to make the click together type of system work will substantially increase costs to the point where you can overrun the labor savings. The point of this system is that it's (theoretically) cheaper. It's kind of like saying "well we'll just index EVERYTHING on disk and that'll make all the queries fast!" Yeah that might work in some cases but at some point there are diminishing returns to further indexing and if you're in a write-heavy enough environment more indexes can actually slow things down. Engineering tradeoffs are everywhere.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]

zo1 12y ago

I don't know much about this. But I pretty much glossed over the details about whether this would be structurally sound due to the sentence: "Steel bars can be slotted through dedicated channels in the bricks to provide the same support as traditionally reinforced concrete." Would that not solve the problem you mention? Or is it somehow unsolvable if you use per-fabricated concrete blocks like this even with steel reinforcement?

marcosdumay 12y ago
Depends on how the bricks were designed. If you insert the bars during the fabrication of the bricks, yes, that'll do. If you insert them later, the steel will oxidate, and the building collapse in a couple of decades.

nitrogen 12y ago

The aspect I found most interesting was the built-in horizontal and vertical routing channels. It would be fantastic to be able to remove some detachable wall panels instead of tearing out and replacing drywall when adding to or upgrading home infrastructure.