briancp

4 ms·

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by briancp 6y ago
As the article mentions, densified wood already exists as a product [1]. But it's basically never used for building materials. As far as I can tell it's main use-case is for electrical transformer support pads and anchorage, as yo
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by briancp 6y ago
Posted this in another thread, but there’s some neat photos from the 60s of the telescope under construction here: https://www.naic.edu/history_gal/historicgal.html Beyond the scientific value, it is (was) just a neat
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by briancp 6y ago
I was in St. Simons a few months ago, and was able to see this ship first hand. It’s enormous, sitting on its side in what looks like just a few feet of water. It’s close to the shore, maybe a thousand or 1500 feet out. A temporary informat
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by briancp 6y ago
A shame. Beyond the loss to science, the equipment itself was impressive. A 900-ton observation platform is like a multistory building suspended a few hundred feet in the air, in the middle of the jungle. An interesting gallery of the teles
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by briancp 6y ago
This is really interesting, like a computer algebra system[1] but for geometry. Seems like it could be extended to cover the non-shape based documentation (material properties, design loads, etc) as well. One thing I've never seen is o
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by briancp 6y ago
The article doesn’t go into much detail, but it hints at the use of a technique that I’ve suspected might have some promise for building design - finding a way to convert a 2D set of drawings or a 3D model to a text-based representation, th
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by briancp 6y ago
I work as a structural engineer and write a newsletter about, among other things, technology for lowering construction costs. A tiny house will be cheaper than conventional housing by virtue of being a lot smaller (building costs are usuall
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by briancp 6y ago
Interesting, it's sort of an inverse desire path[1] - instead of locating where foot traffic is the highest, you locate where microbe traffic is the lowest. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire_path
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by briancp 6y ago
Since it’s made of unreinforced concrete, getting it permitted in almost any jurisdiction in the world would be exceedingly difficult. Which is somewhat ironic, as it’s the lack of corrodable reinforcing that’s enabled it’s extremely long l
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by briancp 6y ago
This is super interesting, I'd love to hear more about the systems you were using if you're up for discussing. briancpotter@gmail.com
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by briancp 6y ago
Background: structural engineer, have worked with prefab construction in various capacities The short answer to this question is "because we haven't figured out how to make it less expensive than regular site built construction&qu