Full Transcript for We Can Design Almost Anything. Why Can’t We Build It?

something as you're reading it, and it's like it sparks enough curiosity, you're like, wait a second, like what sometimes we can ignore it and we just don't see that interruption into the pattern, but this thing caught your eye, and you're like, wait a second, this is not this is different. 00:06:40.960 --> 00:06:42.480 This is different than anything I've seen. 00:06:42.480 --> 00:06:51.519 It's different than the way I think about it, or uh maybe others have, and how can I dive into this deeper and kind of understand what it could mean? 00:06:51.519 --> 00:06:59.759 So you then you find yourself, again, going into a pattern of nine months before you take the leap, which is always like, when do you jump? 00:06:59.759 --> 00:07:01.679 When you have an idea, when do you jump? 00:07:01.679 --> 00:07:06.799 Because you got, you know, family, you got bills, you got all these things as a human you're trying to deal with. 00:07:06.799 --> 00:07:18.960 And then it sounds like you you go do this, and you again almost find yourself in the pattern as a human of, hey, this, I have to do this. 00:07:18.960 --> 00:07:24.240 Like I have to go get venture capital, I have to go get money, I have to go get the funding, I've got to go tell the story. 00:07:24.240 --> 00:07:30.320 But again, it was like a a little bit of a misalignment from those things that were that you're doing now. 00:07:30.320 --> 00:07:35.840 After those, you know, once you could get to the point to hire the CEO, that has expanded your business. 00:07:35.840 --> 00:07:43.919 That has allowed you to you to focus on the areas that are important to you, a CEO to be able to handle some of those things that maybe trained you. 00:07:43.919 --> 00:07:50.399 So that that from a human perspective, I think, is where a lot of us can get lost in those patterns. 00:07:50.399 --> 00:08:10.720 So I'm I'm glad you shared it because you've you launched your own company, you've been the CEO, you step, you step out of that role, and now you guys, I mean, you're talking about again, talking about moonshots, you're talking about taking an idea that you had on a Saturday afternoon on a sketchpad to be working with the government on a potential project. 00:08:10.720 --> 00:08:19.360 So, big question here is what was it, like you said, how can we use additive manufacturing to build? 00:08:19.360 --> 00:08:27.120 But what was it you were really noticing of like, you know, why that problem was important to jump into? 00:08:27.120 --> 00:08:34.559 Like, why was it so important for you that day and and continues to be important to jump into solving that problem? 00:08:35.039 --> 00:08:52.879 So I guess probably for I don't know, maybe 10 years previous to this idea, I had been taking a sub after I passed my architecture exam, I would take a each year would take a kind of subject and kind of dive in to that and just to learn. 00:08:52.879 --> 00:08:56.399 I'd I autodidact and love to learn. 00:08:56.399 --> 00:09:10.480

Um, and so like I went to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in DC while at some conference and went through and saw all these skeletons of all these animals. 00:09:10.480 --> 00:09:15.519 And I was like, there's similarity in a lot of those, uh, but they're different. 00:09:15.519 --> 00:09:18.720 Uh there's variation, but there's types. 00:09:18.720 --> 00:09:23.279 And so I began studying what's called osteology, which is bones. 00:09:23.279 --> 00:09:25.679 And it like it's fascinating. 00:09:25.679 --> 00:09:29.759 And it was like, how do we in our bodies create structure? 00:09:29.759 --> 00:09:37.199 And then that gets wrapped with muscle and skin and all of our organs and stuff, but it's just that's the framework. 00:09:37.199 --> 00:10:04.480 And so I began looking at like animals and people, uh, but then looking into like some biological subjects like uh diatoms, which are these tiny little sea creatures that there's trillions of them in the ocean, and they they provide, I think I don't I can't remember the stat, but a huge amount of the transferring carbon dioxide into oxygen. 00:10:04.480 --> 00:10:11.199 And but they when they die, they create these little structures that are beautiful, uh tiny, tiny, tiny. 00:10:11.199 --> 00:10:12.879 They're just absolutely gorgeous. 00:10:12.879 --> 00:10:26.879 And one particular type is called a radiolarian, and it has a structure within a structure within a structure, and that was at my desk for, I don't know, maybe 10 years, kind of in my background. 00:10:26.879 --> 00:10:33.120 And I had it, it was I collect these photographs, I call it my beautiful and amazing collection. 00:10:33.120 --> 00:10:38.319 And so it's if you click on my Pinterest, uh, you'll see a lot of those images. 00:10:38.319 --> 00:11:03.199 And so it's from microscopy and at the very micro scale up to like macro and this USGS satellite imagery of the earth, and you see that something that's like this big is about five miles, but you see these huge patterns of like flow of ice or clouds or things like that that are just absolutely gorgeous. 00:11:03.199 --> 00:11:17.439 And so you see these patterns at micro and macro scale of beautiful things, and so that had been kind of looking into things like that structure, how the world is made at those levels. 00:11:17.439 --> 00:11:27.679 And I think it was realizing that okay, a building is rectilinear, not much in nature is rectilinear. 00:11:27.679 --> 00:11:53.279 Um and then going through projects, oftentimes they're over budget, especially in the boom days of like pre-2008, you had to go through VE processes on almost every single project, uh, which sucks, which means your design gets dumbed down from something that was nice and beautiful down to something that's just kind of boring. 00:11:53.279 --> 00:12:06.480 This kind of frustration uh with like, okay, that process of like dumbing down design and not being able to do things that you see in nature that are so beautiful. 00:12:06.480 --> 00:12:09.120 So the question was, how can we build like nature? 00:12:09.120 --> 00:12:19.360 That was kind of resonating in the back of my mind, is and I think that's what initially led to this sketch, but then our method, we call it cellular fabrication. 00:12:19.360 --> 00:13:42.769 That's where it gets its inspiration, is because we build a very, we 3D print a very rudimentary cell that's cubic in nature, uh, but then infill with common construction materials. 00:13:42.769 --> 00:13:47.889 Like in a cell, like the outer bounds of a cell create some strength. 00:13:47.889 --> 00:13:53.409 But really, the material within the cell provides the majority of the strength and function for that assembly. 00:13:53.409 --> 00:13:56.289 So, like in a tree, it's turger pressure. 00:13:56.289 --> 00:13:59.889 In our muscles, it's blood and water pressure. 00:13:59.889 --> 00:14:11.490 And so what we're doing at branch is using that very rudimentary cell and then common construction materials within and around that to provide the strength and function of normal wall assemblies. 00:14:11.490 --> 00:14:21.730 So the big idea is how might we translate the beauty, the strength, the efficiency of nature into how we can construct buildings and other things. 00:14:21.730 --> 00:14:26.370 And so that's the fundamental big idea behind what we're doing. 00:14:26.370 --> 00:14:27.649 We're just beginning. 00:14:27.649 --> 00:14:34.049 I mean, yeah, we've done lots of projects now, but that journey, I'll not see that in my lifetime. 00:14:34.049 --> 00:14:35.009 The end of that. 00:14:35.009 --> 00:14:37.090 You can make almost anything with a cell. 00:14:37.330 --> 00:14:40.210 So that's that's kind of the underlying idea. 00:14:40.210 --> 00:14:43.810 It's interesting because you're taking something that was a passion, right? 00:14:43.810 --> 00:14:50.529 Which could seem some form adjacent to what you were doing, or completely removed from what you were doing. 00:14:50.529 --> 00:15:04.210 And you're taking that passion and suddenly asking different questions about the industry that you knew, the industry that you grew up in and were a part of, and saying, like, hold on a second. 00:15:04.210 --> 00:15:17.730 Like, what is what is it that's constraining us right now in this moment where everything is rectilinear or or doesn't look like nature, doesn't feel natural to us as humans. 00:15:17.730 --> 00:15:31.810 You know, it feels like when you're out in nature and you're kind of walking, to shove a something rectilinear in the middle of it feels you know like it's randomly placed or you know, shouldn't be there in the first place. 00:15:31.810 --> 00:15:39.490 So you you're saying to yourself, like, hold on, like we're asking maybe the maybe we're just not asking the right questions. 00:15:39.490 --> 00:15:41.970 It's not the questions we're asking in the industry were wrong. 00:15:41.970 --> 00:15:45.490 You were just starting to shift

it and saying, like, I have an interest. 00:15:45.490 --> 00:15:47.889 How does this work over here in this area? 00:15:47.889 --> 00:16:12.450 And how can I start to bring it into this thing that that you were also passionate about that was your career and things you were doing for your clients, at the same time saying, like, like, I'm sick and tired of seeing my designs be sliced up and dished out, you know, taken taken over here off the plate as as an option for me as an architect to design. 00:16:12.450 --> 00:16:14.289 And I that's a big part of it. 00:16:14.289 --> 00:16:20.370 I, you know, I get frustrated by even the word value engineering because it's not what it was initially intended to be. 00:16:20.370 --> 00:16:27.889 And we just keep I when I go on and I see somebody offering it a service, I'm like, okay, that's not that's not what it should be done. 00:16:27.889 --> 00:16:29.409 We should be doing as an industry. 00:16:29.409 --> 00:16:30.210 We're problem solvers. 00:16:30.210 --> 00:16:32.049 Exactly. 00:16:32.049 --> 00:16:42.129 You're just cutting scope, and it's not giving the client back anything, it's not giving the client what they want and then or probably need. 00:16:42.129 --> 00:16:50.129 And from an architectural standpoint, it's like we're we're constantly in a battle of what should be remaining and what shouldn't. 00:16:50.129 --> 00:16:58.049 So I I think just hearing your story then, I get well, that probably leads to why you called it branch technology, then, right? 00:16:58.049 --> 00:17:14.129 Like a little bit of story of this this being able to create this this these solutions around nature, bringing in the term branch uh even to even to the company and the business name helps you tell that story, tell that story a little differently. 00:17:14.129 --> 00:17:22.289 So I'm fascinated by this idea then, as you get started and you're thinking about, again, you're testing it. 00:17:22.289 --> 00:17:31.409 You're you're you're launching the company, you're drawing the sketches, you're thinking about the robotics, you're thinking about these these cells that you're talking about in order to create something. 00:17:31.409 --> 00:17:39.009 What was the transition then with with the problem that you were looking at of how you would start bringing solutions and where did you start? 00:17:39.009 --> 00:17:45.329 And like you said, it's it's continuing to expand when you when you brought this in, but where did you first start? 00:17:45.329 --> 00:17:48.450 Well, like what solutions were you really bringing to designers? 00:17:48.849 --> 00:17:54.690 First thing that we did, I guess, was to determine can we build like this? 00:17:54.690 --> 00:17:57.089 And is it even possible? 00:17:57.089 --> 00:18:00.049 And I had this little thing called a three-doodler. 00:18:00.049 --> 00:18:19.970 Um it's a 3D printing pen and made this little piece that's it was about like this big, and it weighed a half an ounce, and but it held up 18 pounds of books on a half ounce little tessellated structure. 00:18:19.970 --> 00:18:21.490 It was an open lattice. 00:18:21.490 --> 00:18:25.490 So I was like, okay, geometry can create strength. 00:18:25.490 --> 00:18:41.889 And then I got kind of a Home Depot version of an extruder uh and did something with that, and I think on two ounces, it supported me at the time when I was like 160. 00:18:41.889 --> 00:18:42.450 Yeah. 00:18:42.450 --> 00:18:48.769 Um, and so it was something that okay, as you begin to iterate, you can create that strength. 00:18:48.769 --> 00:18:55.089 So I mean, we had to figure out what is what we're making able to hold up. 00:18:55.089 --> 00:19:00.690 And then once starting, like that was all prior to launch. 00:19:00.690 --> 00:19:04.690 Once starting had to it was really kind of an intersection. 00:19:04.690 --> 00:19:08.450 This was back in 2014 of things coming together. 00:19:08.450 --> 00:19:14.529 Robotics were becoming more accessible, like industrial robots are ridiculously difficult to program. 00:19:14.529 --> 00:19:25.490 And typically you do one to two motions a million times, and what we're doing is a million things one time. 00:19:25.490 --> 00:19:28.849 So it's each moosh motion is custom. 00:19:28.849 --> 00:19:32.930 Well, that's not typically how industrial robots are managed. 00:19:32.930 --> 00:19:33.490 Yeah. 00:19:33.490 --> 00:19:48.529 Uh and so there was this a program uh that I like within I guess six weeks of starting, went to this uh event called Robarch, Robotics and Architecture, uh, that was at the University of Michigan. 00:19:48.529 --> 00:19:58.130 And they had a kind of a program that they had developed that allowed an architect to learn how to program an industrial robot. 00:19:58.130 --> 00:20:08.930 Um and so it made it where you could use Rhino and Grasshopper as the control mechanism for these big robot arms. 00:20:08.930 --> 00:20:11.329 And so that was a learning curve. 00:20:11.329 --> 00:20:24.130 Um, both the robot programming and then Rhino, which I had never messed with before, and not to mention Grasshopper, which is a totally different type of uh language. 00:20:24.130 --> 00:20:38.609 But that's where it started, and then having to uh design an extruder that was able to freeform 3D print because our our material solidifies in open space rather than being layer by layer built up. 00:20:38.609 --> 00:20:43.809 Uh, and so had to design that and have that fabricated. 00:20:43.809 --> 00:20:56.210 Um and it actually worked the first time, uh, which I it was fairly miraculous, but it it was something that there was a lot, there was a lot in there and to that. 00:20:56.210 --> 00:21:11.809 Um, so and then integrating robotic programming with extrusion variables in order to start printing in free space, and it's a lot of art to that, not as much science. 00:21:11.809 --> 00:21:20.609 Um and so it's extrusion is it is definitely more of an art than a science.

00:21:20.609 --> 00:21:26.130 Uh, and dialing it in, and I don't know if that answers your question about but that was the start. 00:21:26.130 --> 00:21:37.650 Uh I guess the why, like what we why we were doing that in order to build structure, to build walls basically, and an enclosure for a building. 00:21:37.650 --> 00:21:39.089 That that was the purpose. 00:21:39.089 --> 00:21:46.529 That was the initial goal was to be able to build structures and walls and building uh elements. 00:21:46.849 --> 00:21:47.490 Yeah. 00:21:47.490 --> 00:22:09.970 Well, no, I it it does answer the question because you you had to start obviously just like you said, testing these different sizes, getting the cells to come together as because you're not layering it, you're not running it horizontal, you're actually starting to go vertical and space, like you're saying, and to construct the structural piece. 00:22:09.970 --> 00:22:20.529 And so you had to start before you could get to panels or get to anything else that was going to become like you know, the facades or anything else that was happening inside of a building. 00:22:20.529 --> 00:22:25.410 You're like, look, I got I gotta know, can robotics even do this? 00:22:25.410 --> 00:22:27.410 What are the constraints of the robotics? 00:22:27.410 --> 00:22:29.490 What are the softwares that I have to use? 00:22:29.490 --> 00:22:35.650 So you're not only like, yes, humans, when we see something new, like we're in a retrained mode. 00:22:35.650 --> 00:22:37.569 Robotics is the same way. 00:22:37.569 --> 00:22:45.809 So you were like, we got to figure out how and where the current state of robotics and software are to what I'm wanting to do. 00:22:45.809 --> 00:23:04.930 And maybe this was, you know, maybe there's some you know, good luck in the timing, obviously, as you're starting to do it too, is like this acceleration of additive manufacturing, the acceleration of of software and technology in robotics, all really starting, you know, post 2010, right? 00:23:04.930 --> 00:23:21.089 This has been around a while, but we're really seeing that acceleration and convergence of those things giving us more opportunity to do it, which led you to having having more opportunity to go to Michigan and see what robotics were doing, testing it. 00:23:21.089 --> 00:23:30.529 So I think it's important to know the history of it because you weren't, it wasn't like, hey, we just made a product. 00:23:30.529 --> 00:23:33.250 Like we just came out and started printing. 00:23:33.250 --> 00:23:34.130 We have a product. 00:23:34.130 --> 00:23:51.970 You went through the science, you went through the engineering, you went through all of the technology background and trying to get it all to come together to ensure that the strengths of the things that you were making worked in the real world while meeting the goal of how can we build more like nature. 00:23:51.970 --> 00:23:59.410 And from 2014 till today, like that's not a that's not rushing to market, which I'm sure has been, you know, it's a long journey. 00:23:59.410 --> 00:24:05.730 But for the construction industry, we don't tend to like new things right off the bat, right? 00:24:05.730 --> 00:24:07.250 Like we don't want to. 00:24:07.250 --> 00:24:11.170 accept it right away because it's new, unfamiliar. 00:24:11.170 --> 00:24:15.009 So therefore, you know, we have to kind of go in protection mode. 00:24:15.009 --> 00:24:39.250 So with that then, as you as you went through these iterations, Platt, you and your team, like what what have been some of the you know potential obstacles or barriers that you've heard when you first got started and how that had you thinking about what was possible, because it sounds like that's how your your brain functions versus just shutting them down as resistors. 00:24:39.250 --> 00:24:51.410 And then another area is like how is the feedback from those who maybe are less of the obstacles and less barriers being thrown into how how they're like, this is huge. 00:24:51.410 --> 00:24:57.250 Like this is like if you're talking to government NASA and they're getting involved or whomever, right? 00:24:57.250 --> 00:25:02.210 Like that that's a different that's a different feedback loop to what's possible. 00:25:02.210 --> 00:25:24.849 So what kind of walk through those uh different emotional states maybe of what of what taking something like this to market looks like yeah uh initially uh when I told people I'm leaving my partnership and going to start a company and uh it's going to be 3D printing buildings. 00:25:25.089 --> 00:25:25.250 Yeah. 00:25:25.250 --> 00:25:29.329 You get this weird you're just like what the heck are you smoking? 00:25:29.329 --> 00:26:19.170 And uh so there's a lot of like I just had to swallow pride and just say yep that's what we're doing and get a lot of the crazy looks uh initially but I think our initial focus was homes like we wanted to do residential homes and we sponsored after we kind of had done a couple projects like with uh shop we had done a project with Keith Caseman which led to a project with shop architects uh for art basel uh and design miami and they turned out to be the largest 3D printed pavilions in the world this was back in 2017 then did a a spanning structure that was like a 42 foot span that was a a dome like that was a band shill uh and that's now where Nashville has their Shakespeare festival. 00:26:19.170 --> 00:26:29.650 Nice and so it's that was back in I think 2018 and it was the largest 3D printed spanning structure in the world. 00:26:29.650 --> 00:27:42.849 So around then is when we sponsored a design competition for the first uh 3D printed house and it went viral like it had over 1300 registrations from 97 different countries around the world and it then the we were going to print the winning entry uh and so a firm called WATG uh I think they're the number three hospitality design firm in the world they created this beautiful design

called Curve Appeal and if you Google curve appeal uh 3D printed house you'll still see those images um all over the place and then that got published it had over a billion views on stories around the world like it went all over the place so then we worked with them to refine the design through the process of design for manufacturing and assembly uh DFMA and then we had met SOM at Oak Ridge National Labs and some of their engineering team reached out to them to see if they might be willing to engineer this thing. 00:27:42.849 --> 00:27:57.329 And so that was Bill Baker who is the structural engineer for the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and they took it on and their advanced structural engineering team went through kind of a finite element analysis process. 00:27:57.329 --> 00:30:27.490 They had to build a structural model of how our material performs and then that informed the digital model uh and how they could model uh the structure we got it to the point of permitting we're gonna put it onto a local community college's campus as a like a teaching nice and went through permitting had the site had all this stuff uh we printed all the parts and then we foamed and milled about half of them and then my CFO called me I was in Chicago promoting this at Con Expo before con like the 2020 con expo and he said we've got one month left of cash and I was just like what um and so uh it was like just we had to reboot I we tried to raise money that was uh right before COVID it was something that they could smell desperation and so they don't fund desperation uh they fund business traction and so anyways didn't couldn't raise a dollar we had to pivot away from that had to halt production completely uh went through a massive layoff which was sucks yeah um uh and then we did have a couple government contracts that we accelerated uh in order to bring in some revenue and then pivoted to a thinner product uh that you don't have to go through a nine month process for one house to engineer it can be panelized and productized and so that's when we introduced uh facades for the commercial market much thinner much less material and then begin to hit the market at the price point for commercial facades and so that was back in 2019 uh 2020 uh timeframe and so that very stressful emotional horrible time to like affect people's lives I mean I had recruited this spectacular team people from all over the US uh from amazing entities and then to have to lay people off because we didn't have enough money that sucks as a CEO that's the worst thing that you can ever do. 00:30:27.490 --> 00:31:17.809 But we pivoted uh major pivot to commercial construction and then in the early days because of code we could not go over 40 feet tall until we went through a whole bunch of testing we have since gone through years of time millions of dollars worth of testing to meet international building code for commercial facades that include like weatherability, flammability, strength, wind impact uh and

but that was a long time in the works and cost a ton of money but now even this past year we did a new one in Miami to meet the Miami hurricane high velocity hurricanes that are testing or uh impact and wind resistance. 00:31:17.809 --> 00:31:23.970 So that again is a long process cost tens of thousands of dollars to do one test. 00:31:24.210 --> 00:32:45.890 Yeah the story is you know it's human it's emotional you're a leader and that's one of the things we we talk about leadership development and COVID whether it was COVID or going through and I know you probably experienced this too like practicing in 08 through 2013 like those were brutal times when you're trying to run operations and watching businesses shrink and and be pulled back because of that financial disruption but beyond that like something something you said like about the whole competition in in the viral state of like publishing it and putting it out and then getting it into a project like that is a I don't that's such a unique approach to getting a solution like people to buy into something that's different because now they're coming in again as this willing participant it isn't something like this new innovation is being pushed onto them on a project because somebody wants to try it and and they're like oh I I'm just being forced to use this I didn't even know I wanted to you're you're actually you actually provided this this pathway of getting to an intrinsic motivation of us as humans and designers and engineers and all of us that work in the industry to to be a part of something. 00:32:45.890 --> 00:33:19.569 Even if it meant like we might not even be the ones selected but we would give our energy to it like it meant something and I just that is to me like that is such a great way to think about adoption versus the way we tend to shove a product at somebody like you like like the marketing approach a lot in our industry you know can be off but architects like like yeah we're emotional like the building has to to look like what we want it to look like. 00:33:19.569 --> 00:33:22.930 And the ability to say like hey you get to control it. 00:33:22.930 --> 00:33:31.490 It's your idea we're going to figure out how how to build this is taking some of that pressure off a forced uh forced relationship. 00:33:31.490 --> 00:33:51.490 So I don't know I just wanted to share that because I just think that's such a unique and different way to look at you know industrialized construction and the things that are part of it like additive manufacturing material science robotics and how you're blending those together to one you were trying to look at it from a housing. 00:33:51.490 --> 00:34:00.769 And I I do believe that I have seen those images I'm going to find them get them in the into the show notes because I think what I've seen on on your your information I'm like this is beautiful. 00:34:00.769 --> 00:34:16.289 You know it's interesting plat because when we were talking I was looking at

all of the additive manufacturing and I was told I was crazy and we would never be printing buildings and and homes and I shouldn't you know I shouldn't really be investigating it. 00:34:16.289 --> 00:35:09.730 And I just felt at that time like this is the future like this there's true opportunity here if we can shift our mindset around like we have to build this way because everything tells us to the patterns that we're in the structural structure that we work within the boundaries that we work within and and you're telling the story of like this this this solution and the thing that you're bringing to to us in the industry to address the code and to address you know all the things that we have to do and have in our buildings whether we're you know earthquake or or hurricane as you said and have all of the the requirements met as we would if we were building it on site and layering it up and and getting that you know solution brought to market is a journey in itself. 00:35:09.730 --> 00:35:18.449 And I think again this is where the you know the funding piece yes that's that's the difficult part about anything in innovation. 00:35:18.449 --> 00:36:48.339 I was speaking with somebody recently that focuses in on technology and and materials that actually you know capture and hold the carbon over in based over in Germany and that's the hardest thing is like if you're a company that is already you know established and then you kind of branch something off to the side here if you will to try to do something innovative like they have cash to maintain the main business and if they want to pull the plug on the one over here the innovation piece they can but they can also kind of fund it. 00:36:48.339 --> 00:37:05.779 And for someone who is over here with none of that trying to get the industry as you said they they are looking at it like well can we make money are they making money and all those those things without ever looking at like the cost of not not addressing it. 00:37:05.779 --> 00:37:26.819 The future like the future state is we the labor force we know it is continuing to shrink the way we're building has continued to to be this barrier in itself towards solving the problems and and you're sitting there like this this can really address a lot of a lot of the issues that we have in the industry. 00:37:27.139 --> 00:37:52.179 I think one thought on that is like seeing most industries build through prefabrication they they manufacture and so what we're doing is all about prefabrication and I saw some of those companies that are putting robots on site and I was like oh that's like doing the same thing over again um but with a different harder to manage piece of equipment. 00:37:52.179 --> 00:37:52.819 Yeah. 00:37:52.819 --> 00:38:23.059 So our approach is 100% prefabrication um and it's looking at bringing industrialization to the construction industry manufacturing product rather than assembling on site because the way that we do it right now it's

kind of like saying okay here is a bunch of wire and plastic and metal and some glass put it in your front yard and say okay now build a car in your front yard. 00:38:23.059 --> 00:38:27.459 There's that's hypocrisy but that's exactly what we do with buildings. 00:38:27.459 --> 00:38:39.699 We ship all this stuff to a job site and then assemble it on site when there's far more efficient ways to make things and so that's been our approach from the beginning is to go the pre-thap approach. 00:38:39.699 --> 00:38:47.059 And so that that's fundamentally different than a lot of those other concrete 3D printing companies that are out there. 00:38:47.379 --> 00:38:47.859 Yeah. 00:38:47.859 --> 00:39:04.099 Well and I think you just said it too is like a lot of times we to go solve a problem because it the problem sits here and the things that are we're used to the known area over here will bring it into a what we call a new solution to solve the problem. 00:39:04.099 --> 00:39:22.979 And what you guys are doing is like pref I mean prefab is not new we we've been doing it but you're also utilizing you know a new approach to fabricate through even new materials and some existing materials but doing it in a different way than the way we've done it. 00:39:22.979 --> 00:39:32.739 I know it's what we're carbon fiber, two glass reinforced and and the cellular foam things like that, like things we're used to that's just not done in this manner. 00:39:32.739 --> 00:39:47.219 And like you're saying it's like stepping back from a problem and and trying to this is what you did and what I heard you do as you described sitting at your desk and doing a sketch is like boy we do not do that this way. 00:39:47.219 --> 00:40:52.179 And if you were not bringing the same answers that you've always known into the solution it was starting with a blank slate but understanding the industry and not allowing yourself to kind of stay trapped into well people will buy in better or easier or quicker if it looks and feels exactly as it was well and the end product and solution that you're you're bringing can be that but also like the free form and the shapes and the things that the robots don't care well they do care because you got to train them but not emotionally like a human or the way a human would have to go through to get some of these shapes that you're able to to do because of the form and the way you can print it and the way the robotics can move move through their form in order to create it opposed to if you were doing precasts as an example building a form like that would be you know a lot of work or extra material to get it to go that way. 00:40:52.179 --> 00:41:02.499 You're not wasting the material using the same amount of material that you're putting in is what stays in into the system other than what you maybe have to mill off with the foam. 00:41:02.499 --> 00:41:12.899 But I don't know I did just hearing you kind of describe it I think it's a different it's a different way to think about solving a problem than just bringing you the same solutions slightly tweaked. 00:41:12.899 --> 00:41:14.019 Does that make sense? 00:41:14.019 --> 00:41:19.619 Absolutely if you want I can show a video of that process. 00:41:19.619 --> 00:42:19.939 Yeah go ahead and bring up bring up the uh robotics for those of that that are going to be watching it on on YouTube we'll be able to kind of see how the robotics go through the form I know I've been able to see this a few times and it's always exciting to kind of watch and there you're those who are watching we're getting to see that free form that that we're talking about because of how the robotics can actually you know extrude the uh the cells so yeah so this is our facility um we're based in Chattanooga Tennessee and our software creates that internal geometry and then drives the custom path plan for these large scale industrial robots creating a structural lattice that's freeform 3D printed where that as you see there that material solidifies in open space rather than being layer by layer built up and that uses 20 times less material than a layerwise approach and it's a carbon fiber reinforced polymer that a piece about the size of a CMU block weighs two pounds but can hold up 3600 pounds in compression. 00:42:20.099 --> 00:42:34.739 So that's kind of what we use to make the bones of our wall assemblies and then we take that and infill it with a fire rated spray foam insulation and then mill that down robotically to get to whatever surface articulation someone's wanting on these panels. 00:42:34.739 --> 00:42:39.699 And once it's infilled and becomes a composite it more than doubles the strength. 00:42:39.699 --> 00:42:49.299 So that same block instead of 3,000 pounds now it's seven to ten thousand pounds in compression and that's about three to four times the strength of normal wall framing methods. 00:42:49.299 --> 00:43:06.419 So that's kind of the process the underlying tech and it it makes a product that's prefab panelized either rain screens with that composite core or we can install that on site and finish it monolithically on site so that you don't have all the seams. 00:43:06.419 --> 00:44:03.699 So that's that's kind of uh the product itself and then that's finished with micro cement, engineered acrylics stuckos plasters for almost an endless palette of uh color texture finish options and so that's uh it's fun to see what architects come up with and uh project teams come up with based on those capabilities and like we've done projects all over the world primarily in the US but now on four different continents and kind of the theme is like brands big towers and some billionaires houses down in Florida uh you won't see those on any of this but it it is some amazing homes but brands like Altered State some theme parks lunar facades construction companies banks like hotels hospitality space shuttle for the U.S. 00:44:03.699 --> 00:44:43.779 and rocket center

this is a on Billionaires Row in New York this was the rendering and this was the reality uh on that so it turned out beautifully Lululemon Soho uh Snapchat in California on Sunset Boulevard anyway I've just a lot of different things that basically it's design freedom uh it's allowing design freedom for design teams and democratizing design freedom into normal construction budgets and so that it's exciting to see what people come up with based on our capabilities. 00:44:43.779 --> 00:45:24.099 And then new products like this this is the for the US Air Force piloting a new product for the energy efficient retrofit to existing buildings where we take a LIDAR scan of that existing building its deformation its features and then instead of the the feature face being milled it's the backplane is milled to be a glove fit onto the existing building's uh geometry and so it brings energy efficiency and new life to old buildings and then piloting that with the National Renewable energy lab in Colorado where they tested it to show that it saved about 50% energy from a baseline level. 00:45:24.099 --> 00:45:46.739 Anyways and including uh this was the one of the most surreal projects is we were approached by NASA about two years ago and they said you guys are good at problem solving we've got a very difficult problem we need to build a 150 foot tall tower on the south pole of the moon for solar power generation and communication. 00:45:46.739 --> 00:46:06.739 And so this is our fourth project now with NASA and so we worked with fostering partners on the structural engineering and design and initially we came up with 31 different ways to do this and then down selected to two and then demonstrated a 15 foot tall section of one of those methods. 00:46:06.739 --> 00:46:26.099 And so it's a helical diagrid it's parametric so it can thicken down here at the bottom uh but get more filigree and lighter at the top where you don't need that mass and material because material is incredibly expensive to produce or transport in space. 00:46:26.099 --> 00:46:41.619 Can't imagine that anyway so that is some really fun projects that's some of the things that uh you can see social media our website a lot of that is not on our website um so anyways. 00:46:41.939 --> 00:46:53.219 No, I think we'll I mean for those that are again are listening we'll find ways to get them get them access to some of those images those that are watching you on YouTube were able to kind of get a feel for for what you were sharing there. 00:46:53.219 --> 00:47:14.819 But that you know from an architectural standpoint there's just again it's that design freedom to come up with anything because you're able to sort of freeform They weren't just, I mean, you had you were showing, you know, spaces and lobbies where you're you're building the reception area to actually, you know, the facades that are going on to retail to the banks like you're showing. 00:47:14.819 --> 00:47:20.339 And I think that's what

was really capturing my eye and thinking back towards how we've always done facades. 00:47:20.339 --> 00:47:24.419 And being, you know, growing up in Ohio, most places, everything's brick. 00:47:24.419 --> 00:47:31.459 And if it's not brick, then, you know, somebody's want you got to use like a knife as sort of solution to it. 00:47:31.459 --> 00:47:37.619 And I know you guys have partnered with one of those groups as well, because that was a you build those things up. 00:47:37.619 --> 00:47:59.459 You're building these panels up onto the to the exterior of the building, but the freedom to get it to be any shape really that you want, and with the structural integrity that it can be provided, you know, by one, the carbon fiber, but also by reinforcing with all of the other additive items that you're putting in is tremendous. 00:47:59.459 --> 00:48:08.579 Between the spans that you're talking about, getting the length of the facades, no seams, getting um getting it to be any shape, I think is incredible. 00:48:08.579 --> 00:48:18.339 And I think when I'm thinking about it as a designer, it's always like we tend, you know, we go start designing a building and we tend to kind of go to the things that we've always done. 00:48:18.339 --> 00:48:28.099 And yes, we want to push it, but we're at the constraint of what's possible via someone of the current manufacturers who maybe that's how we've always been doing it. 00:48:28.099 --> 00:48:38.099 You guys are offering every building has a facade, every building has a skin, every building has has to you know have that that feature, right? 00:48:38.099 --> 00:48:52.339 So I'm you know, it's not saying that this is the answer for every single project, but you you can't shut it down just because of where you are, or like you're saying, you're working everywhere, including trying to put these materials up on the moon. 00:48:52.339 --> 00:49:03.139 But that just opens up the door for our for a lot of people to investigate and think about how they've been designing before when it comes to building facades. 00:49:03.139 --> 00:49:21.379 But Platt, just thinking, you know, all of the solutions that you that that you've been working through and the things that you have been focused on, can you just talk a little bit about like, you know, you've talked a little bit about this, but maybe if you want to hit on it a little more, the importance of solving the problem for the industry. 00:49:21.379 --> 00:49:33.539 And then also like if it's not solved, like what do you think, what do you think some of the things from your the way you've approached it, it is actually costing us if if we're not addressing, if we're not solving it. 00:49:33.539 --> 00:49:35.459 So that it's kind of two things there. 00:49:35.459 --> 00:49:35.859 Sure. 00:49:35.859 --> 00:49:39.859 The importance of solving it, and then what is the cost if we're not solving it. 00:49:40.179 --> 00:49:52.339 So one of the key things that we've been working on

over the past, I think, four, four and a half years now, is getting to price parity with flat facades. 00:49:52.339 --> 00:50:02.419 And that's been a huge push because what we're doing, what we have been doing is kind of on the premium, the high-end type projects in the past. 00:50:02.419 --> 00:50:08.259 So, how do you hit the market where the market will adopt what you're doing and broaden what you can do? 00:50:08.259 --> 00:50:17.939 And so we did a study about five years ago and seeing, okay, what are standard flat panel products costing in the market? 00:50:17.939 --> 00:50:19.459 And can we get there? 00:50:19.459 --> 00:50:33.459 And so over time, we have been driving down our costs in order to get more at parity with flat panel products, but bringing a huge amount of value to the table that they can't do. 00:50:33.459 --> 00:50:36.019 Like they can't do that design freedom. 00:50:36.019 --> 00:50:38.819 They can't have like the insulation value. 00:50:38.819 --> 00:50:41.699 Uh, ours is like our six and a half per inch. 00:50:41.699 --> 00:50:46.499 It's something that we're one-tenth of the weight of architectural precast. 00:50:46.499 --> 00:50:51.939 On a project we're working on down in Jacksonville, it's a 22-story tower. 00:50:51.939 --> 00:51:00.419 Uh, we're saving three million pounds off of the structure uh of that building and beat out precast on price. 00:51:00.419 --> 00:51:08.019 On another, like a 50-story tower in Nashville that we're going after, we saved 34 million pounds. 00:51:08.019 --> 00:51:12.579 Uh, and the the carbon footprint of concrete uh on that. 00:51:12.579 --> 00:51:36.819 And so it's something that we're seeing a lot of uh uptick on like when GFRC or architectural precast is specified, we can do a lot uh with those type projects and bring a lot of value to the table uh and improve constructability, efficiency, the time scale, um, and carbon footprint. 00:51:36.819 --> 00:51:52.739 And so there's those are some things that we're seeing now that weren't there initially, but like looking at some really amazing projects right now that are competing uh with GFRC and architectural recast. 00:51:52.739 --> 00:51:54.979 So that's been a journey. 00:51:54.979 --> 00:52:04.899 Uh that is not something that I could have said five years ago, but that is something that we have been driving down production costs, automating more. 00:52:04.899 --> 00:52:10.659 Like in the early days, we it was a one-to-one bot to operator ratio. 00:52:10.659 --> 00:52:14.819 Like now it's more like it can be 10 to 14 to one. 00:52:14.819 --> 00:52:18.579 14 10 to robots going with one operator. 00:52:18.579 --> 00:52:22.739 Uh, and that's the what the beauty of automation uh allows. 00:52:22.739 --> 00:52:27.779 And so it's developing a lot on the hardware and the software side in order to get to that point. 00:52:27.779 --> 00:52:28.659 Right. 00:52:28.659 --> 00:52:35.939 But that's also allowed us to begin driving down uh production costs. 00:52:35.939 --> 00:52:39.139 So that's I think I answered one part of your question. 00:52:39.139 --> 00:52:40.739 Uh what was the other part? 00:52:41.139 --> 00:52:56.739 Yeah, I think I mean you were zeroing in on what makes it important and things you've been focusing on is driving down, you're trying to get to neutral or drive down costs because of the efficiency that you can deliver, you know, via the technology and the robotics, as well as the f design freedom, right? 00:52:56.739 --> 00:52:58.179 All the sustainable side. 00:52:58.179 --> 00:53:04.419 That's a positive and makes it important because the solutions need to happen one way or the other. 00:53:04.419 --> 00:53:25.539 And if we have to bring, if we have to continue to be negative on to you know how we're seeing climate and our you know, our certain fate with you know global action, no global action to trying to take global action into sustainability, you're addressing that and how you're manufacturing and building these. 00:53:25.539 --> 00:53:27.059 So that makes it important too. 00:53:27.059 --> 00:53:35.619 The other question was what is it costing us by how we're doing it now for versus what you're trying to do, which is solve that problem, right? 00:53:35.619 --> 00:53:38.739 What do you think it would cost us if we're not solving it? 00:53:39.059 --> 00:53:45.539 Yeah, so I think um one key thing about additive manufacturing is it's virtually no waste. 00:53:45.539 --> 00:53:50.019 Like you're only using the material necessary to create uh geometry. 00:53:50.019 --> 00:54:00.499 And because the way that we build right now is you manufacture sheet goods or things that are a given size, standard products, they go to a custom job site. 00:54:00.499 --> 00:54:06.019 A building or is oftentimes the largest custom object ever made. 00:54:06.019 --> 00:54:15.219 And but we'd make it with standard products, and you cut and carve out of those products to make it customized for that job site. 00:54:15.219 --> 00:54:26.739 Well, I think I can't remember what it was, but um, it's like 20 to 40 percent of materials are wasted, and then they head to a landfill. 00:54:26.739 --> 00:54:45.059 It's ridiculous amounts of waste and all of the embodied energy to get it, to harvest it, to manufacture it, to transport it, and then cut and carve it, and then transport it again to some place where it's gonna hopefully deteriorate over time. 00:54:45.059 --> 00:54:50.259 But it it's something that I mean, that's the way that we build things right now. 00:54:50.259 --> 00:54:56.259 Um, and so if there's a a more efficient way to build, that's what we're seeking. 00:54:56.259 --> 00:54:57.939 And so looking at nature. 00:54:57.939 --> 00:55:12.419 Nature puts material where it's necessary uh to create strength, but then everywhere else it eliminates that material, and so it creates structural efficiency through geometry and very elegantly and beautifully. 00:55:12.419 -->

00:55:14.339 Can we do that in construction? 00:55:14.339 --> 00:55:27.939 Uh that's what we're trying to do, and uh to translate like that that efficiency, the beauty, the strength of nature into the way that we construct things. 00:55:27.939 --> 00:55:30.099 Um, so yeah. 00:55:30.419 --> 00:55:41.379 No, I think that's that's powerful and something we're all used to, something we all hopefully get the chance to go out in and spend time in nature and kind of see see the world for what it is, right? 00:55:41.379 --> 00:55:44.659 Instead of just like live in that moment, right? 00:55:44.659 --> 00:56:04.979 Be present during it to explore it and think about it, opposed to rushing through with it because that's how life has us under pressure, gives us a moment to kind of think, you know, what is possible, not not all of the no's and you know, this is just this is like you're saying, this is what we're used to doing. 00:56:04.979 --> 00:56:11.459 It is that custom piece and bringing all the standard things that we've all been used to into the project. 00:56:11.459 --> 00:56:25.299 And I, you know, adding on to something you said, I think I think the industry will hopefully we'll get there where we're realizing in order to build the infrastructure that is required for all of us as humans, right? 00:56:25.299 --> 00:56:34.819 Our labor force is continuing to shrink in this industry in all parts, like design all the way through fabrication and construction. 00:56:34.819 --> 00:56:44.339 So the reality is, it's like I think that you know, when we hear robotics sometimes, our mind can get, well, that's taking jobs from others. 00:56:44.339 --> 00:56:58.899 No, it's creating new opportunities for the next generation as well as those who are still in the industry, but no longer like want to be doing a lot of the hard labor and the things that we're doing. 00:56:58.899 --> 00:57:16.179 They can still bring value through their knowledge and experience into these solutions to help, like you said, lower some of that energy that it takes, whether it's human or what you know, all of the energy that it's required to produce something. 00:57:16.179 --> 00:57:36.019 Like if we can reduce that, we're able to give back to our communities in a much larger scale without all of the additive pressure as humans to try, you know, got to go work on Saturdays, got to work overtime just to get the project, which is already six months behind, and we all know why we're behind. 00:57:36.019 --> 00:57:44.659 And you're bringing solutions that are trying, you know, they're going to resolve, you know, many of those things. 00:57:44.659 --> 00:57:51.539 Doesn't resolve everything, but it starts to resolve these things where we can get more efficient with our facades. 00:57:51.539 --> 00:57:58.339 We can do it in a lot of different areas, or not just facades, because I don't want to just say that's what all of you guys are doing. 00:57:58.339 --> 00:58:00.259 I'm just picking on one

solution. 00:58:00.259 --> 00:58:16.499 But with this approach of thinking of how to build and the way branch technologies think about it, just I think it provides us so much more than we can ever think that it would be taking away from us if that is an obstacle or concern. 00:58:16.819 --> 00:58:25.139 Yeah, one of the things that's interesting is I mean, how many young people aspire to go into construction and construct on site? 00:58:25.139 --> 00:58:30.339 Uh it's kind of a a lot of people are retiring out and we're losing that workforce. 00:58:30.339 --> 00:58:36.099 And so one of the things that we've seen is that our average age is probably 30. 00:58:36.099 --> 00:58:45.859 And so it's a lot of new people coming into construction and super loving what we do because it's doing it in a different way. 00:58:45.859 --> 00:58:58.819 Uh and it's additive manufacturing, it's robotics, it's working in a factory environment that's 70 degrees, and uh instead of on a hot site, dusty site. 00:58:58.819 --> 00:59:09.779 And so it's kind of allowing a new generation of um tech forward people to come into the construction industry uh where they would have never done that. 00:59:09.779 --> 00:59:16.419 Um they would have never approached going after like a construction site job. 00:59:16.419 --> 00:59:20.339 So I I I've that's been a very encouraging thing to see. 00:59:20.819 --> 00:59:21.059 Yeah. 00:59:21.059 --> 00:59:31.459 Well, I mean, I think that's an it's an important story of somebody who has founded a company, you've been CEO, you've got somebody there with you partnering, and you're you're focused on the thing that you're passionate about. 00:59:31.459 --> 00:59:39.459 You are providing a pathway and an avenue for the next generation to see construction with a different image than what we're used to. 00:59:39.459 --> 00:59:42.739 And that doesn't mean the way we were doing it before was wrong. 00:59:42.739 --> 00:59:44.819 And I I try to stress that all the time. 00:59:44.819 --> 00:59:51.299 It's just the situations have changed and we need to be bringing different solutions before us. 00:59:51.299 --> 00:59:56.179 We need to break free from some of the patterns and the traps that we find ourselves in. 00:59:56.179 --> 01:00:00.339 So this is always a big one, but man, you you're talking about putting stuff on the moon. 01:00:00.339 --> 01:00:16.659 So I can only imagine what goes through your mind and your head when you think for yourself, for the industry, uh, branch technology, like what does success, you know, in your mind look like with what you're trying to do and where you really want to go? 01:00:16.659 --> 01:00:18.259 What does that look like for you? 01:00:18.499 --> 01:00:22.659 Yeah, no, I I think hopefully it outlives me. 01:00:22.659 --> 01:00:27.859 And it is something that it becomes more broad adoption. 01:00:27.859 --> 01:00:32.099 Like we're still in the early days, I think, of uh adoption. 01:00:32.099 --> 01:00:37.219 And I love to see like more beauty uh in the world. 01:00:37.219 --> 01:00:42.179 And like that's our core purpose is to create a beautiful built world. 01:00:42.179 --> 01:00:48.659 So, how might we do that using new digital tools and new methods? 01:00:48.659 --> 01:00:53.939 Uh, but that would be like to see more and more of this uh around. 01:00:53.939 --> 01:01:02.899 Um and eventually it moves into, I mean, one of the purposes in the name branch is with a cellular structure, you can build almost anything. 01:01:02.899 --> 01:01:20.339 So branching into other industries um like uh furniture or automotive, um aerospace, I mean, like getting to structural uh freedom uh with additive manufacturing, you can make a lot of different things. 01:01:20.339 --> 01:01:29.859 And so yeah, that's that was the big idea is like, okay, branch into not just construction, uh, but be able to go into uh other arenas. 01:01:29.859 --> 01:01:32.259 And we're beginning, just beginning to do that. 01:01:32.259 --> 01:01:41.059 Uh we've got a new thing for homeless shelters, and and like we've experimented with some furniture. 01:01:41.059 --> 01:01:44.019 Uh we're looking into lighting uh right now. 01:01:44.019 --> 01:01:59.299 And so just being able to kind of hit adjacent industries, but I will say when our work with uh the government, they have been asking us to do certain things, and it's like, okay, that's gonna be a steep climb. 01:01:59.299 --> 01:02:04.099 Aerospace where you have to do all kinds of fatigue testing. 01:02:04.099 --> 01:02:15.859 I mean, you you're floating in the air or something like nut you're not gonna use a new technology when it's dynamic motion and people's lives are hanging in the air. 01:02:15.859 --> 01:02:18.019 A building is pretty static compared. 01:02:18.019 --> 01:02:23.299 So it's easier adoption and construction than it would be in some of those other arenas. 01:02:23.299 --> 01:02:23.859 But yeah. 01:02:23.859 --> 01:02:26.179 Have some interesting conversations though. 01:02:26.659 --> 01:02:32.899 No, it's oh man, just starts to stretch the lens of the possible, right? 01:02:32.899 --> 01:02:38.099 And that's what I just I mean, as you're talking, I'm like, man, yes, yes, yes. 01:02:38.099 --> 01:02:50.739 We think about everything that from my standpoint, we will think like curiosity is really just about being innovative and exploring, but sometimes curiosity is really about questioning the things that we've known. 01:02:50.739 --> 01:02:56.179 And and we have to really dive into those things and kind of question why something is the way it is. 01:02:56.179 --> 01:03:07.859 And this design freedom that you're talking about, or even the exploration of your own business and thinking about success, is the freedom to just be like, man, we don't know until we test. 01:03:07.859 --> 01:03:11.139 And even if it doesn't work, it didn't give us wrong answers. 01:03:11.139 --> 01:03:16.179 It just kind of told us a pattern or a

path to to kind of take to move forward. 01:03:16.179 --> 01:03:24.419 And I think that's what makes this convergence and all the things that you're doing and talking about even the name, the purpose of the name. 01:03:24.419 --> 01:03:31.939 Like that's what's so intriguing to me when I see a business is sometimes it just has a name, and I'm always like, well, what does the name mean behind it? 01:03:31.939 --> 01:03:35.539 There's gotta be a story, it's gotta tie to that founder, right? 01:03:35.539 --> 01:03:53.459 Because it goes back to the intrinsic piece to always, you know, be able to, you know, we all talk about grit and grind and endure through those challenges as you've had to do with your company, but when it's intrinsic, it's a lot easier to stay in the moment under that pressure, right? 01:03:53.459 --> 01:03:56.979 So your story is it's it's powerful. 01:03:56.979 --> 01:04:03.379 I love that getting that chance to kind of share it with you and all of the audience on this conversation plat. 01:04:03.379 --> 01:04:09.459 And I am looking forward to all of the things that branch technology continues to do. 01:04:09.459 --> 01:04:18.499 Because I I I just I seeing and watching what I've got a chance to do, I hope that everybody goes out and follows you and sees these videos. 01:04:18.499 --> 01:04:23.699 But before we kind of wrap up, is there is there anything I didn't ask you or something else that you want to share? 01:04:23.699 --> 01:04:30.099 Um, just something they can check out, how do they get a hold of you or anything else uh before we work wrap the show? 01:04:30.099 --> 01:04:35.459 Obviously, our website has an intake uh aspect to it. 01:04:35.619 --> 01:04:41.379 Um and so glad to entertain and look at different projects that people might have. 01:04:41.379 --> 01:04:46.259 And so that's always fun to see what people bring to the table. 01:04:46.259 --> 01:04:50.019 It's just amazing to see like the creativity. 01:04:50.019 --> 01:04:54.339 Yeah, and like enabling that creativity to become reality. 01:04:54.339 --> 01:05:14.739 Um I think one thing that I would uh touch on is all of the stuff that you can do with AI uh in terms of uh generation of ideas, yeah, oftentimes those are unbuilt because it's impossible with normal methods of construction to make some of those AI versions of things. 01:05:14.739 --> 01:05:15.219 Right. 01:05:15.219 --> 01:05:27.619 Um we enable that to become reality, like those renderings and the things that you can do with uh Gemini or Mid Journey or whatever platform, those very organic shapes and things. 01:05:27.619 --> 01:05:35.219 We've got our first one uh that started as an AI idea that's um going into um design assist now. 01:05:35.219 --> 01:05:37.619 Uh and so that it's pretty exciting to see. 01:05:37.619 --> 01:05:43.539 Okay, here's this possibility that's out there, but it's just uh digital possibility, it's not reality. 01:05:43.539 --> 01:05:43.859 Yeah. 01:05:43.859 --> 01:05:48.579 So we're able to kind of translate that digital possibility into reality. 01:05:48.579 --> 01:05:50.019 So that's exciting to see. 01:05:50.019 --> 01:05:52.979 That's kind of a newer trend that we're seeing. 01:05:53.219 --> 01:05:53.619 Yeah. 01:05:53.619 --> 01:05:54.579 Well, I love it. 01:05:54.579 --> 01:06:01.539 I I I don't think we got into it, but flat, you just hit on it, is like get get them get in touch with them early. 01:06:01.539 --> 01:06:05.059 You got to have them go through design assist, the delivery model. 01:06:05.059 --> 01:06:08.419 Like, like they're don't come to them to save your project. 01:06:08.419 --> 01:06:12.019 Make sure you're going before you have a project, go through those areas. 01:06:12.019 --> 01:06:20.499 And I think something else you just said is very powerful, is when there is no limit, the imagination will allow us to like create those things. 01:06:20.499 --> 01:06:37.299 And that's what you're saying about the AI and the designs, where suddenly somebody creates something, but the trying to go get it built in meeting that design intent becomes harder with our current structure and our current systems, but you guys are able to kind of give them that platform. 01:06:37.299 --> 01:06:41.139 So I will definitely be sharing all of your links in the show notes. 01:06:41.139 --> 01:06:58.339 For those, again, who watch it on YouTube, or if you typically listen on audio, definitely check out the YouTube channel, get a chance to kind of see things from a different perspective, uh, see some of these videos we share as we're working with guests and kind of showing some of the things that they're talking about and discussing as Platt did. 01:06:58.339 --> 01:07:00.739 Platt, I really appreciate the conversation. 01:07:00.739 --> 01:07:02.099 Love the passion. 01:07:02.099 --> 01:07:14.339 I, you know, coming from that architectural background as well, love that you found yourself just in that moment where you just said, look, I'm seeing something different and I don't want to stay in the same pattern. 01:07:14.339 --> 01:07:16.019 I'm going to break myself out of it. 01:07:16.019 --> 01:07:23.459 So I appreciate you being willing to take that leap, even if it's sometimes been a little harder than you would have liked it to have been. 01:07:23.459 --> 01:07:26.179 But thanks for being on Activating Curiosity, Platt. 01:07:26.179 --> 01:07:27.299 Well, thank you, Ryan. 01:07:27.299 --> 01:07:28.419 Yeah, appreciate it. 01:07:28.419 --> 01:07:29.379 Have a good one. 01:07:29.379 --> 01:07:35.139 That is the episode with Platt Boyd, the founder of Branch Technology. 01:07:35.139 --> 01:07:38.099 And man, what a fun conversation from my standpoint. 01:07:38.099 --> 01:08:08.179 I hope all of you enjoyed listening to it because it just brings so much of this convergence of all of these things: technology, added manufacturing, robotics, and even getting into thinking about how AI and all of that material science is really going to change our opportunity with design and thinking about how we're designing and our capabilities with how we're designing and the way we're able to bring those solutions onto project sites. 01:08:08.179 --> 01:08:23.699 And like I said, I've been following branch technology for quite some time, a few conversations with with Platt, getting to see kind of a demo of what his what his team was doing back during the pandemic, during some of the tough times where he existed. 01:08:23.699 --> 01:08:28.260 But they have really been able to start kind of accelerating and testing things. 01:08:28.260 --> 01:08:31.380 And that's that's the beauty of exploration. 01:08:31.380 --> 01:08:37.460 It's the beauty of curiosity, is that you're removing that known, those things that we've always thought to be true. 01:08:37.460 --> 01:08:43.060 And you're you're starting to ask different questions, which allow you to try something different. 01:08:43.060 --> 01:08:48.979 And there's no barriers because you're you're like, hey, if it doesn't work, I'm going to learn from it. 01:08:48.979 --> 01:09:03.140 And that's that laboratory that Platt is working towards and and providing for all of his employees that are working within branch tech, you know, branch technology as well as what he's doing for the industry and designers as a whole. 01:09:03.140 --> 01:09:05.779 So I hope you enjoyed the conversation. 01:09:05.779 --> 01:09:35.460 And until next time, continue to look at those things as you're working through them, problems that you're interested in, things you want to dive into and really study, take it and create a new uh learning habit from something that you've been doing in the past, question the knowns and work towards uh things and solutions that you think you're really touched by and moved by and motivated by, so that others within the industry will as well. 01:09:35.460 --> 01:09:41.460 Until next time, continue to activate your curiosity as well as curiosity within others. 01:09:41.460 --> 01:09:51.380 The Activating Curiosity podcast is brought to you by Connective Consulting Group and Connective Coaching, part of the Curiosity Building Experiences. 01:09:51.380 --> 01:09:57.380 If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to subscribe so you'll never miss a conversation. 01:09:57.380 --> 01:10:03.380 Share the podcast with your network and help us bring more curiosity into the construction industry. 01:10:03.380 --> 01:10:06.579 Interested in becoming a guest or a sponsor? 01:10:06.579 --> 01:10:11.619 Visit us at activatingcuriosity.com for more details. 01:10:11.619 --> 01:10:14.899 Until next time, keep leading with curiosity.