GB1579292A

GB1579292A - Mobile modular house

Info

Publication number: GB1579292A
Application number: GB6726/77A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1976-02-17
Filing date: 1977-02-17
Publication date: 1980-11-19
Also published as: FR2343095A1; PH9710A; FR2343095B1

Description

(54) A MOBILE MODULAR HOUSE (71) I, MELCHOR V. CALDERON, a citizen of Philippine nationality, of Green Towers, Sto Nillo, Parailaque, Rizal, Philippines, do hereby declare the invention, for which I pray that a patent may be granted to me and the method by which it is to be performed,to be particularly described in and by the following statement: This invention relates to the art of prefabricated housing and in particular to that method of prefabricating a house wherein a given number of room sized building modules of identical dimension are employed for the purpose of creating space designed to meet the requirements of the users.

In the past, the room sized modular concept has enjoyed a certain acceptance in the field of pre-fabricated housing because of the fact that the use of such identical building modules facilitates mass production of the component parts that are employed in such housing.

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for constructing a portable, modular house comprising the steps of: prefabricating a plurality of rectangular floor slabs and rear and front roof wall panels, at least one of the roof wall panels having an access opening, securing an edge of each rear roof wall panel to an edge of each slab, securing an edge of each front roof panel to an opposite edge of each slab so that the opposite edges of each rear and front roof panels are adjacent, securing the adjacent edges of each rear and front roof panels together so as to form a plurality of substantially rigid and non-folding room sized triangular modules, placing together in side-by-side relationship the plurality of triangular modules to form a longitudinally extending structure of triangular transverse cross-section, attaching end walls to the longitudinally extending triangular crosssection structure so as to form a unitary building and subdividing the unitary building into rooms to form a house.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a prefabricated modular dwelling comprising a number of room sized modules placed side-by-side, each module having a base panel and two roof-wall panels, at least one of the roof-wall panels having an access opening, the roof-wall panels being secured at their bottom edges to opposite sides of the base panel and the upper edges of the roofwall panels being secured together to form a substantially rigid and non-folding room sized triangular module.

Particular embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 shows the isometric view of the mobile house of this invention employing three basic modules or units; Figure 2 shows the floor plan of the house of Figure 1; Figure 3 shows the isometric view of the house of this invention employing four or more modules or units; Figure 4 shows the floor plan of the house of Figure 3; Figure 5 shows the perspective view of a floating mobile modular house of this inven tion; Figure 6 shows the perspective view of the mobile modular house formed in a triangular formation; Figure 7 is the floor plan of Figure 6; Figure 8 shows the perspective view of another modular house formation; Figure 9 shows the perspective view of still another modular house formation;; Figure 10 shows the perspective view of another modular house formation; Figure 11 shows the cross-section between lines of two modules; and Figure 12 shows the perspective view of an air vent used by this invention.

Referring now to the different views of the drawings, there is shown a mobile modular house 1 comprising a combination of modules or units 2.

The module or unit 2 is usually formed like that of an isoceles triangle having a rectangular base 3 on which are attached a rear roof-wall 4 and a front roof-wall 5 that are disposed in a 3060 degree inclined relation. In order to make an enclosed unit, the thus formed module 2 is provided with a pair of vertically disposed walls 6. This module or unit 2 may be placed in side-by-side relation with other units in order to create a space designed to meet the requirements of the user, for example a comfort room, a kitchen, a living room and a bedroom.

The base 3,when made of concrete, is constructed by pre-fabricating a steel reinforced concrete rectangular slab having a preferred dimension of approximately sixteen feet (16') length, four feet (4') width and two inches (2 ') in thickness. The front and rear ends 7 of the base slab 3 are made thicker than the main body in order to fully support the base of the inclined roof-walls 4 and 5. To facilitate a firm anchorage of the roof-walls on the base 3, an inwardly indented groove 8 is provided on each end of said base 3. This groove 8 is provided with metallic anchoring straps which can be bolted, welded, or firmly tied to the base of the roof-wall and afterwards covered by mortar cement to prevent rusting.

The rear roof-wall 4 and front roof-wall 5 are identical in construction and also made of rectangular, reinforced concrete panels having a plurality of air vents 9 at the bottom, a vent hole 10 at the top, and an opening 11 for a hingeable window 12. The preferred size of the roof-wall panel is four feet (4') wide, two inches (2') thick, and sixteen feet (16') long.

The end which will be bolted together with an oppositely inclined panel to form the apex of the module 2 is provided with a vertically extending flat, longitudinal flange that facilitates easy and detachable roof-wall interconnection.

The longitudinal sides 14 of the roof-wall panel are bent in a perpendicular relation with the main body of a rafter 17 in order to easily facilitate the bolting interconnection between the modules 2 when attached in a side-byside relation.

When a door 15 is needed, one of the roofwall panels 5 may be replaced by another similar panel having larger opening that will be able to hold a swingable door panel 15. To protect the said openings from rain, a shield may be placed over said door and likewise to the windows.

The side walls 6 are pre-fabricated by forming a triangular panel having a thickness of two inches (2"). The two sides of the base are vented with a plurality of vent holes 9 while the apex is vented with vents 16.

On the apex of the triangular module 2 is placed an air vent pipe which facilitates the upward movement of the cooling air, said pipe being made of hard plastics.

Also attached on the apex are metallic hooks to facilitate the lifting of said module by a mo bile lifter like a mobile crane.

The whole module 2 may be lifted to the place of installation or just the panels only.

The module may be assembled, ready to be transported to the site, at the factory or assem bled right at the job site itself.

When the modular house 1 is assembled on the job site, the ground is first levelled and compacted. Then a plurality of base or floor slabs 3, for example three or four, are laid side by side and levelled. With three slabs, a three module house may be constructed while with four or more slabs a four or more module house can be produced.

As an example, the modular house 1 of three modules 2, as shown in Figures 1 and 2, will now be considered.

One method is erection by panels. By this method the floor slab 3 is laid on the com pacted ground by means of a mechanized boom or a crane. Then the rear and front roof-wall panels 4 and 5 are placed one after the other and the apex bolted together while the bases are rigidly attached to the floor slab's anchoring bracket. Then one of the side walls 6 is placed against the rafter 17 of the roof-wall panels and the edges bolted to the rafters 17 of the panels 4 and 5. In order to provide for a leak-proof joint a sealing gasket or sealing cement may be placed between the joints. With the placement of the floor slab 3, the rear roof-wall panel 4, the front roof-wall panel 5, and the side wall panel 6 together, one end module 2 is com pleted and made available for attachment to another module.

The next module 2 is then assembled by laying a second floor slab side by side with the first floor slab 3 on the side having no wall partition. The rear roof-wall panel (not shown) of the next module is placed in position and the rafter 17 of the first module bolted to the rafter (not shown) of the said second panel.

Then the front roof-wall panel 2' with front door 15 is placed in position and its rafter 17' bolted to the first module's rafter 17. The apex of the second module 2' is then formed by bolting together the roof-wall panels thereby completing the second module 2'.

The third module 2" is then assembled by laying a third floor slab (not shown) side-by side with the second floor slab,the third rear roof-wall panel (not shown) being placed in position and its rafter (not shown) being bolted to the rafter of the second module 2'. The front roof-wall panel 2" is then placed in position and its rafter 17" is bolted to a rafter of the second module 2'. The apex is then formed by bolting together the rear and front panels there by completing the formation of the third module 2".The other end wall (not shown) is then placed in position and bolted to the rafters of the third module 2" thereby completing a modular house having five windows 12 and one 2 r This modular house having three modules may be constructed using concrete, foam concrete, asbestos cement sheets, galvanised iron sheets, clay tiles, bamboo, wood, plastics and many other materials and may be mounted on a floatable raft in order to provide a house on the surface of a body of water.

This three modules house 1 may be expan ded to four modules, five modules or six mod ules as a family grows in numbers or may be decreased as the family decreases in numbers.

The whole module may be lifted by a heavy duty crane and carried on top of a truck to be transported to any part of the country.

The floor plan of the three modules modular house is shown in Figure 2 and the floor plan of a four modules modular house in Figure 4 of the drawings.

The modules may be arranged in many dif ferent ways as shown in Figures 6,8,9 and 10 and may be colored with multiple colors.

Another method of constructing the modu lar house is by the module system wherein the module is pre-fabricated in triangular module and then assembled on the job site.

The effectiveness of modular house 1 can clearly be visualized when viewed in the light of the knowledge of an Indian wigwam. These wigwams are easy to build but provide ample room to satisfy the living requirement of a family especially when small.

By implementing the inventiori as described with reference to the drawings it will be seen that living space can be achieved with minimal expense by utilizing identical modules that have a triangular form and without requiring an ex pensive concrete foundation. Also greater dis cipline of dimension can be achieved when the aforementioned modules are placed side-by side to each other, thereby providing increased dimensional stability while simultaneously increasing the overall living or floor area. A further advantage of the illustrated embodi ments is that they lend themselves to being pre fabricated from combinations of wood, glass, bamboos, metal and other materials and can be assembled either on site or at a factory. Ad ditionally, use of detachable exterior compon ents readily permits expansion of the dwelling with minimal effort.

WHAT WE CLAIM IS: I . A method for constructing a portable, modular house comprising the steps of: prefabricating a plurality of rectangular floor slabs and rear and front roof wall panels, and at least one the roof wall panels having an access opening, securing an edge of each rear roof panel to an edge of each slab, securing an edge of each front roof panel to an opposite edge of each slab so that the opposite edges of each rear and front roof panels are adjacent, securing the adjacent edges of each rear and front roof panels together so as to form a plurality of sub stantially rigid and non-folding room sized triangular modules, placing together in side-byside relationship the plurality of triangular modules to form a longitudinally extending structure of triangular transverse cross-section, attaching end walls to the longitudinally extending triangular cross-section structure so as to form a unitary building and sub-dividing the unitary building into rooms to form a house.

2. A prefabricated modular dwelling comprising a number of room sized modules placed side-by-side, each module having a base panel and two roof wall panels, at least one of the roof wall panels having an access opening, the roof wall panels being secured at their bottom edges to opposite sides of the base panel and the upper edges of the roof wall panels being secured together to form a substantially rigid and non-folding room sized triangular modular.

3. A dwelling as claimed in claim 2 in which the dwelling is portable and comprises three room-sized modules, each base panel of each module comprising a rectangular floor slab on which is attached on each opposite side edge thereof the side panels respectively in the form of a rear and a front roof wall panel, there being provided a first module which has rear and front roof wall panels with air vents and a window, and a removable end wall, a second module having a rear roof-wall panel with a window and a front roof-wall panel with a door, the second module being removably attached to the first module by bolting and a third module having a rear roof-wall panel and a front roof-wall panel with an air vent and a window respectively, while on one of the other end side of the third module is attached a removable end wall with air vents, tne tirst, second and third modules being joined together and internally partitioned to form a modular house. 4. A modular house as claimed in claim 3 further comprising one or more additional room sized modules.

5. A modular house as in claim 4 wherein the modules are arranged in a staggered position in order to satisfy the living requirement of the user.

6. A modular house as in claim 1 comprising a floatable raft.

7. A method of constructing a portable modular dwelling substantially as described with reference to any of the accompanying drawings.

8. A portable modular dwelling substantially as described with reference to any of the accompanying drawings.

**WARNING** end of DESC field may overlap start of CLMS **.

Claims

**WARNING** start of CLMS field may overlap end of DESC **.

This modular house having three modules may be constructed using concrete, foam concrete, asbestos cement sheets, galvanised iron sheets, clay tiles, bamboo, wood, plastics and many other materials and may be mounted on a floatable raft in order to provide a house on the surface of a body of water.

This three modules house 1 may be expan ded to four modules, five modules or six mod ules as a family grows in numbers or may be decreased as the family decreases in numbers.

The whole module may be lifted by a heavy duty crane and carried on top of a truck to be transported to any part of the country.

The floor plan of the three modules modular house is shown in Figure 2 and the floor plan of a four modules modular house in Figure 4 of the drawings.

The modules may be arranged in many dif ferent ways as shown in Figures 6,8,9 and 10 and may be colored with multiple colors.

Another method of constructing the modu lar house is by the module system wherein the module is pre-fabricated in triangular module and then assembled on the job site.

The effectiveness of modular house 1 can clearly be visualized when viewed in the light of the knowledge of an Indian wigwam. These wigwams are easy to build but provide ample room to satisfy the living requirement of a family especially when small.

By implementing the inventiori as described with reference to the drawings it will be seen that living space can be achieved with minimal expense by utilizing identical modules that have a triangular form and without requiring an ex pensive concrete foundation. Also greater dis cipline of dimension can be achieved when the aforementioned modules are placed side-by side to each other, thereby providing increased dimensional stability while simultaneously increasing the overall living or floor area. A further advantage of the illustrated embodi ments is that they lend themselves to being pre fabricated from combinations of wood, glass, bamboos, metal and other materials and can be assembled either on site or at a factory. Ad ditionally, use of detachable exterior compon ents readily permits expansion of the dwelling with minimal effort.

WHAT WE CLAIM IS: I . A method for constructing a portable, modular house comprising the steps of: prefabricating a plurality of rectangular floor slabs and rear and front roof wall panels, and at least one the roof wall panels having an access opening, securing an edge of each rear roof panel to an edge of each slab, securing an edge of each front roof panel to an opposite edge of each slab so that the opposite edges of each rear and front roof panels are adjacent, securing the adjacent edges of each rear and front roof panels together so as to form a plurality of sub stantially rigid and non-folding room sized triangular modules, placing together in side-byside relationship the plurality of triangular modules to form a longitudinally extending structure of triangular transverse cross-section, attaching end walls to the longitudinally extending triangular cross-section structure so as to form a unitary building and sub-dividing the unitary building into rooms to form a house.
2. A prefabricated modular dwelling comprising a number of room sized modules placed side-by-side, each module having a base panel and two roof wall panels, at least one of the roof wall panels having an access opening, the roof wall panels being secured at their bottom edges to opposite sides of the base panel and the upper edges of the roof wall panels being secured together to form a substantially rigid and non-folding room sized triangular modular.
3. A dwelling as claimed in claim 2 in which the dwelling is portable and comprises three room-sized modules, each base panel of each module comprising a rectangular floor slab on which is attached on each opposite side edge thereof the side panels respectively in the form of a rear and a front roof wall panel, there being provided a first module which has rear and front roof wall panels with air vents and a window, and a removable end wall, a second module having a rear roof-wall panel with a window and a front roof-wall panel with a door, the second module being removably attached to the first module by bolting and a third module having a rear roof-wall panel and a front roof-wall panel with an air vent and a window respectively, while on one of the other end side of the third module is attached a removable end wall with air vents, tne tirst, second and third modules being joined together and internally partitioned to form a modular house.
4. A modular house as claimed in claim 3 further comprising one or more additional room sized modules.
5. A modular house as in claim 4 wherein the modules are arranged in a staggered position in order to satisfy the living requirement of the user.
6. A modular house as in claim 1 comprising a floatable raft.
7. A method of constructing a portable modular dwelling substantially as described with reference to any of the accompanying drawings.
8. A portable modular dwelling substantially as described with reference to any of the accompanying drawings.