GB2277942A - Building construction element and collapsible construction - Google Patents

Abstract

A polygonal building or other enclosure, or at least a polygonal framework, has a square base B, when erected, vertical side walls (5, 6, 7, 8) and a ridge roof R. It can be assembled from eight identical triangular elements, each of which has sides of length ratios 1: 2ROOT 2: 2ROOT 3. The components can be connected pivotally edge to edge so that the entire construction is collapsible flat to a rhombus shape, for transportation. <IMAGE>

Description

BUILDING CONSTRUCTION ELEMENT AND COLLAPSIBLE CONSTRUCTION This invention relates to building constructions, such as houses, tents and other enclosures, to elements from which the such constructions can be made, and to a method of erecting such a construction. The invention is particularly useful for holiday chalets and apartments, low cost housing, and housing in disaster areas, or anywhere where local manufacture would be difficult and where ease and speed of assembly would be important.

The invention provides a building construction element of triangular shape whose sides have length ratios substantially 1: '/2: '/3.

The invention also provides a building or other enclosure or space frame, which may be made from eight of such building construction elements or otherwise, having a square base defined by the base edges of four vertical triangular walls of height: width ratio substantially 1:22, and a ridge roof comprising two triangles, each of whose sides are in the length ratio substantially 2:23:23, joined together symmetrically at the ridge by their longest sides, and whose shortest sides are joined to the inclined, equally long diagonal edges of the walls.

This construction, which may consist of frameworks or of complete panels, is uniquely advantageous. Firstly, the entire structure can be built up from eight identical elements. Secondly, with a square base when assembled, the structure can readily be joined to one or more similar structures, to form a compound construction.

Thirdly, the assembled construction can be made readily collapsible, simply by making the edge joints pivotable, into a flat rhombus shape. When collapsed flat, the roof has the same shape as the two walls which it overlies; this flat structure is easily shipped, for example when stacked in standard containers.

Various novel intermediate elements and sub-assemblies are also within the scope of the invention. Thus the invention concludes a building construction element of flat triangular shape whose sides have length ratios substantially 2:23:23. The invention also includes a building construction sub-assembly comprising two of the elements with sides in the ratio substantially 1:22:23, whose shortest sides are joined pivotally symmetrically to make a triangle of sides substantially 222:23:23 when flat. The invention also includes a kit of parts for assembling a building structure, comprising combinations of the above-mentioned elements or sub-assemblies.

The invention also consists in a method of erecting a building or other structure according to the invention as defined above, from a flat, collapsed structure in which the roof portion overlies the wall portions, by exerting forces normal to the plane of the structure on the roof, in one direction, and on the walls, in the other direction, and drawing the base edges into a square base configuration.

Examples of the way in which the invention may be embodied will now be described, with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings, in which Figure 1A is a top plan view of a square building embodying the invention; Figure 1B is a side elevation of the building of Figure lA; Figure 1C is a front elevation of the building of Figure lA; Figure 1D is a plan view of a floor for the building of Figure lA; Figure 2A is a top plan view of a roof sub-assembly, when collapsed flat, of the building of Figure 1; Figure 2B is a side elevation of the roof sub-assembly of Figure 2B; Figure 2C is a section on the line A-A of Figure 2A; Figures 3A and 3B are plan views of wall sub-assemblies, when collapsed flat, of the building of Figure 1; Figure 3C is a side elevation of the wall sub-assemblies of Figures 3A and 3B;; Figure 4 is a top plan view, corresponding to Figure 2A, but of the entire building of Figure 1 when collapsed flat into a rhombus shape; Figure 5 is a side elevation of the collapsed structure of Figure 4, but with the hinges shown externally instead of internally; and Figure 6 is a partial view, to an enlarged scale, taken as a horizontal section through one corner of the walls of the building of Figure 1A.

The building construction shown in Figure 1, with a square base, is made from eight identical triangular building construction elements 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. Each such element is a triangular frame, with sides of length ratios 1:22:23. Based on these lengths, the floor B of the building has sides of length 22, so that the floor area of the building is two units.

Four of the elements, the elements 1-4, form a roof sub-assembly, shown in Figure 2. Two elements 1, 2 are joined rigidly by bolts at 12 to form an element of triangular shape whose sides are in the ratio 2:23:23. Correspondingly, two other elements 3 and 4 are joined rigidly by bolts at 34. These two larger elements are joined pivotally, symmetrically, to form a ridge R, which is the highest point of the building.

The pivotal connection is made by a pair of hinges 13 between elements 1 and 3, and a pair of hinges 24 between elements 2 and 4. The ridge R is at 90 when the building is erect.

The building has four vertical walls, constituted by the elements 5 to 8. In this example, these are formed from a sub-assembly of elements 5 and 6, shown in Figure 3A, joined pivotally and symmetrically by a pair of hinges 56; and a sub-assembly of elements 7 and 8, shown in Figure 3B, joined pivotally and symmetrically by a pair of hinges 78.

The roof sub-assembly is joined, at its four edges each of length 23 units, to the diagonal of each of elements 5 to 8, by means of pairs of hinges 25, 46, 37 and 18 respectively.

Under gravity, the structure collapses flat to the rhombus shape shown in Figures 4 and 5. Erection of the assembly involves pulling apart the roof portion from the wall portions, by exerting opposite forces on these portions, perpendicular to the plane of the collapsed structure. Once the process has been initiated, however, it is sufficient to apply horizontal forces to the base edges of the walls, to urge them to adopt a square configuration; or simply to urge together the extreme apices AP, Figure 4. The building may be held erect by securing the base edges to a floor B, Figure 1D, or to anchoring points on a larger platform, for example. Such anchoring may however not be essential if the building structure is supported by immediately adjacent similar structures, in a compound arrangement.

As shown in Figures 1 to 3, each element 1 to 8 is a triangular framework, formed with holes H, Figure 2A, to which the corresponding hinges are bolted. Suitable rubber seals are formed at all the edge joints: one such seal S is shown in 2A. An example is shown in greater detail in Fig. 6. The hinges can be located optionally either internally or externally.

The building is completed by adding structural panels of triangular shape to the frames. These may of course be opaque or transparent, and may be windows or doors.

Appropriate door fittings, catches and so on would be provided. The base of the building would incorporate all electrics, air conditioning and services, utility devices and so on.

By way of example, double glazed sealed glass units are shown secured to the frames of triangular elements 1 and 3, in the detail of Figure 6, which is a horizontal section through the right-angled corner between walls of the building. Each window W consists of a double layer of glass G hermetically sealed to a rubber window divider D, providing an air cavity C. These triangular windows W are inserted by pressure into rubber linings RL held in the triangular frames 1 and 3. At the corner defined by the hinges 13, there is a square rubber seal RS with inset tapped holes.

Thus all windows, roof sections and door panels are manufactured to a standard size in triangular format, as inserts which are to be pressed into rubber-lined hinged frames, normally before erection at site. In this example, the entire construction is of aluminium, or other appropriate metal, and glass or synthetic glass.

The small triangular elements, comprising frames and panels, together with the hinges, bolts, seals etc.

would fit into standard containers for transworld shipment. They could then be sub-assembled in local factories, forming sub-assemblies such as those shown in Figures 2 and 3, which could then be suitably packaged for transport to the site. The sub-assemblies could be as shown in Figure 5, complete with the triangular metal or glass panels and doors, etc. Finally, the building would be erected at site. This minimizes shipping costs, and the expensive and difficult to control site work.

The invention could be used to form a collapsible space frame, as shown in Figure 1, on which glass or other appropriate material could be mounted on site. This would completely mask the structure and would streamline the building, giving it a streamlined architectural appearance and minimizing wind resistance. This however may prove more expensive, and more dependent on skilled site workers, and it may be more relevant therefore to permanent housing applications, such as holiday chalets and apartments, or low cost housing.

It is envisaged that the invention could be used in the form of a tent, or indeed any form of enclosure where portability and speed of erection of cover are important. Scaffolding could also exploit the present invention, by providing collapsible frameworks from triangular elements.

The particular form of joining the triangular elements edge to edge may of course vary between embodiments of the invention, and the type of hinge illustrated is only one example. This hinge, suitable for all the pivotal joints, is shown in most detail in Fig. 6. Pivotal connections which limit the angular range may prove to be useful, by providing extra control during erection or collapse, and possibly extra structural strength. Thus the pivotal connections could feasibly lock releasably at a specific angle, to maintain the building at its erected configuration: there would then be no need for anchoring the base edges of the walls.

Although the length ratios of the sides of the triangular elements and sub-assemblies are indicated here in precise trigonometric terms, it should be understood that up to about a 5% tolerance should be acceptable, especially if flexible pivotal joints were to be used instead of hinges, to give a degree of play, allowing separation of the adjacent edges.

Although the example shown in Figures 1 to 5 is a square-based polygonal structure, the invention could be used in half such a structure, divided by a vertical plane through the ridge R or perpendicular to the ridge R. This "half", assembled from four elements such as 2, 4, 5 and 6; or 1, 3, 7 and 8; or 1, 2, 5 and 8; or 3, 4, 6 and 7, would have a triangular base and an opening, in a vertical plane, which would be either triangular or rectangular. It would be useful as a "lean-to" enclosure or as a conservatory, for example, when assembled adjacent another structure, and it could be collapsible in the same way as the full structure. Two such halves could be joined by an intermediate structure, forming an elongated version of the full structure of Figure 1. In the case where the halves are divided across the ridge R, the intermediate structure could be of three or more rectangular panels or frames; in the other case, only two rectangular pieces would be necessary.

Claims (21)

Claims

1. A building construction element of triangular shape whose sides have length ratios substantially 1:22:23.

2. A building construction element of triangular shape whose sides have length ratios substantially 2: '/3: '/3.

3. A building construction sub-assembly according to Claim 2 formed from two elements according to Claim 1 whose second shortest sides are rigidly joined symmetrically.

4. A building construction sub-assembly comprising two elements according to Claim 1 whose shortest sides are joined pivotally symmetrically to make a triangle of sides substantially 222:23:23 when flat.

5. A building construction sub-assembly comprising two elements according to Claim 2 whose longest sides are joined pivotally symmetrically to make a rhombus when flat.

6. A kit of parts for assembling a building structure, comprising eight elements according to Claim 1; or two sub-assemblies according to Claim 3 and two elements according to Claim 2 or a sub-assembly according to Claim 5.

7. A collapsible building structure comprising a sub-assembly according to Claim 5 as a roof, connected by its edges to the equally long edges of two sub-assemblies according to Claim 3, as opposing walls, with four equally long base edges.

8. A structure according to Claim 7, comprising a base platform for anchoring the base edges in a square configuration, such that the joints between the triangular elements of the walls are vertical, and the roof apex is at 90 .

9. A building or other enclosure or space frame having a flat square base defined by the base edges of four vertical triangular walls of height to width ratio substantially 1:22 and a ridge roof comprising two triangles, each of whose sides are in the length ratio substantially 2:23:23, joined together symmetrically at the ridge by their longest sides, and whose shortest sides are joined to the inclined, equally long diagonal edges of the walls.

10. A building or other enclosure or space frame according to Claim 9, in which the joints between the roof triangles and/or between the roof triangles and t' walls and/or between the walls, are pivotal.

11. A building or other enclosure or space frame according to Claim 9 or 10, further comprising a square floor whose edges are connected to the base edges.

12. A building or other enclosure or space frame according to Claim 10 or 11, in which the roof and walls are collapsible flat to a rhombus.

13. A building construction element or sub-assembly according to any of Claims 1 to 5, a kit of parts according to Claim 6, or a collapsible building structure according to Claim 7 or 8, in which the, or at least one of the, triangular elements is a frame for holding a triangular panel of corresponding shape.

14. A polygonal tent having the structure of Claim 7 or Claim 9.

15. A building or other enclosure or space frame with a triangular base, consisting of half the structure of any of Claims 9 to 12, when divided symmetrically along a diagonal in plan view, along or perpendicular to the ridge of the roof.

16. An elongated building or other enclosure or space frame comprising two symmetrical halves according to Claim 15, joined by an intermediate structure.

17. A building or other enclosure or space frame comprising a plurality of adjacent interconnected units each in accordance with any of Claims 9 to 16.

18. A method of erecting a building or other enclosure or space frame according to Claim 9 from a flat, collapsed structure in accordance with Claim 7, by exerting forces normal to the plane of the structure on the roof, in one direction, and on the walls, in the opposite direction, and drawing the base edges into a square base configuration.

19. A constructional element for a temporary building or other enclosure, substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings.

20. A polygonal framework for a building or other enclosure, substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings.

21. A building or other enclosure, collapsible to a flat configuration, substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings.