Method and components for erecting a building

Abstract

The invention provides a method for erecting a building on a construction site. The building is made from components which are pre-fitted for the building and for a container for transporting the components to a construction site. The pre-fitted components can be joined and refitted to allow reuse of the components. The invention further provides a set of components which are pre-fitted to allow construction of a container of one shape and a building of a different shape. The invention further provides a configuration system for configuring a set of components for a building or a container, a container made from such components, and a building made from such components.

Description

INTRODUCTION [0001] The present invention relates to a method and components for moving, configuring and erecting a modular building. The invention further relates to a building and a container for moving components for the building to a construction site. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] In general, movable and configurable construction units for buildings exist. As an example, construction workers are often housed in modular systems comprising numbers of containers stacked to form temporary apartments. Such systems offer a certain degree of freedom with respect to the size of a construction and to a certain extent also to the shape of the construction. As an example, the number of interconnected containers may be varied and the containers may be connected sideways in rows, upwardly in piles or a larger number of containers may be joined both sideways and upwardly to form larger buildings. Furthermore, some of the existing containers may have walls which can be shifted sideways t...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0012] Some of the components are load bearing components which are pre-fitted to form a load bearing framework of the container and to form a load bearing framework of the building. As an example, the container may comprise 12 load bearing beams arranged along side edges of a box-shaped container and joined in end-joints. The components could comprise joint-components for joining other components. The joint-components could e.g. form corner points of the building or the container, and they could be separate components or they could be an integrated part of the beams and / or the plates. Preferably, the components are fastened to each other by hand, e.g. via fastening means, e.g. in the form of a hasp of the kind known from window or door closing mechanisms. Preferably, the fastening means should be capable of locking and / or unlocking a neighbouring component without the use of any external tools. In general, the components, i.e. beams and / or plates can be assembled via snap locking means, by use of bolts, splits, nails, rivets, by gluing, welding, seaming or in any other way. However, according to one embodiment of the invention, the components are joined magnetically. In this case, an electrical field can be used for the disassembling thereof. Since bolts, splits, rivets and the like are avoided, the total number of required components can be reduced. Moreover, magnetically joined components may have more smooth outer surfaces from which water and dirt can easily come off and during the assembly and disassembly operations, considerable amounts of time may be saved.

[0020] During erection of the building, it may be an advantage if the joint-components and the resizable beams allow simultaneous operation to allow resizing of a frame which is assembled there from. As an example, the beams and the joint-components could be assembled into a cubic structure, and after the assembling, the size and shape of the cubic structure could be fitted to a specific need by simultaneous rotation and resizing of the length of some of the beams and joint-components. In particular, resizing in the scale of 1:3 would be applicable, e.g. for using a frame structure, e.g. comprising 12 beam joined in 8 joint-components both for a container and for a part of a building by resizing the length and changing the angles of some of the joint-components without disassembling the joint-components from the beams.

[0026] As an example, some buildings may have outer walls made from elongate boards of a certain length. In this case, the transport container could be made from pre-fitted beams and in a dimension suitable for transporting the elongate boards. At the construction site, the container is disassembled and the beams are used for making a carrying frame for the building while the elongate boards transported therein, are used for making the outer walls. In another example, the container could be made from plates which can be disassembled and used as outer walls of the building. Other components for the building could be transported within the container, e.g. electrical equipment, plumbing equipment, doors, windows, interior outfitting etc. A particularly good flexibility can be achieved by using a number of pre-fitted parts, e.g. beams or plates e.g. plan plates made from a sheet material, e.g. metal, cardboard, plywood, laminate etc. The beams and plates can be used to form frames and sidewalls, respectively, of either the container or the building.

[0027] In order to allow the pre-fitted components to be reused, they may be adapted for multiple and reversible joining and separation. As an example, the same component may be used in a container for transporting other components to a construction site. At the construction site, a building comprising this component is erected and used for a period of time. Subsequently, the building is disassembled and some components are joined to form a container for moving other components to a new construction site. Again, the container is disassembled and the components joint to form the new building. In fact, a building can entirely or at least almost entirely be made from pre-fitted and modular components and by intelligent design of the components, a very high degree of reuse of equal components in forming either a container and / or a building can be achieved.

Problems solved by technology

Despite the fact that buildings of various sizes can be established in short time by connecting a number of containers, it is typically experienced that buildings made from containers are less attractive seen from an architectural point of view.

The standardised and uniform sizing of the containers limits the freedom to combine such containers into fully functional buildings, and often, the outcome is a building with rooms of a size which does not match the needs of the user, e.g. a too large kitchen but a too small living room.

The document is, however, silent about the flexibility towards transportation of the building.

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