Asymmetric Interlocking Building Unit for Stable Paving
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional building units, such as stones, bricks, and pavers, are labor-intensive to install and can shift over time, leading to misalignment and a disordered appearance, limiting their application to straight or repeating patterns and making curved designs difficult.
Innovation Solution
The development of building units with irregularly shaped side surfaces that interlock with adjacent units, forming a trapezoidal shape in plan view, allowing for straight, curved, or combined configurations, and minimizing shifting through complementary S-shape sections and inclined portions for enhanced structural integrity and visual interest.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If conventional geometric building units (squares, rectangles, hexagons) are used, then manufacturing and installation are simplified, but the units easily shift over time causing misalignment and disordered appearance
Solution Approach 1:
The building unit employs asymmetric side surfaces with irregular configurations that are not mirror images of opposite sides. This asymmetry creates complementary mating surfaces that interlock in a specific orientation, preventing shifting and maintaining alignment. The non-linear side surfaces with varying slopes and lengths ensure that units lock together securely while still allowing for curved and angled configurations.
Solution Approach 2:
The side surfaces are divided into multiple segments with different slopes and lengths. Each segment is designed to mate with corresponding segments of adjacent units, creating a multi-point interlocking system. This segmentation allows the unit to achieve stability through distributed contact points rather than relying on a single large contact area.
2Ease of operation
If conventional geometric building units are used, then installation is simpler, but the units are limited to straight or repeating patterns making curved designs difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The asymmetric side surfaces with non-linear contours allow units to be arranged in various orientations and configurations. By rotating and positioning units with different orientations, curved pathways, tree rings, and complex patterns can be created while maintaining interlocking stability. The asymmetry enables adaptability without sacrificing ease of installation.
Solution Approach 2:
The building unit design serves multiple functions: it can be used in straight configurations, curved configurations, and combined patterns. The same unit type with asymmetric side surfaces can create various designs by changing orientation and arrangement, eliminating the need for multiple specialized unit types.
3Reliability
If natural stone is used to create custom built surfaces, then visual appeal and custom design are achieved, but the work is labor intensive and expensive
Solution Approach 1:
The manufacturing process creates precise copies of the asymmetric unit design using molded building units (concrete, composite materials). These molded units replicate the complex interlocking geometry that would otherwise require skilled stonemasons to cut and fit natural stone, dramatically reducing labor requirements while maintaining the desired aesthetic and structural properties.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the state of the building unit from natural, irregular stone requiring manual cutting to pre-formed molded units with controlled dimensions and surface characteristics. This parameter change from natural variability to manufactured precision enables rapid installation while achieving custom design aesthetics through the molded geometry and surface treatments.
4Reliability
If building units with interlocking side surfaces are used, then structural integrity and reduced shifting are achieved, but the unit shape becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The asymmetric side surface design provides structural integrity through interlocking geometry without requiring excessive complexity. By using non-linear surfaces with varying slopes that mate complementarily, the units achieve stable connections. The complexity is managed by maintaining a consistent basic unit shape that can be manufactured efficiently while providing the necessary interlocking capability.
Data Source
AI summary
A building unit including upper and lower surfaces, and a plurality of side surfaces extending between the upper and lower surfaces defining a generally trapezoidal shape in plan view. The unit includes a first pair of the side surfaces, located on opposite sides of the unit and extending non-linearly and generally obliquely with respect to each other in plan view, where each side surface of the first pair has a midpoint bisecting it into two portions. The portions on each side of the midpoint are a 180° rotational image of the other portion about the midpoint. One side surface of the first pair is longer than the other, and the longer side surface includes a midsection of the same length and configuration as the other, shorter side surface. Each of the shorter and longer side surfaces interlocks with either the shorter or longer side surface of another like building unit.