FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is related to building stairs, and more particularly to integrated stairs, or MAXU stairs in other words. MAXU stairs include private stairs and common stairs, which are closely integrated together.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Multi-floored buildings are generally equipped with common stairs to allow

pedestrians to access different floors. Some multi-floored buildings have

multi-floored units inside, with two-storey units the most popular. Such

multi-floored unit has its own, private, stairs, which are not shared with people from other units.

FIG.l illustrates one example of such buildings. Flights of common stairs (flights 811, 812, 821, 822, 831, 832, 841 and 842) and their associated landings are built within a vertical, columnar space, namely stairwell 800. Also presented in FIG.l are four two-storey units, each has its own door and private stairs. A person entering the door of unit 30 can reach the upper storey 32, from the lower storey 31, via private stairs (including lower flight 381 and upper flight 382 as well as intermediate landing 350). Private stairs can take a large number of forms, combining winders and landings, and theoretically, they can be designed and installed at any feasible spot within the unit. FIG. 1 gives four popular forms of private stair design.

However, no private stairs presented here are directly related to the common stairs.

The common stairs as a whole are grouped within a columnar spatial opening, a vertical shaft, called a stairwell 800.

The freedom to locate private stairs does allow designers to embrace the art of design, but unfortunately, it also brings some drawbacks. Most notably, a large number of private stairs are often too narrow or too steep. The primary reason for such compromised design is because wide, low-rise stairs are very expensive in terms of the space consumed.

FIG.2 illustrates how private stairs waste space in four situations. For a two-storey unit with one flight of straight stairs, the triangle space underneath the flight of stairs, namely a spandrel 51, is difficult to be utilized, and in most circumstances, it is reserved for storage. Above the stairs, there is also another triangle space 52, which is almost a complete waste of space. When "L" shaped or "U" shaped stairs are in place, an intermediate landing will often exacerbate the waste, because in addition to spaces 51, 52 and 53, the space 54 above the intermediate landing is also a complete waste of space, and the space 55 underneath the intermediate landing is usually too short of height to be comfortably used. Similar waste of space exists in three-storey units shown in FIG.2.

A Chinese patent document, CN 101575898 A, discloses a kind of integrated building stairs for split-level buildings. The stairs have left-sided stairs, intermediate stairs and right-sided stairs. The left-sided stairs of odd-numbered floors, the

intermediate stairs, and the right-sided stairs of even-numbered floors, comprise the common stairs. The left-sided stairs of even-numbered floors comprise private stairs of left-sided units; similarly, the right-sided stairs of odd-numbered floors comprise private stairs of right-sided units.

This special structure of stairs is a typical embodiment of what we defined as MAXU stairs - which are located within a so-called MAXU stairwell.

A MAXU stairwell is defined as a virtual, minimum columnar space, which contains a series of common stairs and the walls around them.

MAXU stairs integrate private stairs with common stairs, in such a way that the wasted spaces underneath and/or above private stairs are utilized by common stairs.

For split-level buildings, private stairs within a MAXU stairwell are arranged in a regular manner: directly underneath and/or above a flight of private stairs, which is within a MAXU stairwell, is exactly a flight of common stairs.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention is set forth and characterized in the main claim, while the dependent claims describe other characteristics of the invention.

The major purpose of the invention is to eliminate the waste of space from private stairs for non-split-level buildings.

For common stairs in FIG.l, a MAXU stairwell is almost the same as a traditional stairwell 800, except that a MAXU stairwell includes the walls around the common stairs.

The section of a traditional stairwell is often shaped like a rectangle; for spiral stairs, it is probably a circle.

The proposed solution can be summarized as:

Integrated building stairs, including common stairs and private stairs, both grouped within a MAXU stairwell, wherein said private stairs are irregularly arranged within said MAXU stairwell. Here, said irregularity means that, within a MAXU stairwell, there exist at least two flights of private stairs, which are locating at vertically adjacent floors. To be specifically, at least one flight of said private stairs is located immediately and vertically under or above another flight of said private stairs.

For super-high buildings, more or wider common stairs are needed for safety reasons, especially at the lower-levels. When emergency happens, people rush out of private spaces; the common stairs will be crowded suddenly, and usually with more people accumulated at lower-level common stairs.

One improvement includes that the MAXU stairs are divided vertically into two parts: the upper part and the lower part. On each floor of the said upper part, there exits one flight of private stairs; but one each floor of the said lower part, all stairs are common stairs.

Actually, all stairs within a MAXU stairwell can be horizontally grouped into three sections: left-sided section, middle section, and right-sided section. The middle section could be common stairs or floor corridors which belong to common spaces; while left-sided section or right-sided section can be arranged as private stairs or common stairs. On each floor, only one sided section can be private.

Additional improvement is to balance the width of the middle section (common stairs or a common corridor) with the widths of two sided stairs, so that the traffic flow alongside the common stairs is smooth. It is better to make middle section wider than left-sided and right-sided stairs by 50% - 60%.

The shape of the section of a MAXU stairwell could be tremendously different from a normal rectangle or a circle.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG.l is an illustration of a typical conventional multi-floored building with two-storey units.

FIG.2 illustrates the spaces that are difficult to utilize in four popular situations. FIG.3 is an illustration of regularly-arranged MAXU stairs. FIG.4 is the section view taken along line A-A in FIG.3. FIG.5 is the section view taken along line B-B in FIG.3. FIG.6 is the section view taken along line C-C in FIG.3.

FIG.7 and FIG.8 illustrate two more embodiments evolved from FIG.5.

FIG.9 is an illustration of some possible shapes that a MAXU stairwell can take. FIG.10 illustrates an embodiment of irregularly-arranged MAXU stairs.

FIG.11 illustrates another embodiment of irregularly-arranged MAXU stairs.

FIG.12 illustrates one more embodiment of MAXU stairs with both "U" shaped common stairs and "U" shaped private stairs, where the shape of its MAXU stairwell is a rectangle with rounded corners.

FIG.13, FIG.14 and FIG.15 are three more embodiments of MAXU stairs.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

There are numerous ways to implement the invention. The design of MAXU stairs could take numerous forms. Disclosed in this document are just some of the embodiments of the invention. There is no intent to limit the invention by such disclosure, but rather, it is intended to cover all modifications and alternate constructions falling within the spirit and scope of the invention, as defined in the claims.

Abbreviations used in this document:

P-flight flight of private stairs

C-flight flight of common stairs

P-stairs private stairs

C-stairs common stairs

FIG.3 is an illustration of one embodiment of MAXU stairs. On each floor, there are two flights of common stairs: C-flights 811 and 812, 821 and 822, and 831 and 832, respectively. Within two-storey unit 10, there are private stairs (P-flights 181 and 182) that link storey 11 to storey 12. Similarly, within two-storey unit 20, private stairs (P-flights 281 and 282) connect storey 21 with storey 22. The MAXU stairwell 80 not only contains common stairs, but also part of private stairs, (specifically, P-flights 181, 281 and 381). The key character of this design is that flight 821 of common stairs is directly underneath flight 381 of private stairs, and above flight 181 of private stairs of unit 10. Similarly, P-flight 281 is directly underneath C-flight 831 and above C-flight 811.

The arrangement of private stairs in this case is regular: in left-sided or right-sided section, no two consecutive flights or private stairs are vertically and immediately located.

Please note that in FIG.3, part of the private stairs on each floor is outside MAXU stairwell 80.

Spatial relationships of stairs presented in FIG.3: \ space

MAXU stairwell 80

Unit Unit level \ on the left Left-sided Middle Right-sided on the right

section section section

P-flight n/s* C-flight 832

3

P-flight 381 C-flight 831

C-flight 822 P-flight 282

2

C-flight 821 P-flight 281

P-flight 182 C-flight 812

1

P-flight 181 C-flight 811

(shown but) not specified

Section views will present more details of this embodiment.

FIG.4 and FIG.5 are section views taken along line A-A and B-B in FIG.3, respectively. In FIG.4, the lower flight 281 of private stairs and intermediate landing 250 of unit 20 are located inside MAXU stairwell 80, while the upper flight 282 is not. Partially visible, upper flight 182 of private stairs of another unit is neither inside MAXU stairwell 80. Common stairs, including lower flight 821 and upper flight 822, are, of course, inside MAXU stairwell 80. In FIG.5, the lower flight 181 of unit 10 is inside MAXU stairwell 80, but the upper flight 182 is not. Compared with FIG.4, the position of common stairs, within MAXU stairwell 80, shifts from left to right, therefore, flight 812 is underneath flight 822, but flight 811 is not directly

underneath flight 821, rather, it is underneath flight 281 of private stairs. It is also clear that the position of wall between private stairs and common stairs has changed.

Also in FIG.4, because the upper flight 282 is not inside MAXU stairwell 80, as an improvement, the height of intermediate landing 250 should not be too low. At least 2 meters of height is preferred. Then the total going of flight 822 will be significantly shorter than that of flight 821, which will leave a spacious area in front of the door of unit 20.

FIG.6 is the section view taken along line C-C in FIG.3. Visible in this view include the back side of the door of unit 20, the front side of the door of unit 10, sectioned flight 281 of private stairs in unit 20, and flights of common stairs (sectioned lower flight 831 and upper flight 832). The lower flight 821 and upper flight 822 of common stairs, which are shown in FIG.3, are not visible in FIG.6.

The shape of flight 182 of private stairs in FIG.5 can take other forms, of course.

Illustrated in FIG.7 and FIG.8 are two more examples. In FIG.7, flight 182 is designed as a winder. While in FIG.8, flight 182 is simplified as part of straight stairs.

Noticeably, the Ύ shaped intermediate landing 850 of common stairs in FIG.8 makes the shape of MAXU stairwell 80 look like a Chinese character 'fl'. The design of curved window 171 and curved wall 162 allows more lights to enter window 870. In both pictures, a part (as little as just one step) of flight 182 is inside MAXU stairwell 80.

The shape of a MAXU stairwell is determined by the shapes and positions of common stairs, the most popular shape is a rectangle as shown in FIG.4, FIG.5 and FIG.7. However, other shapes may better fit a particular situation or special thought. FIG.9 just shows some of the possible shapes: a rectangle with curved corners, a hexagon, an octagon, a pitch of playground, a cross, a character 'fl', or a character '8'.

Character '8' can be formed by two squares; one diagonal of one square and one diagonal of another square are on the same line.

For non-split-level buildings, such a regular arrangement is not necessary. For instance, a combination of three-storey, two-storey and one-storey units could perfectly fit into to a building with MAXU stairs.

FIG.10 illustrates such an example. The three-storey unit 10 has four flights of private stairs: P-flights 181, 182, 183 and 184, with 181 and 183 locating within MAXU stairwell 80; while unit 20 has only one floor with no private stairs.

Spatial relationships of stairs presented in FIG.10:

In FIG.10, inside MAXU stairwell 80, there is exactly one flight of private stairs on each floor. Notably, the said private stairs are not regularly arranged as those in FIG.3.

For multi-purpose buildings or super-high buildings, MAXU stairs can also provide effective solutions.

When common stairs of some (usually the lowest) levels of a multi-purpose building have heavy pedestrian traffic, duplicate flights of common stairs could be accommodated in a MAXU stairwell to deal with this demand.

In FIG.11, on each floor of the lower part (alongside arrow ' I' ) in MAXU stairwell, there are three flights of common stairs. Flights 711 and 711' are parallel and duplicated, so are flights 721 and 721'. There is no fight of private stairs in the lower part, while in upper part (alongside arrow 'U') there is exactly one flight of private stairs on each floor. The width Wi (for middle section) is greater than that of left-sided or right-sided section.

S atial relationships of stairs presented in FIG.11:

In FIG.3, FIG.10 and FIG.11, there are exactly three flights of stairs inside MAXU stairwell, including two flights of common stairs and one flight of private stairs, or three flights of common stairs.

The three flights of stairs can be redefined as three sections: left-sided section, midd le section, and right-sided section.

The existence of an intermediate landing is preferred as a fall can be arrested at the landing. Secondly, though landings consume total floor space, there is no requirement for a large single dimension, allowing more flexible design.

For private stairs, "L" shaped or "U" shaped stairs with an intermediate landing can provide more privacy for upper floor, because the upstairs is not directly visible from the bottom of the stairs.

FIG.12 illustrates one more preferred embodiment of MAXU stairs with both shaped common stairs and "U" shaped private stairs.

Spatial relationships of stairs presented in FIG.12:

In this embodiment, "U" shaped private stairs provide more privacy.

FIG.13, FIG.14 and FIG.15 gives three more embodiments of MAXU stairs.

Spatial relationships of stairs presented in FIG.13, FIG.14 and FIG.15:

If we define:

C-stairs 8i = C-flight 8il + Landing 85i + C-flight 8i2, where i=l, 2, 3..

P-stairs i8 = P-flight i81 + Landing i50 + P-flight i82, where i=l, 2, 3..

For example:

C-stairs 81 = C-flight 811 + Landing 851 + C-flight 812

C-stairs 82 = C-flight 821 + Landing 852 + C-flight 822

P-stairs 28 = P-flight 281 + Landing 250 + P-flight 282

Then we could arrange private stairs and common stairs in a regular

In this example, on three lower floors, there are no private stairs. The left-sided sections, midd le sections, and the right-sided sections are connected into spiral characters '8'; while on other floors, the private stairs are either on left side or on the right side, not necessarily to be arranged regularly.

CONCLUSION

Disclosure has been provided for the effective implementation of MAXU stairs. While various preferred MAXU stairs have been shown and described, it should be understood that there is no intent to limit the invention by such disclosure. For example, the present invention should not be limited by size, materials, or specific building techniques.