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Field of the invention

The subject of the present invention is a transportable prefabricated dwelling unit.

Known to the art are dwelling units of the aforesaid type generally designed to provide, in relatively short times, temporary emergency dwellings instead of permanent dwellings that have, for example, become unfit for use on account of natural calamities.

State of the art

Examples of units of the above sort are described and illustrated by the U.S. patents Nos. US-3690077, US-3778528 and US-3905167. These known dwelling units, albeit easy to transport and also provided in the form of composable modules, consist of half-shell structures made of moulded plastic material or resin glass of low quality not only from the aesthetic and functional point of view, but also from the environmental and energy standpoint. In addition, the configuration of said known dwelling units is rigidly bound to the shapes of the moulds typically used for their production, and cannot therefore be modified to be able to provide architecturally different shapes.

Summary of the invention

The object of the present invention is to provide a transportable prefabricated dwelling unit that will enable the limits and constraints of the state of the art to be overcome, thanks to a configuration and a process of production that depart in a new and original way from traditional ones.

More in particular, a specific object of the invention is to provide dwelling modules characterized by architectural flexibility and freedom in the widest range of shapes and combinations of use, together with qualities of particular lightness that will facilitate their transportability and also with antiseismic qualities that guarantee maximum safety during use thereof.

A further specific object of the invention is to provide a prefabricated dwelling unit that will be relatively simple and fast to produce, with a quality of execution that is durable over time to limit the need for interventions of maintenance and in practice enable a permanent use thereof.

According to the invention, the above and further objects are achieved thanks to a transportable prefabricated dwelling unit comprising a load-bearing part and a functional part, wherein the load-bearing part consists of a skeleton, and the functional part consists of wall and/or floor and/or ceiling elements with a structure made of ferrocement or steel- reinforced wood rendered fixed with respect to the skeleton.

The skeleton that constitutes the load-bearing part of the dwelling module according to the invention may consist of a metal framework or else also this may be made of ferrocement or steel-reinforced wood. Said framework is suited, albeit in the context of industrial production, for obtaining configurations not bound to standardized shapes and hence ensures the maximum flexibility of design. On the other hand, the structures made of ferrocement or steel-reinforced wood that make up the wall and/or floor and/or ceiling elements of the dwelling unit, given their extreme ease of production, enable application of the functional part to the load-bearing part of the unit in an equally flexible way, moreover guaranteeing qualities of extreme lightness, antiseismic capacity, energy efficiency, and long service life.

In the case where it is necessary to obtain particular characteristics of thermal insulation, in particular in the case where the dwelling unit according to the invention is designed for installation in particularly cold or particularly hot environments, the functional part may be implemented according to a composite configuration with a double structure of ferrocement or steel-reinforced wood and an intermediate natural insulation material, advantageously constituted in a specific way by granulated and pressed cork.

Brief description of the drawings

The invention will now be described in detail with reference to the annexed drawings, which are provided purely by way of non-limiting example, and which show different possibilities of practical embodiment thereof .

In the drawings:

- Figures 1 and 2 are schematic perspective views that show examples of a basic configuration of the dwelling unit according to the invention;

Figures 3, 4 and 5 are equally schematic perspective views that show examples of elementary composition of the dwelling unit of Figures 1 and 2 ;

- Figure 6 is a perspective view of an example of skeleton that constitutes the load-bearing part of the dwelling unit;

Figures 7-11 are perspective views of other examples of the load-bearing part of the dwelling unit, which is also completed with portions of the corresponding functional part and is also composed with the load-bearing part of further units;

- Figure 12 is a perspective view and at a larger scale of a detail of the functional part of the dwelling unit according to a first embodiment;

- Figure 13 is a view similar to that of Figure 12, which shows a second embodiment of the functional part; and

- Figures 14-16 show examples of modular compositions of the dwelling unit according to the invention in the final configuration of use.

Detailed description of the invention

In general terms, the transportable prefabricated dwelling unit according to the invention is made up, with a certain analogy with the human body, of a load- bearing part, which can be referred to as "skeleton", and a functional part, which can be referred to as "musculature". These two parts are rendered fixed with respect to one another during the process of prefabrication so as to create an ensemble, the general configuration of which is not rigidly constrained to fixed schemes, but is variable according to the specific destinations of use.

The ensemble obtained by the union of the load- bearing part and the functional part, i.e., the "skeleton-musculature" ensemble, is then completed with the application of service devices, such as plumbing, ducts for electrical wiring, casings and door and window frames, floorings, etc., which can be defined - once again by analogy with the human body - as "organs " .

In the course of the process of prefabrication, once the skeleton has been defined, the musculature will be established and then provided with the necessary organs. Each unit thus obtained may then be transferred with a preferably (albeit not necessarily) ordinary transport, i.e., not an exceptional one, to the site of installation and combined and joined along the three cartesian axes to similar units so as to form any architectural shape according to design, even one that is modifiable in time.

With reference now in detail to the drawings, Figures 1 and 2 show examples of a basic configuration of the dwelling unit according to the invention, having a generally parallelepipedal or in any case solid shape. In the case of Figure 1 the dwelling unit, designated as a whole by the reference number 1, has a horizontal floor 2 and a horizontal ceiling 3 and vertical side walls 4, whereas in the case of Figure 2 the dwelling unit, designated by la, moreover has a vertical back wall 5.

Figures 3 and 4 show an example of how the dwelling units 1 and la can be put together to be then joined so as to form a dwelling module.

Figure 5 represents another example of composition of two dwelling units la, already completed with respective casings and door and window frames, the two units being set alongside one another longitudinally and joined laterally.

Figure 6 illustrates just the load-bearing part of the dwelling unit 1 or la: it consists of a skeleton 6 that can be made up of metal sectional or tubular elements, for example made of steel and welded together, or else ferrocement or steel-reinforced wood. In the latter case, the methodology of production of the skeleton 6 is similar to the one that will be described in what follows with reference to the functional part of the dwelling unit.

Other examples of embodiment of the skeleton 6 to obtain different geometrical shapes, even partially curved and even combined with one another, are represented in Figures 7 to 11.

The structure of the dwelling unit in its elementary forms represented in Figures 1 and la, as well as in other different possible configurations, uses as functional part or "musculature", applied to the skeleton 6 that constitutes the load-bearing part thereof, the structure represented in Figure 12 or, alternatively, in Figure 13.

In the case of Figure 12 the structure that constitutes the functional part consists of a ferrocement wall or panel obtained with constructional techniques used in the naval sector for the production of watercraft of medium-to-large dimensions.

The panel represented partially and in see-through view in Figure 12, designated by the reference number 7, can be formed to obtain any wall of the dwelling unit: it is made up of a lattice of iron rods 8 fixed to the skeleton 6 and applied on which is a pack of metal meshes 9, spread or sprayed on which is the concrete 10. The panel 7 thus obtained can then be possibly refined with the application of plasters or other coatings.

As an alternative to concrete, a paste of recycled wood can be used, applied with the same techniques. In this case the wall or panel 7 constituting the functional part of the dwelling unit will hence be constituted by a structure made of steel-reinforced wood.

In the case of Figure 13 the panel, designated by 7a, has a composite structure with high thermal insulation, and is hence particularly suited in the case where the dwelling unit according to the invention is designed for particularly hot or cold climates. In this case, the composite configuration of the panel 7a is formed by two parts 7, with the structure made of ferrocement or steel-reinforced wood similar to the one described previously, set between which is an insulating body 11 made of natural material, and more in particular cork.

The method for the preparation of the body 8 envisages a step of boiling the lengths of cork in water, then a step of granulation and grinding, and finally pressing of the granulated mass with the possible addition, if necessary notwithstanding the self-bonding characteristics of said mass, of an additional bonding agent.

The thickness of the insulating body of cork 8 may be typically between 10 and 20 cm, which enables the dwelling units the functional part of which is provided therewith, to be classified in the highest energy class, i.e., class "A".

Each unit will then be completed, once again during prefabrication, with the service organs such as plumbing, ducts for electrical wiring, door and window frames, windows or the like.

As already mentioned above, the methodology of fabrication of the skeleton 6, in the case where it is also made of ferrocement or steel-reinforced wood, is similar to the one described with reference to the panel 7: the horizontal and vertical elements of the skeleton are formed by providing accordingly the packs of metal meshes, even without the need of formworks for temporary support, or possibly by using cork bodies for said purpose. Next, the concrete is applied.

The individual dwelling units thus obtained may have, in their basic configuration as shown in Figures 1 and 2, dimensions, for example, in the region of 12 x 2.5 m, with a height of 3.3 m. Thanks to the methodology of fabrication and to the materials used, the weight of each dwelling unit is relatively modest, which facilitates transport thereof from the production site to the installation site, where the unit may be simply laid on the ground resting on a horizontal base provided for the purpose.

Each dwelling unit may be combined and assembled with similar dwelling units along the three cartesian axes according to a wide range of modular schemes, so as to compose buildings or groups of dwellings, even complex as regards their extension both in the horizontal direction and in the vertical direction, and even of a quality such as the ones represented, by way of example, in Figures 14, 15 and 16. The corresponding roofs, generally with a plane or even slightly curved configuration, may by rendered ecological by sewing of grassy turfs (as in the case of Figure 14), and even be equipped with solar panels and/or photovoltaic cells (as in the case of Figure 15) .

It should be noted that the functional part of the dwelling unit, obtained, as has been said, with a structure of ferrocement or steel-reinforced wood, guarantees, in addition to the advantages already mentioned, also a prolonged duration thereof over time, with a reduced need for maintenance of the internal surfaces exposed to the atmospheric agents thanks to the characteristics of self-impermeablization of the structures made of ferrocement or steel-reinforced wood. This also enables, without any need for particular treatments, use of the dwelling units according to the invention also for creating dwellings not only on the land but also floating.

Added to all this is the possibility of expanding, dividing, or in any case modifying in time the dwellings obtained using the units according to the invention, and also the possibility of moving them easily from one site to another, then recomposing them in the original form or in a different form.

Of course, the details of construction and the embodiments may vary widely with respect to what is described and illustrated herein, without thereby departing from the scope of the present invention as defined in ensuing claims.