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Title:
FLOATING STRUCTURE
Document Type and Number:
WIPO Patent Application WO/2020/157521
Kind Code:
A1
Abstract:
Floating structure comprising a floating platform on which lies a house, or closed space and an open space, which can be a recreational space comprising elements, such as a playground., a swimming pool, a garden with bushes: or trees characterised in that the surface of the open space is bigger, than the surface of the house. The surface of the open space is at least twice or even four times as big as the surface of the house.

Inventors:
SOTOVIKIS DIONISIOS (GR)
Application Number:
PCT/GR2019/000008
Publication Date:
August 06, 2020
Filing Date:
January 29, 2019
Export Citation:
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Assignee:
SOTOVIKIS DIONISIOS (GR)
International Classes:
B63B35/44
Domestic Patent References:
WO2005085559A12005-09-15
Foreign References:
EP3385158A12018-10-10
CN108545156A2018-09-18
CN105292389B2018-04-13
US8777519B12014-07-15
FR2644749A11990-09-28
US2429381A1947-10-21
EP5076627A2005-07-15
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Claims:
CLAIMS

1 . Floating structure comprising a floating platform (20) on which lies a building (24, 34, 44) and a recreational space (21, 31, 41) characterised in that the surface of the recreational space (21, 31, 41) is bigger than the surface of the house (24, 34, 44) .

2. Floating structure in accordance with claim 1,

wherein the surface of the open space (21, 31, 41) is at least twice as big as the surface of the house (24, 34, 44) .

3. Floating structure in accordance with claim 2,

wherein the surface of the open space (21, 31, 41) is at least four times as big as the surface of the house (24 , 34 , 44 ) .

4. Floating structure in accordance with any of the

claims 1 to 3, wherein the house (34) extends beyond the limits of the floating platform (30) .

5. Floating structure in accordance with any of the

claims 1 to 3, wherein the house (44) comprises more than one floors.

6. Floating structure in accordance with any of the

claims 1-5, wherein the house is a habitat.

7. Floating structure in accordance with any of the

claims 1-5, wherein the house is an exhibition space.

8. Floating structure in accordance with claim 1,

wherein the house is a commercial space.

9. Floating structure in accordance with claim 1,

wherein the open space is a garden comprising a tree area .

10. Floating structure in accordance with claim 1,

wherein the open space is a garden comprising a vegetable garden.

11. Floating structure in accordance with claim 1,

wherein the open space is a garden comprising a playground .

12. Floating structure in accordance with claim 1, wherein the open space is a garden comprising a swimming pool.

13. Use of the floating structure of claim 1-12 as a habitat .

14. Use of the floating structure of claim 1-12 as a habitat.

15. Use of the floating structure of claim 1-12 as a museum.

Description:
FLOATING STRUCTURE

The present invention concerns a system comprising a floating structure with an enclosed part, or house and an open part, such as a garden.

A conventional floating house or "boat-house" is described in US2429381 and shown in Fig. 1-4. In this document a raft, or any other floating platform 10 supports a rectangular house structure described by numbers 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18. One observes, in particular in Fig. 1 that the house structure occupies the biggest part of the raft 10, leaving very little free space for outside activities.

The document EP20050076627 describes also a floating vessel comprising a floating platform and a house supported by the platform. It is apparent, in

particular from fig. 1A of said document that the house occupies the biggest part of the surface created by the platform, leaving only small corridors as open space. Whilst this known structure provides a comfortable inner space for living, it leaves to the occupants very few possibilities for living outside. For example, there is no outside space for planting a garden, cultivating vegetables, creating a playground or even building a swimming pool.

The oil drilling or exploration platforms are another example of floating structures built for industrial purposes, which comprise in their surface a multitude of structures, cranes, equipment, all built with the aim of drilling or exploring oil or gas. Also, these structures, although built for a completely different purpose than the structure of the present invention, comprise a very limited percentage of free, open space.

The river barges are a further example of floating structures with large open space. According to the Wikipedia "A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods."

It is clear from this definition that a barge is a transportation means, in particular for transporting heavy good, and not a space for living. Although most of the barges are unpowered vessels, which are towed by a tugboat, there are barges which are self-propelled.

In the latter case there is a cabin which is containing all the steering, controlling and navigation equipment and is designed in order to shelter the pilot and the equipment from adverse weather conditions and not as a living space. Such an example is the barge described in WO 2005085559. Consequently, the barges or similar vessels are transportation means which do not comprise neither living space nor external recreational area.

A variation of the above vessel is a barge which has been transformed into a boat-house, a boat-hotel or a restaurant .

The problem that the present invention addresses originates from the fact that in many urban areas the amount of land available for living and satisfying recreational purposes is very limited, therefore very expensive, whilst in many cases, in particular for cities adjacent to the sea or lakes, the water surface is abundant.

The objective of the present invention is to address the above problem by providing a floating boathouse structure, and more particular a floating structure for living and/or recreational purposes, comprising a house in the form of an enclosed space, which can be used as a habitat, an office, a shop, a gallery etc. and an open space, which is suitable for recreational

purposes, such as a garden, a playground, a terrace wherein the surface of the open space is bigger than the surface of the house.

This structure is not the result of a transformation of a previous or an existing vessel but is designed from the beginning with the aim of combining a house and an open space in which the surface of the open space is bigger than the surface of the house.

According to another embodiment of the present

invention the surface of the open space is at least twice as big as the surface of the house.

According to another embodiment the surface of the open space is at least four times as big as the surface of the house.

Advantageously, the object of the present invention is a boathouse which is floating on the water and has no fixed or permanent attachment to soil. Consequently, it can be self-driven or towed to different places and provide to the users the opportunity to live in new landscapes such as the open sea, a harbour, a lake, a river, a canal etc. The user can easily move from densely populated urban areas provided with large water surfaces (e.g. Chicago and Michigan Lake, New York and Hudson River, Paris and la Seine ...) to remote, more isolated areas.

A further advantage of the present invention is that the structure can be easily transported to various locations and serve different purposes according to the owner's needs. For example, if the covered space is used as an exhibition hall, the owner, the producer or the organizer of the exhibition can transport it from e.g. one town or island to another and create of this move a significant cultural event. Equally, if the floating structure is used as a museum holding a permanent collection of art, the whole structure can be displaced from one city to the next without having to unhang the exhibits, pack them carefully, transport, unpack and hang them again. If the owner of the vessel is a municipality and the emphasis is given to the open space (in case for example this is a playground) they can transport it to areas of the city where more greenery or a new playground is needed.

The floating platform can be a boat, a barge, a

floater, a combination of floaters or rafts

interconnected through connecting means or other

floating structures known in the art.

Preferably, and in view of its big size and the limited needs to be displaced, the floating platform is

constructed with the aim to be displaced by one or more tugboats. Optionally, the floating platform comprises a motor and steering means in accordance with existing art .

The floating structure described above can be attached to a dock or a quay but can also stay autonomously as an island or platform away from the shore, in the middle of e.g. a lake.

The house is a building structure which is enclosed and able to be used as a habitat, an office space, an exhibition hall, a museum, a commercial space or a combination thereof. This building can be one single structure or can be the combination of smaller

buildings which can be touching or communicate each other or can be entirely autonomous. The storeroom or hull (the space below the main surface of the platform) may be used as living space, as a prolongation of the building (s), as storage or for any other purpose. In particular, this space can comprise an indoor swimming pool or an aquarium.

In the drawings

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a conventional floating house structure in accordance with the prior art.

Fig. 2 is a side view of a conventional floating house structure in accordance with the prior art.

Fig. 3 and 4 are the front and back view of a

conventional floating house structure in accordance with the prior art.

Fig. 5 is a plan view of a floating structure in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention .

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of a floating structure as shown in Fig. 5.

Fig. 7 is a plan view of a floating structure in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention .

Fig. 8 is a perspective view of a floating structure as shown in Fig. 7.

Fig. 9 is a plan view of a floating structure in accordance with still another embodiment of the present invention .

Fig. 10 is a perspective view of a floating structure as shown in Fig. 9.

Fig. 11 is another perspective view of the floating structure of the present invention, simulated in a river . Referring to the drawings and in particular to Fig. 5 and 6, a floating structure in accordance with the present invention comprises a floating platform (20) on the surface (21) of which is built a construction, such as a house (24) . The building can be built together with the floating platform or later, whilst the floating platform is lying on the water. The building (24) can have the form of a cube, a parallelepiped or any other form suitable for a house or any other facility. The building (24) can be a single unit or a combination of several (two or more) units.

The surface occupied by the building is substantially smaller than the top surface (21) of the platform (20) . The remaining surface of the platform (20) which is not occupied by the house is the so-called recreational or open space because it is neither enclosed not even covered. This space can be used for a multitude of activities. In particular, said open space can be used for any kind of recreational activities and can comprise a garden with bushes (27), a playground (29), benches and other outdoors furniture, trees, fountains, a swimming pool, an aquarium, or any other object or activity. The user may also convert part of the open space into tennis court, basketball court, heliport or other .

Below the top surface (21) can be provided space which can be used as additional living space, as storage, as space for housing the machinery of the vessel, as fitness-room, as indoors swimming pool, as aquarium or for any other use in accordance with known art. For any of the examples above there can be a combined use of the inner- and the outer-space for the same activity or purpose. For example, an aquarium may need such a height that the bottom of the aquarium can be lying on the hull of the boat, whilst part of the aquarium can extend above the top surface (21) of the platform (20) .

Fig. 7 and 8 show another embodiment of the present invention, in which the house (34) extends beyond the limits of the surface (31) of the platform (30) . Other big construction elements, such as a swimming pool, a heliport or an aquarium may extend beyond the borders of the top surface (31) of the platform (30) .

Fig. 9 and Fig. 10 show still another embodiment of the present invention, in which the house (44) comprises more than one floors. In this embodiment the garden may also comprise one or more trees (47) .

Fig. 11 shows a perspective view of the floating structure of the present invention in a river

surrounded by an urban landscape, where the need for high-end habitat is higher and the price of real estate property very high.

The floating structure can be self-propelled by means of a motor (not represented in the Figures) in

accordance with known art.

The structure can be prevented from moving by means of a system of one or more anchors connected to the floating structure by means of ropes and/or chains (not represented in the Figures) .