Modular floating structure and method of construction
AssigneeLegacy Foundry AG
InventorsLucien Vouillamoz, Francisco Daniel Rincon Hanna, Alain Jaccard, Pascal Boschi
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Abstract
A floating territory is made of at least two floatable building components having the shape of a prism with a regular polygon base, such as a triangle, a square, a pentagon, a hexagon, etc. combined with sliding dovetails and dovetail grooves for sliding attachment to neighboring construction elements. The attachments allow the floatable building components to slide vertically relative to each other, thereby permitting the floating territory to follow the upward and downward movement of the waves. A method of converting floating ocean waste into structures, in particular, floating territories is also provided.
Claims21
A floating territory made of at least two floatable building components, at least two of the at least two components having a first regular polygonal base end and a second regular polygonal cover end and walls extending essentially in a common direction from the base end to the cover end to enclose a watertight compartment therein, the walls including integral attachment elements comprising dovetails and dovetail grooves for sliding attachment to adjacent complementary attachment elements of an adjacent component, the dovetail grooves extending along the walls from the base end to the cover end, wherein said attachment elements of the building component, when interconnected to another attachment element of another building component, (a) allowing attachment between building components without intermediate components and (b) allowing said floatable building components to slide vertically relative to each other so that the floating territory is able to follow upward and downward movements of the waves.
A floating territory made of at least two floatable building components, at least two of the at least two components having a first regular polygonal base end and a second regular polygonal cover end and walls extending essentially in a common direction from the base end to the cover end to enclose a watertight compartment therein, the walls including integral attachment elements comprising dovetails and dovetail grooves for sliding attachment to adjacent complementary attachment elements of an adjacent component, the dovetail grooves extending along the walls, wherein said attachment elements of the building component, when interconnected to another attachment element of another building component, (a) allowing attachment between building components without intermediate components and (b) allowing said floatable building components to slide vertically relative to each other so that the floating territory is able to follow upward and downward movements of the waves, wherein some floatable building components are locked without significant vertical play to their neighboring floatable building components to provide a substantially rigid surface.
A floating territory made of at least two floatable building components, at least two of the at least two components having a first regular polygonal base end and a second regular polygonal cover end and walls extending essentially in a common direction from the base end to the cover end to enclose a watertight compartment therein, the walls including integral attachment elements comprising dovetails and dovetail grooves for sliding attachment to adjacent complementary attachment elements of an adjacent component, the dovetail grooves extending along the walls, wherein said attachment elements of the building component, when interconnected to another attachment element of another building component, (a) allowing attachment between building components without intermediate components and (b) allowing said floatable building components to slide vertically relative to each other so that the floating territory is able to follow upward and downward movements of the waves, wherein the external surfaces of the floating building components includes bosses or raised portions to minimize sticking between adjacent building components.
A floating territory made of at least two floatable building components, at least two of the at least two components having a first regular polygonal base end and a second regular polygonal cover end and walls extending essentially in a common direction from the base end to the cover end to enclose a watertight compartment therein, the walls including integral attachment elements comprising dovetails and dovetail grooves for sliding attachment to adjacent complementary attachment elements of an adjacent component, the dovetail grooves extending along the walls, wherein said attachment elements of the building component, when interconnected to another attachment element of another building component, (a) allowing attachment between building components without intermediate components and (b) allowing said floatable building components to slide vertically relative to each other so that the floating territory is able to follow upward and downward movements of the waves, wherein the floatable building components are of differing heights according to their intended payload, so that the resulting territory when carrying its intended payload presents a substantially flat surface.
A floating territory made of at least two floatable building components, at least two of the at least two components having a first regular polygonal base end and a second regular polygonal cover end and walls extending essentially in a common direction from the base end to the cover end to enclose a watertight compartment therein, the walls including integral attachment elements comprising dovetails and dovetail grooves for sliding attachment to adjacent complementary attachment elements of an adjacent component, the dovetail grooves extending along the walls, wherein said attachment elements of the building component, when interconnected to another attachment element of another building component, (a) allowing attachment between building components without intermediate components and (b) allowing said floatable building components to slide vertically relative to each other so that the floating territory is able to follow upward and downward movements of the waves, wherein the floatable building components are layered on top of each other in a plurality of layers according to their intended payload, so that the resulting territory when carrying its payload presents a substantially flat surface.
The method of converting floating ocean waste into structures, in particular, floating structures, includes the steps of:
- a) collecting waste, preferably plastic waste;
- b) treating, sorting such waste to extract material usable/suitable to create floating building component;
- c) optionally treating, sorting the waste to extract usable/suitable material to produce energy to drive the present process steps;
- d) creating floatable building component out of the usable/suitable material through injection or moulding or thermoforming;
- e) optionally attaching a ballast weight to the bottom of a floatable building component in order to stabilize the floatable building component in an upright position, once placed in the water;
- f) assembling the floatable building component to create a floating island;
- and
- g) optionally filling the floatable building component with water or other materials in order to adjust their floating height, and by way of consequence, the global shape of the island.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.