Premanufactured modular housing building construction

A modular building construction system including in combination:

• a plural-story structure made up of vertically stacked square modules, there being a plurality of modules for each sotry, each module above the lowest level being stacked directly on a module below, the vertical forces of the building from the top to the ground being transmitted in a series of vertical planes one module wide,
• every module on the top only of a vertical stack having a floor and a ceiling, both of which have a series of parallel load-carrying spanning means extending across said module in the same direction for both floor and ceiling,
• every module except those on the top of a vertical stack having no ceiling but having a floor with a series of parallel load-carrying spanning means extending across said module,
• every module having only two vertical bounding planes, one at each end of said load-carrying spanning means, providing load-transmitting means for the said load-carrying spanning means thereabove and lying in one of said series of vertical planes, each said bounding plane having a plurality of vertical load-bearing structural members,
• there being beam means at each end of said load-carrying spanning means for transferring the load therefrom to said vertical bounding planes,
• said modules in each vertical stack being exactly aligned to place all the bounding plane thereof in alignment, while the modules on each story are conjugated so that each said bounding plane of one module is perpendicular to the bounding planes of each module on the same story which is immediately adjacent thereto, whereby redundancy of walls of adjacent modules lying along the bounding planes can be avoided and protection against earthquake forces increased.

A building construction method, comprising:

• pre-constructing and pre-finishing the interiors of a series of room-size rectangular first modules, each having only two vertical bearing planes parallel to each other, each said bearing plane having a plurality of vertical load-bearing structural members joined by a floor panel having a series of load-carrying rectangular spanning means running between said bearing planes, each said module being open on top, the vertical end planes of each said first module that lie perpendicular to the bearing planes being non-bearing,
• pre-constructing and pre-finishing the interior of a series of room-size rectangular second modules, each having only two vertical bearing planes parallel to each other and provided with a plurality of vertical load-bearing structural members and joined by both a floor panel and a ceiling panel, both of which have a series of load-carrying spanning means running between their said bearing planes, the vertical end planes of each said second module that lie perpendicular to a bearing plane being non-bearing,
• placing a group of said first modules on a first story level with each said bearing plane of any one said module being perpendicular to the planes of the bearing planes of each adjacent module on the same story and adjacent a non-bearing end plane of said adjacent module,
• providing other stories by stacking modules on modules, each module of each upper story being placed on a module of lower story with the bearing planes of those modules aligned to carry their load vertically,
• said second modules being used only at the top of a vertical stack of said modules and the first modules being used on all stories except the top of said stack, with the floor panel of any one upper module forming a ceiling panel for a module on a lower story.