BUILDING ELEMENTS ESPECIALLY FOR CONSTRUCTION OF PLAYHOUSES FOR CHILDREN THAT CAN BE DISMOUNTED,BUT ALSO FOR OTHER PROVISIONAL BUILDINGS OR SCHREENINGS

Abstract: Building elements especially for construction of children's playhouses that can be dismounted, but also for other provisional constructions and screenings. Building element of flexible polyurethan foam formed with cuts as logs, and which can be covered with washable textile, serves for building constructions which can be dismounted e.g. playhouses. In connection with children's play, it is an unquestionable advantage to use flexible and light materials both safety wise and handling wise.

Description: Building elements especially for construction of play¬ houses for children that can be dismounted, but also for other provisional buildings or screenings. The invention in question concerns building elements especially for construction of children's playhouses that can be dismounted, but also for other provisional build¬ ings or screenings where the only demand to the strength of the building or screening is that it should be self- supportable. From the Danish patent paper No. 108. 0 a playhouse with such dimensions is known that children can stay inside and play, consisting of sidev/alls hinged together in the form of a collapsible ring provided with doors and windows and roof plates made of stiff, plateshaped material. The roof plates in this house are hinged together with the opposite sidewalls in the ring so that these cannot fall down, when the opposite sidewalls are pulled from each¬ other during the extraction of the house. Such houses are very suitable for small children to play in, but do not satisfy their needs to build a house or a cave themselves. To cover these needs it has been suggested to build play¬ houses of wooden plates, which are fastened together. Small children, meaning children of the kindergarten age, can easily learn to fit such plates together, but partly the plates have to be smooth and have rounded corners and edges, partly the plates cannot be bigger than that the children can handle them safely without risking to over¬ strain themselves and without risking to hit eachother with them during the construction, and partly it is difficult for the children to build them in such a height that they can stand up inside. By the invention in question it is intended to indicate building elements, which to a higher degree than previous¬ ly suggested elements satisfy small children's needs to build playhouses themselves, in which they can both lie down, sit up and stand up, with the feeling that they are in a really selfbuilt room or house. Thus the invention concerns building elements of the in the introduction claim 1 indicated kind, and which are characteristic in that they consist of plates of flexible polyurethan foam which at the ends are formed as logs. Preferably according to the invention polyurethan foam with open cells should be used, as this material gives more flexibility, but nevertheless is suf iciently stiff for the purpose. It has been proved that constructions of building elements according to the invention, besides being suitable for playhouses, also are very suitable for construction of screenings, f.inst. in places where repairs of machinery or buildings by means of noisy implements have to take place. For the building elements - according to the invention - flexible polyurethan foam is preferably used as the use of this material results in the elements being easy to mount even though the building elements have to be placed on a base, the side lines of which are not absolutely rectilinear, and besides effects that no sound bridge between the single elements is formed, neither in the cor¬ ner joints nor where the elements meet edge to edge. When the elements are designed for playhouses, they can be covered with a washable textile. Another possibility is a cover made of a foil of artificial material, and this possibility is used when the elements are used f.inst. as sound silencing construction around a machinery repair so that oil and dirt can be wiped off easily. Various versions of building elements according to the in¬ vention are shown on the drawing. Fig. 1 shows a bottom- or topelement for two opposite sides in a rectangular construction. Fig. 2 a side element Fig. 3 an element v/hich is part of a side and Fig. a house end element The element 1 shown in fig. 1 is a rectangular, prismatic polyurethan foam plate v/ith the height h and the length 1, and which at one of the long edges is formed with two cuts 2 and 3 and with a length equal to the thickness of the OMPI IPO plate t and which has been cut halfway into the plate with the distance t from the endedge of the plate. The element shown in fig. 2 has a height 2h and is at both long edges formed with cuts 2' , 2" and y , 3" which have the same dimensions as the cuts 2 and 3« I has the same length and thickness as element 1. The element 5 shown in fig. 3 has the same height as element 4, but a length which is only about 1/3 of its length. It is at each long edge at one end of the ele¬ ment formed with two cuts 2'" , 2"" with the same dimen¬ sions as the cut 2 in element 1, With these elements a house can be built f.inst. by first putting 2 elements 1 parallel to the uncut long edge on a leve ' l base and in the distance l- t from eachother, then the two elements are connected with two elements k, fasten¬ ing the two elements by means of the cuts. Over one of the elements 1 an element 5 is fastened on e_ : ch side, while element L. is used for the construction of the other sides. The construction is continued in this way with elements placed in layers, using for the last layer two elements 1 and two elements 4 so that the walls of the construction are of the same height. The construc¬ tion can be terminated by elements placed flat down so that the result is a square roofed construction with an entrance between the elements 5. Instead of a flat roof it is possible by means of the ele¬ ment shown in fig. . v/hich is formed as element 1 with a fixed triangular piece, to build a roof by placing the elements k and/or 1 to form the oblique sides of the roof. An appropriate size of the elements 1 and is a length of appr. 1.5 and a thickness of appr. 7 cm and a height of 18 and 3β cm respectively. V/ith these dimensions the weight of one element is about 1 kg and can thus easily be handled by a kindergarten child. For special purposes the elements can be formed in other lengths. It is, however, a condition for the stability of the constructions that are made that the cuts are no clo¬ ser to the end edges of the element than the thickness of the plate. OMPI WIPO

Claims: P A T E N T C L A I M 1. Building elements for construction of buildings or screenings by means of plane plate elements which can be dismounted and which each at least at one end has at least one cut designed for fastening to a corresponding cut in a transverse plate element, c h a r a c t e r i z e d by the fact that each plate element consists of flexible polyurethan foam. 2. Building element according to claim 1, c h a r a c ¬ t e r i z e d by the fact that each element has at least two cuts, the distance of v/hich from the end edge of the plate is equal to the thickness of the polyurethan foam plate. 3. Building element according to claim 1, c h a r a c ¬ t e r i z e d by the fact that the flexible polyurethan foam is covered with washable textile or foil of artifici¬ al material. O P IP

Inventors: HANSEN B
Applicants: HANSEN B
Application year: 1979
Main classification: E04C3
IPC codes: A63H33, E04B1, E04H1