The disclosed invention is a housing apparatus comprised of foundation boxes, foundation box lids, in situ ballast material placed within the foundation boxes, floor panels, wall panels, binding strips, stackable trussed roof segments, roof gables, and load transferring batten strips.

Arch structure defining equidistant points along a radial curve and comprising uniformly-sized, standard stock, elongated rectangular cross-section stringer members, uniformly-sized, standard stock, elongated rectangular cross-section arch members each having a midpoint and first and second angled ends of equal but opposing to one another angular magnitude, each arch member adapted to converge crossways on and completely abut a side surface of two non-adjacently positioned stringer members, each of the arch members further being adapted for undergirding a stringer member located between two non-adjacently positioned stringer members at the mid-point of the arch member, each arch member adapted for being oriented in scissor-like crossing relationship to another arch member, a plurality of fasteners, and where needed at least one tensioning member preferably attached between end stringer members, or alternatively between foundation members, the tensioning members and fasteners making the arch structure fortified to be as if monolithic.

An architectural building block system including a block having three side walls, each having an inside surface and an outside surface, the three side walls cooperate to form a triangular tube, the outside surface of each of the three side walls extending from the inner surface to the outer surface and the inside surface of each of the three walls is disposed substantially at right angle to each of the inner surface and the outer surface; and three channels, each channel disposed on one of the three side walls on the inner surface, wherein each channel extending from the inside surface to the outside surface of one of the three side walls and each pair of the three channels configured to receive a rebar.

A geodesic dome structure having a doorway in a vertical plane, includes: a single upper pentagonal planar member provided at a topmost position; five upper hexagonal planar members with vertices thereof meeting facing vertices of the upper pentagonal planar member; five middle pentagonal planar members disposed between the upper hexagonal planar members, with upper vertices thereof meeting corresponding vertices of the upper hexagonal planar member; five middle hexagonal planar members disposed between the upper hexagonal planar members and the middle pentagonal planar members; a single lower doorway hexagonal planar member disposed between the middle hexagonal planar member.

Structural connectors used as a component to construct an arch including a plurality of closely adjacent, polygonal rows of stringer beams. The multiple row polygonal arch is a low-cost, general purpose support structure for bridges, shelters and arbors applicable to many cost-, time- or environmentally-sensitive situations. The structural connectors may be a Y-shaped connectors with three brackets, two upper brackets and a lower bracket, which collectively enable a union of three beams forming one node of the multiple row polygonal arch. Using these Y-shaped connectors to join the beams at each node creates the arch structure, and additionally provides the features of cantilevering, modularity, generic component shape, reusability and safety. Structural connectors are applicable to a variety of structures such as pedestrian and vehicular bridges, shelters, arbors, as well as jewelry, furniture and toys. Other aspects, embodiments, and features are also included.

A fastener for securing two profiled elements together, including two half-fasteners linked together by a link of the fixed pivot type allowing one half-fastener to pivot with respect to the other about a pivot axis, each half-fastener having a fixing member for fixing a profiled element which is inclined with respect to the pivot axis. This fastener makes it possible to form a gridshell by securing pseudo-geodesic longitudinal profiled elements to pseudo-geodesic transverse profiled elements.

The disclosed invention is a housing apparatus comprised of foundation boxes, foundation box lids, in situ ballast material placed within the foundation boxes, floor panels, wall panels, binding strips, stackable trussed roof segments, roof gables, and load transferring batten strips.

The invention relates to a space curved reticulated shell structure formed by stacking and combining rhombic dodecahedrons, comprising a one-way curved reticulated shell structure, a positive curvature two-way curved reticulated shell structure and a negative curvature two-way curved reticulated shell structure, the array combined revolution body is generated by rotating the orthogonal array combination body around the space rotation axis by a certain angle; boundary cutting structures are generated by the plane boundary in span direction or the curved boundary in span direction cutting the array combined revolution body; the plane boundary cutting structure respectively generates a one-way curved reticulated shell structure, a positive curvature two-way curved reticulated shell structure and a negative curvature two-way curved reticulated shell structure respectively through one-way bending arching, positive curvature two-way bending arching and negative curvature two-way bending arching.

A unitary hub includes a central body and two or more tubular cylindrical prongs that can be used in conjunction with two or more struts to construct a dome or a sphere, such as a geodesic dome. The prongs have a first segment and a second segment that are disposed at an angle. The first segment has a first inner diameter and the second segment has a second inner diameter thereby creating a recess for the struts to be positioned easily and accurately within the prongs. The central body is formed from joining the two or more prongs disposed around an axial axis through a center of the central body. The central body has a top and bottom side with a spherically concaved section having a curvature. The struts may be tubular and cylindrical and can be inserted into the prongs or over the prongs.

A method of making a geodesic shape is provided. The method comprises of providing and assembling a plurality of pre-made forms, and a plurality of struts. The pre-made forms have a triangular shape, first and second inner edges, and an outer edge. The length of each inner edge and outer edge are determined by the frequency of the geodesic shape, diameter of the geodesic shape, and known formulas for relating diameter and frequency when creating a geodesic dome or sphere. Using the pre-made forms and struts, a polygonal shape is assembled, each shape having either five or six pre-made forms. The resulting desired polygonal shape and additional desired polygonal shapes made using the same steps are connected at preset angles in known geodesic form and function. The desired polygonal shapes then combine to form a desired geodesic shape. Throughout the process, no struts are operably coupled to other struts.