Appeal No. 2004-1542
Application No. 09/640,335
As best seen in FIG. 2, the outer wall 12 of the
service tower is hexagonal and provided with an exterior
opening 24 in each of its six faces at the level of each
floor element 14. A plurality of housing units 26, 27,
28, 29 and 30 are suspended adjacent to the service
tower and provided with doorways communicating with the
access openings 24 in the outer wall 12 of the service
tower. In the embodiment of the invention illustrated,
each of the modular housing unit[s] is suspended
independently by cables 32 which are attached to the
floor 34 (FIG. 3) of each module except module 29 which
is suspended solely by a single central cable 32
attached to the roof of the module by conventional cable
anchors as shown in FIG. 3, the cables extending
upwardly through passages in the modules thereabove and
hence over sheaves 36 on a cantilever support portion 38
on top of the service tower. The ends of the cables 32
are connected to power hoists 40 in the top of the
service tower, the hoists being used to lift the various
modules into place adjacent to the service tower with
the cables being detached from the hoist and permanently
secured to the tower after the modules are in place
[column 3, lines 19 through 51].
As indicated above, independent claim 1 recites an
architecture comprising a framework carried by a supporting
surface and living units arranged to absorb weather forces of
predicted weather patterns and use the forces to bias the units
toward the supporting surface and in a selected direction to
increase stability of the architecture. Independent claims 6,
11, 18 and 28 contain similar living unit limitations. Claim 6
recites an architecture comprising living units shaped and
arranged to absorb weather forces of predicted weather patterns
3
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