Environmentally controlled building
USRE33019E · kind E · reissue
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Oct 7, 1987 |
| Grant date | Aug 15, 1989 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Oct 7, 2007 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC —)General
Abstract
An environmentally controlled building having a covered atrium. The atrium roof can be a conventional rigid roof or an air-supported, flexible, continuous membrane roof. A pressurization system pressurizes the building interior and the atrium relative to the ambient atmospheric pressure outside the building. When the atrium has a membrane roof, this pressure differential inflates the membrane roof to maintain the roof in the desired configuration. Such a membrane roof can be semi-opaque to permit passage of diffused sunlight, permitting some plants to grow, while inhibiting passage of direct sunlight. Air locks are provided at the building entrances and exits to maintain the pressure differential as people enter and leave the building. A barometric pressure sensor monitors the ambient atmospheric pressure outside the building, and a control unit controls the pressurizing system to adjust the air pressure within the building and the atrium in response to variations in the ambient atmospheric pressure outside the building in an inverse relationship. As a consequence, ambient atmospheric pressure changes are not so noticeable to people within the building and the atrium. This is parti…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.