Building construction having panels formed of contacting layers with cast-in-situ material at the panel junctures

Claim 1

A structure comprising an exterior wall shell encircling an interior area, which wall shell cooperates with roof and foundation means to form a building: a. said exterior wall shell being formed from precast wall panels, each panel comprising an inner slab of reinforced concrete constituting the main or structural part of the panel and a layer of compressive, insulative material adherent to the outer face of said slab; b. said panels being arranged in slightly spaced apart side-edge to side-edge adjacency, with their concrete slab portions facing toward said interior area, to form said exterior wall shell; c. said exterior wall shell having a continuous layer or reinforced surfacing material adherent to the layers of compressive, insulative material on the concrete slab portions of said panels, which continuous layer forms a continuous integral outer skin from panel to panel on said shell; d. the layers of compressive, insulative material adherent to the concrete slab portions of said panels cooperating to form a cocoon around said slab portions and thereby insulate the latter against ambient temperature extremes and act as a shock absorbing cushion between said slab portions and said layer of reinforced surfacing material to protect the latter against damage from any movements of said concrete slab portions in the exterior wall shell of said structure; e. said exterior wall shell having no connecting means between the inner slabs of said wall panels which prevent relative movement therebetween during conditions of use, and said structure including cooperating fastening means for interconnecting said wall panels and said roof and foundation means; f. said cooperating fastening means being attached to said panels only at their inner slab portions and being adaptable to permit sufficient movement of the wall panels relative to said roof and foundation means whereby each panel is mechanically insulated from its adjacent structural environment to the extent that stress interaction between the panel and said environment, as a result of the influence of ambient and environmental conditions on the structure, is substantially avoided, and physical deterioration of the exterior wall shell of the sort brought about by such stress interaction between precast concrete wall panels, and between said panels and their adjacent structural enviroment, in a conventional building with precast concrete panel walls is substantially obviated.