Has anyone built a yurt like this?

[Bob Hearn]

I just got back from Burning Man 2017, using an H12 I bought from Reno Hexayurt. I was pretty happy with it (especially when attached to my large swamp cooler), but a campmate (also bought Reno H12) and I are wondering how best to (1) increase the door height, and (2) speed up set up / break down, ideally allowing single-person assembly. I guess an H13 would be the default choice for a taller door, but...

I've been playing with cardboard models, and came up with this, which I haven't seen anywhere else:

It's kind of a 5-1/2 yurt, I guess, made from 13 panels: five ordinary walls, one vertical panel for the door, roof made from six panels, plus the top piece which is an odd shape (4-8-8 isoceles).

One cool thing is that the roof (apart from the top piece) can fold as a single permanently hinged unit, rather than the two needed for an H12:

So that's an idea for a taller door, slightly less sf than the H12 (which is more than big enough for me and my wife), and a lot more head room. But, I am worried about stability. Anyone have any thoughts there?

As for quicker assembly, we've been thinking zippers, velcro, rods threaded through eyelets, bungie balls, cable ties... I see some good discussion in this forum on velcro. But that would seem to still have one of the disadvantages of taping the non-permanent hinges, namely reachability for the roof section. Zippers you can work from a long pole. Of course for all of these you also have the waterproofing issue.

It's a long time to BM 2018, I know, but this is what's in my head now; might as well work on it!

Any input would be appreciated; thanks!

[Hunter]

Velcro has been good to us. ~10 mins setup time. You need one tall person inside for teardown and two people outside.

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[Bob Hearn]

Thanks. However, maybe it's a pipe dream, but I want to be able to set it up and break it down solo.

I solved for the dimensional parameters of this "5-1/2 yurt" in Mathematica (the back-wall angle, 112.4°, determines the rest of the geometry), and modeled it in Rhino, to figure out area, volume, etc. Here's a 5'11" guy next to it.

Here's all the info, compared to other popular designs:

My collaborator here, Greg, has this to say:

"In the H12, the rope loop and guys pull the roof together and down against the walls, and also pull the (tops of the) walls in towards the middle. It's a pretty secure arrangement and the net force is straight down.

In the new design, I don't see a way to neatly pull all of the pieces together and end up with a net force straight down... but it may not be a problem in practice, especially if the panels are attached securely and the structure starts out relatively stiff.

I'm mostly worried about where the roof attaches to the top of the door panel and where the vertical "roof" triangles are stacked on top of the walls on either side of the door. In the worst case, if the door panel ends up carrying some weird loads that it can't handle, it could be reinforced with plywood (as you suggested)."

But then, those vertical triangles stacked on top of walls also exist on the H13, which by now must be considered pretty battle-tested?

Bob

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[Vinay Gupta (Hexayurt Shelter Project)]

OH I totally wasn't understanding that until I saw the CAD model - I didn't see how the doorway worked.

That's great! That would be incredibly useful because doors are hard, and being able to prefab a 4x8 door unit and just drop it into the design would be great.

Nice work!

V>

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Vinay Gupta    hexa...@gmail.com   http://re.silience.com

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[lemondealc .]

Great design Bob. The door is the killer feature for all lived in structures. I haven't built a hex yet. When I do, this is the design I'm going to use. Cheers. 

[Bob Hearn]

Cool, thanks, guys!

So, nobody's worried about stability?

I'm going to start modding my H12 as soon as I settle on attachment strategy (velcro, etc.). I think maybe I can assemble the entire thing myself with velcro, and a short stepladder. The top piece is challenging, but could maybe be velcroed from the inside, with tape handles inside the top piece to pull on to get enough pressure. For rain proofing, maybe attach a small nylon skirt to the top piece, that flops over the edges of the adjoining pieces, maybe weighted. Elsewhere, orient the velcro seams to keep out rain. Also maybe velcro the tarp to the bottom edges.

I have to figure out the roof-section hinge parity, and play with the model to convince myself I can attach it to the walls edge-by-edge, without assembling the roof as a unit first. Placing the roof on the base of the H12 took four of us.

Bob

[Bob Hearn]

It occurred to me that the pairs of triangles that are almost coplanar could be made coplanar, and thus made into solid 4x8 panels, if I'm willing to split the top irregular piece into two pieces. This would seem to be a bit stronger:

So, I'm leaning this way now. Thoughts? I guess the flat top is worse for rain...

[lemondealc .]

It's only a really small section so Id think the flat roof is fine. What is the reason for having the pics coplaner? Easier to assemble?

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[Bob Hearn]

Just that a 4x8 solid piece will be stronger than two triangles.

[Bob Hearn]

So... here it is! The 5-1/2 yurt. 

– Almost twice as much area above 6' as a hexayurt
– Full-height door, in a 4x8 plywood sheet
– Velcro assembly, no taping / cutting on playa
– Single-person assembly*

* technically I met this goal, but two would be a lot easier.

I'll be in Camp Nosefish with this starting Monday, Rod's Rd. at 4:15. Please drop by and take a look, offer feedback.

[Lucas González]

I don't see this design at http://www.appropedia.org/Category:Hexayurt_project

I'd be happy to start a basic page using the photos and text from this thread, if that's ok. Or anyone can _please_ do it first.

The page would be http://www.appropedia.org/Hexayurt_H5half or is there a better suggestion?

Also, would be great to hear about real life use!

I'm not going to BM but would like to make a cardboard model!

[Mark Clark]

Hey, you live on Germantown?

[Lucas González]

Hi Mark, if you're asking me, Lucas, the answer is no. :-)

[Bob Hearn]

By all means, thank you! I don't have time to make an entry myself before leaving. Please note that it is an experimental design, NOT yet playa tested.

Assuming all goes well I'm happy to share all details afterwards.

[Bob Hearn]

I just broke it down for the first time. Fully assembled to a plywood sandwich: 15 minutes flat. :-D

[Percival du Chat Gris]

Greetings,

For stability/staking, you could take a page from an actual yurt (ger) and run your halo from the sides of the door-piece, around the wall/roof ridge.  It’s a combination of the belly-band and the roof cable. That might solve your stability and staking down problem.

May it weather well.

Percival

On Sat, Aug 25, 2018 at 11:13 AM Bob Hearn <bob....@gmail.com> wrote:

I just broke it down for the first time. Fully assembled to a plywood sandwich: 15 minutes flat. :-D

[lemondealc]

You talking about Germantown Wisconsin?