Yurt Calculator

[asimpleusecase]

I lived in Mongolia for a year and got to stay a couple days in real yurts.

The round wall directs wind around the structure and local people hang a heavy weight from the center of the yurt to give it resistance to the lifting force of the wind.

They are cool in the summer with the bottom edge of canvas rolled up to allow airflow. ( but also mosquitoes)and warm in the winter when a layer of thick wool felt is layered over the whole structure and covered with canvas. In the centre is a stove that can burn wood or dried animal dung.

They are very spacious.

You can tell the time by the sun shadow on the floor via the smoke hole in the centre.

BTW if you enter a yurt and in Mongolia don’t step on the door still it is rude.

If you sleep over don’t be shocked when members of the family take off clothes to change. Modesty is the responsibility of the viewer.

[world2vec]

>"Modesty is the responsibility of the viewer."

This reminds me of what my father - from a very rural, poor, small community - told about my grandparents and his upbringing. Tiny house, not many bedrooms but many kids (in the end 10 children), so it was common for many of the youngest ones to sleep in the same bed as my grandparents. And yet they still conceived new babies (they're all 2 or 3 years apart from each other)! Sounds a bit crazy in these modern times.

[pritambaral]

> BTW if you enter a yurt and in Mongolia don’t step on the door still it is rude.

I'm sorry, one is expected to step on the door still? Here in South East Asia that'd be considered rude.

[tantalor]

What's a door still?

[extrememacaroni]

Legends say Genghis Khan's horses were trained to be so fast because they were also used to transport bytes to and from such sites, to calculate their yurts.

[spiznnx]

This site could be an excel spreadsheet running on a laptop in a saddle bag!

[michaelsmanley]

I'm so glad there are still sites like this.

[culi]

From the Wikipedia page:

> Yurts take between 30 minutes and 3 hours to set up or take down, and are generally used by between five and 15 people.

[mshockwave]

I wonder if there is any military application of using Yurts-alike tents, considering them being more resilient to extreme weather yet easy to set up and take down.

[cypherpunks01]

See also, Desert Domes for their highly useful Dome Calculators and related dome formulas, material & assembly tips, and other resources for all your geodesic dome needs:

http://www.desertdomes.com/domecalc.html

[teddyh]

From that link:

> Go see Benny and the elves for some Electroluminescent wire to decorate your dome!

What. Let’s see the Photo Galleries. Ah, eight groups of photos – five from Burning Man and three from Mardi Gras. I see.

[meebob]

This website fills me with nostalgia! I used it many years ago to make a tiny 8ft yurt, which was a fun little project. Putting up a yurt is really satisfying- the way the lattice walls flex is very cool, and seeing the way tension works across the structure is fun.

[einpoklum]

So, what keeps the Yurt from planar movement? Is it anchored via stakes somehow?

[capableweb]

From the website:

> While living in the yurt experienced 2-3 strong storms, at my site up to 120km/h I would estimate. I'm kind of a slow learner at first as I had to fix and fasten the yurt while the storm was underway as I often hoped the ropes I used were sufficient, and experienced they were not.

> It's worth noticing, the storms affects the roof mostly, no impact to the wall as I noticed, me using 90° lattice angle and bamboo, with stretching the rain wall cover below the floor and use one rope on that height, almost on the ground, all around to fasten it (as seen on a photo above already). Some people put some small laths on the floor to fixate the lattice wall on the floor, or screw the door frame on the floor, both which I didn't do.

https://simplydifferently.org/Yurt_Notes?page=6#Storm%20Prep...

Seems to be fastened somehow, but it's not specified how.

[culebron21]

Some of the poles are stuck into the ground just a bit, and then it's probably because the wall grates stick into the ground too, under the weight of the yurt. Here's an example:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvmZ6ipVExg 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCr6TnsJ1kA

BTW, here's the process of making the whole yurt set:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YikFc0INaMg

[pugworthy]

For Hexayurts (https://www.appropedia.org/Hexayurt) one can create a rope halo that goes around the top of the roof, with a series of anchor ropes going down to the ground. Very effective at keeping foam structures well anchored at Burning Man, where the wind can be quite fierce.

[jcadam]

Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be better to buy some cheap land and throw up a yurt (or maybe a Quonset hut if you're more fancy), rather than take on a 30-year mortgage.

[jollyllama]

The problem is finding a place where they won't nail you with building codes, zoning or other ordinances, etc.

[Kalium]

You'll find it is!

That said, many might face some challenges in doing so in a place they want to live. It's non-trivial to find a cheap piece of livable land in a city. In a more rural areas, you can expect some possible complications in things like water, electricity, and internet access.

[asdff]

Yurts are fundamentally portable. You can set up on blm land and live indefinitely for free if you are decamping every three weeks.

[nine_k]

One issue: bathroom.

Not an actual bathtub, of course, but at least a shower and a toilet.