Turkic yurts have sheltered people since Heradotus wrote histories 2000 years ago. The Mongolian people simplified the Turkic design, using straight wall rods and rafters. This design is the simplest, most sustainable and easiest to build version of the yurt possible.  With minimal woodworking skills, a home of complex and magical beauty can be made at an amazingly modest cost.  This course will lead you through building walls, door frame, rafters, roof ring, roof ring supports, dome, tension band and covering. As the group saws, drills, glues, nails, and lashes pieces of wood together that comprise the yurt framework, and cuts and joins materials for the covering, you will gain the experience that will allow you to make your own yurt of any size for a fraction the cost of a kit version. 

Note: This course begins at 7pm on Friday.

  • Competency Level: All Levels

Course Objectives

Traditions and designs behind building an ultra simple, sustainable yurt
Skills required to use simple, hand woodworking and sewing tools
Experience the power of wall rods under tension that shape the walls
Experience the magic of raising a roof ring and attaching rafters
Experience the covering of the framework that partners with light
Acquire a knowledge that supports a free and independent building of a simple yurt

Suggested Reading

King, Paul. The Complete Yurt Handbook. Eco-Logic Books, www.eco-logicbooks.com
Mulberry House. Maple Grove, Bath BA2 3AF, UK, 2007
Kuehn, Dan Frank, Mongolian Cloud Houses. How to Make a Yurt and Live
Comfortably. Shelter Publications, PO Box 279, Bolinas, California 94924, 2006
Lokey, Charles. Practical Mathematics in Yurt Design; A Detailed Discussion Following
Project GRAD Kenai Peninsula, Summer Learning Institute, www.math.montana.edu/~lokey/YurtMath.pdf, 2004
Sargent, Bruce W. For the Love of Yurts, Building an Ultra Simple Yurt Home for Under
a $1000, Shires Press, 2009 www.forloveofyurts.com.

Stronach, David. On the Antiquity of the Yurt: Evidence from Arjan and Elsewhere. University of California, Berkeley. http://www.silk-road.com/newsletter/2004vol2num1/yurt.htm

Materials to Bring

  • Hearing protection
  • Safety googles
  • Toe enclosing shoes
  • Dust mask
  • Tape measure
  • Hand saw
  • Knife
  • Square
  • Scissors
  • Leather gloves
  • Rasp
  • Hammer
  • Cordless drill/ drill bits
  • Pencil

Course Outline

Friday Evening

  • Discussion of yurt design, traditions, construction schedule, math for independent designs and project safety

Saturday Morning

  • Cutting, drilling and assembling wall rods, into V's, and then sections
  • Creating door frame, lashing wall sections into a wall and to door frame
  • Creating and installing tension band

Saturday Afternoon

  • Cutting and shaping rafters
  • Cutting and assembling roof ring and dome
  • Cutting and assembling roof ring supports

Sunday Morning

  • Raising the roof ring and installing rafters
  • Cutting and joining covering materials

Sunday Afternoon

  • Covering the framework
  • Lashing the covering to supporting ropes and to anchor stones
  • Photographic opportunities, reflection, group sharing and course evaluation

 

Start Date: June 11, 2010
Closed
Start Date: August 13, 2010
Closed