Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Yurt in West Texas


A friend of mine has a fun construction project going. He is building a Yurt.
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This is a type of dwelling used by the nomadic peoples of central asia. Places like Mongolia and Kazakhstan. In theory this is a temporary structure that can be disassembled and moved fairly easily using camels or yaks. Sort of a Central Asian RV that you live out of. And when the grazing plays out you move to a new location. Hunter-Gatherer style.
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Wikipedia says that a Yurt is a portable,
felt-covered, wood lattice-framed dwelling structure used by nomads in the steppes of Central Asia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yurt
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My friend's yurt is being constructed largely from salvage materials. It is about 25 feet in diameter, the side walls are 5 feet high, and the center pole is 12 feet 3 inches tall.

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The cover or roof was made here in America and was bought over e-bay. It is made of some kind of waterproof plasticized tarp or awning material. That is laid over a second cover below which seems to be cotton. The two layers of material will provide a tiny bit of dead air and thus some insulation.

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