Metayurt (3 hexayurts sharing interior walls)

[euthlogo]

Hey all,

My camp (30 people or so) is planning on using a few hexayurts for sleeping. I was thinking that if the yurts shared some walls, the structural integrity would not be compromised, but we'd be able to bring a few less walls, and minimize the dust flow.
Here is what I was thinking.


Do you think we will have any problems assembling something like this? Any reason we should have trouble taping the 3 roofs to the central wall? Are there any things I am overlooking?

[trilobyte]

I've never really been a yurt guy myself, but it seems to me that as the number of yurts increases (or as the yurt farm grows), they'd lose their appeal. They never get any prettier or cheaper per square foot of shade. Plus the yurt panels are kind of a pain to transport and store, IMO. We hauled a friend's yurt panels to and from the playa in our camp's truck last year, and I think in the space those panels took up I could fit all the components and hardware needed to make a conduit frame shade structure that was 5-6 times bigger.

Burning Man's a place of many solutions though, so I'm sure you could make it work. Hopefully some experienced yurt-builders could offer suggestions for those three intersecting edges on your roof. You'll probably need to tape or seal them, so the dust settling in the valleys wouldn't end up in your living space.

[motskyroonmatick]

Definitely going to need some fresh air ventilation if there are going to be more than a few people sleeping in there.

I'd build a scale model and start troubleshooting what order to assemble the components. I'm thinking it won't go together the typical way yurts are built(walls and roof built separately and then put together). Might have to figure out a way to build it from the center out or come up with a taping tool to reach to the center to tape all the different yurts together over their common walls. Definitely assemble once with camp members before trying it on playa.

[some seeing eye]

If N is up in your drawing, shear wind coming from the ESE or WSW could fold the structure. Suggest inside for your missing walls throw a minimal 2x4 shear wall from the ground, up, across just under the roof and down, then stabilize the upper corners with plywood triangles. The wall needs to attach to adjacent panels/roof. Stake the walls and the shear wall. Some people also guy the structure to the ground.

[euthlogo]

I've never really been a yurt guy myself, but it seems to me that as the number of yurts increases (or as the yurt farm grows), they'd lose their appeal. They never get any prettier or cheaper per square foot of shade. Plus the yurt panels are kind of a pain to transport and store, IMO. We hauled a friend's yurt panels to and from the playa in our camp's truck last year, and I think in the space those panels took up I could fit all the components and hardware needed to make a conduit frame shade structure that was 5-6 times bigger.

I have thought this as well, but people seem to love the dust and heat protection of the yurts so much. Our camp will also have 4 conduit domes of varying diameters that we are still figuring out how to best cover. Maybe we will end up sleeping in one of those. What would your ideal sleeping structure(s) be for a camp of so many folks?

Thanks for the replies guys. You are all awesome

[Nipple]

Hey Euthlogo!

You might run into some problems since none of the yurts actually have six complete sides. Some of the strength of the structure comes from the tape ring that completely circles the 6 walls tightly.

I would suggest that you have 3 full and complete yurts. On the walls that are shared you can build a purpose built portal between the two. The walls will become more and more prone to breakage the larger your portal is sized.

Another issue you'll run into is how to anchor the metayurt. The tape end anchor method won't anchor any of the inside panels. On the outside anchor points you could do a tape end, and then for the middle three perhaps bisect a rope with another rope to make some kinda kinky Y-shaped three-way menage-a-tie down rope for the middle three (6) walls.

You could also substitute a 3 ring rope halo and for each of the touching interior walls, tie from halo to halo.

Have you ever built a yurt before? They're super nice, but ignore Trilo's comments at your peril. Each yurt is going to be 4'x'8x1'. I don't have a truck. My yurt is my single more painful logistic to settle. They're not your best bang for your space buck. Though, if you've camped in one, they are SUPER comfy.

Good luck! Do it and report back!

[Elderberry]

We do a similar structure, though we don't "share" the walls. We just abut the walls and seal them with tape. And there are only two of us using the structure. It makes for a very comfortable abode. We air condition it and have instant hot water showers, freezer and refrigerator and a playa tech elevated king size bed. All the comforts of home.

[some seeing eye]

30 people is a lot of structure. Most hexayurts you can't stand up except in the center. So you can figure out all your hexa costs for the area you will need for 30 people. Then compare that to having a dacron or nylon sailcloth cover made for existing domes. Ideally I'm imagining an inner cover hung from eyebolts at the vertices, an air gap and an outer reflective cover in triangles or parallelograms grommeted onto the outfacing vertex bolt threads. You could build a platform to get 2 stories inside if the domes are big enough. And a dome with a real cover is rentable or otherwise useful other times of the year, and would last for years, hexayurts, not so.

[dragonpilot]

I got dizzy looking at that illustration.

[euthlogo]

We do a similar structure, though we don't "share" the walls. We just abut the walls and seal them with tape. And there are only two of us using the structure. It makes for a very comfortable abode. We air condition it and have instant hot water showers, freezer and refrigerator and a playa tech elevated king size bed. All the comforts of home.

Sounds brilliant. Not the experience I will have this year, but you have given me something to aspire to. When you say abut the walls, you mean you still have 6 walls per yurt, but just tape them together? That makes sense.

A 2 level dome sounds like a great idea as well. I wonder if playatech style slotted plywood construction could work for a big platform.

It's good to hear that this concept is feasible, even if we end up going another direction. Thanks to you all.

[some seeing eye]

Playa platforms would be more like 4x4 or larger columns and 2x6-8-10 joists depending on span. The platform wood could be take home reusable, donateable on playa or burnable.

[Elderberry]

We do a similar structure, though we don't "share" the walls. We just abut the walls and seal them with tape. And there are only two of us using the structure. It makes for a very comfortable abode. We air condition it and have instant hot water showers, freezer and refrigerator and a playa tech elevated king size bed. All the comforts of home.

Sounds brilliant. Not the experience I will have this year, but you have given me something to aspire to. When you say abut the walls, you mean you still have 6 walls per yurt, but just tape them together? That makes sense.

A 2 level dome sounds like a great idea as well. I wonder if playatech style slotted plywood construction could work for a big platform.

It's good to hear that this concept is feasible, even if we end up going another direction. Thanks to you all.

Yes, we build complete yurts that could each stand alone. We have door openings cut to the abutted walls. We have a front door on the main yurt and a door on the bedroom, which keeps it literally dust free.(if you remember to undress before going into the bedroom.)