
The Construction of a Yurt (1995) - spking
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/articles/yurt/
======
Jaruzel
Nice Article. Also shows how informative the web could back in in 1995 when
pages weren't covered in advertising junk.

After reading it, I ended up in a Google Images rabbit hole looking at
different kinds of Yurts.

~~~
ehnto
That is how the web is browsed best, in information explorer mode. An agent
moving amongst the archives by their own impetus. A tool to satiate their
thirst for stories and information.

The alternative is in consumer mode, where you sit and consume anything that
shows up on the conveyor belt of feeds, wondering why things aren't as good
these days.

~~~
lbotos
As much as I agree, I think the internet also now has expanded to serve a
different class of user, one who "wants" or "expects" to consume, vs. the
earlier groups who self-selected as knowledge seekers/explorers.

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bovermyer
Just going to point out here that this kind of article (detailed instructions
on how to make something historical, with plenty of exploration into said
history) is plentiful in the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism). The
author was an SCA participant of many, many years.

Well worth losing an afternoon exploring.

~~~
greglindahl
She's still active, I see her at Pennsic.

~~~
bovermyer
Ah, cool. I'm no longer active; there's a handful of people in my local barony
that I want to avoid, so I just bowed out altogether a few years ago.

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Dylanfm
If you're into this, I recommend the classic book Shelter
([https://www.shelterpub.com/building/shelter](https://www.shelterpub.com/building/shelter)).
It documents the design, construction and use of many styles of shelters
around the world (including yurts).

~~~
spking
This looks really neat, thanks for sharing. Some of the photos reminded me of
the Miwok bark houses on display at Yosemite:

[https://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/historyculture/indian-
village...](https://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/historyculture/indian-village-of-
the-ahwahnee.htm)

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traverseda
My biggest complaint with plain html pages like this is that they're
unpleasant to read on windscreen monitors. If you're publishing something like
this, please consider adding "sakura css". It's designed to be tiny and to
apply to plain html pages. They also have a bookmarklet.

[https://github.com/oxalorg/sakura](https://github.com/oxalorg/sakura)

`<link rel="stylesheet"
href="[https://unpkg.com/sakura.css/css/sakura.css"](https://unpkg.com/sakura.css/css/sakura.css")
type="text/css">`

~~~
Retric
You don't need to view a page in full screen mode. Considering the site still
works unchanged after 23 years I am really happy they did not design it for
the 1995 era screens etc.

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jdonaldson
Are yurts as popular in the rest of the country as they are in the Pacific
Northwest? They seem to be a mainstay of many campgrounds out here. Since they
were designed according to the needs of the Mongolian climate, I'm wondering
what it is about them that makes them suitable for the Pac NW climate.

~~~
mayniac
I rarely see them in the UK, outside of festivals and the occasional hippy
farmer.

~~~
bogle
Not sure which part of the UK you're in but the North of England and South of
Scotland have a fair few campsites with them. They can be set up with stoves
and comfortable beds so fit into the "glamping" bracket.

~~~
mayniac
Ah that explains it, I'm in the south.

I've seen the glamping sites with yurts in the lake district before, but I
assumed they're few and far between. Guess I was wrong.

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AstralStorm
Short version: it is an oversized wicket barrel with an added steep roof.
Pretty neat. Instead of a ring, a similar structure Can be made by interlacing
wickets with the frame. Can be daubed too if you need more insulation and
permanence.

This simplicity and effectiveness is why it is ancient yet still used now.

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grecy
My brother and his wife built a "modern" yurt from a kit sold by an Australian
company.

I think it turned out nicely -
[http://instagram.com/barefootyurtlife/](http://instagram.com/barefootyurtlife/)

(scroll back a bit through that IG)

~~~
bambataa
How much does a house-sized one like that cost?

~~~
grecy
The kit was $50k AUD, which is the entire frame, roof, capola on top.

You can buy as little or as much of the kit as you want - i.e. siding for the
outside, flooring, etc.

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tomxor
I wonder if modern lightweight tent design can learn something from yurts,
since they don't really seem particularly portable by comparison. (I consider
a tent "portable" if it can fit in my backpack, not a pickup truck.)

~~~
AlotOfReading
They don't solve the same issues at the same scales as a backpack tent.

Primarily, yurts have to be larger. They need to accommodate entire families
and their livestock in harsh winter storms. That can be keeping upwards of
several dozen bodies alive in some of the worst weather on the planet.
Secondly, they also have to manage the searing summer temperatures/sunlight of
the southern deserts, along with incredibly high wind loads. Thirdly, they
have to be repairable with the very few natural resources available in rural
Mongolia.

That said, regular tents probably could learn from them. Yurts are incredibly
modular and flexible designs. You can combine multiple yurts into one larger
one, or use them in very different environments. They're also fairly low
impact, with the primary damage to the ground being sunlight deprivation and
foot traffic. I doubt the design itself could be adapted to backpacking very
well though. It's just fundamentally a bit overengineered for what campers
require.

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emj
Joey Hess, creator of git-annex used a Yurt for a long time,
[https://joeyh.name/yurt/](https://joeyh.name/yurt/)

~~~
egeozcan
This made my day: "Ethernet only goes so far, so there's a repeater in the
woods enclosed in Tupperware".

------
leashless
Obligatory link to the American version
[http://www.appropedia.org/Hexayurt_playa](http://www.appropedia.org/Hexayurt_playa)

~~~
RangerScience
Having put up a Mongolian yurt, a Bedouin tent, and many, many hexayurts,
anecdotally...

Both of the fabric yurts pack down to more convenient shapes (re: they can fit
in more kinds of vehicles and spaces), particularly for the larger amount of
enclosed volume. but they're much heavier. It would be a hard job to put them
up solo both without tools (aka, ladders) but, I think, doable. They stay
decently cool / warm inside, and are decently weather-sealed. They have many
more parts and kinds of parts. Every part is completely reusable. I imagine
that building one from scratch is a substantial endeavor. Has to be put away
dry and is moderately involved to clean.

Hexayurts are a PITA to transpo / store (8ft x 4+ft x N inches, can't be bent,
etc), but weight nothing. You can expand the design to be pretty huge on the
inside, but it gets increasingly harder to put up. They're easy-ish to modify
(you can re-use parts to make one of a different size) and multiple ones can
very easily be assembled into larger "complexes". They have amazing isolation
from the elements (when put up correctly). You can put the small ones up with
minimal help, but it's hard to put the large ones up without many hands.
Overall, tho, they're less work to put up. But, they also consume some
materials (the tape is consumed). However, you can put together "from scratch"
pretty easily, can be stored basically anywhere, and you clean it with a hose.

There's also some interesting aesthetic considerations - you can pain a
hexayurt, but fabric is inherently nice; one flashlight can light up the
entire interior of a yurt, etc.

If I had to live in something forever I'd go with a Mongolian yurt, but if I
had to outfit a refugee camp I'd definitely go with the hexayurts.

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kthartic
Sorry to be completely ignorant here, but what is it with these sites that
have absolutely zero styling?

15 years ago I would've put it down to lack of understanding how to write CSS
etc. But today it's almost impossible to make a website that doesn't have at
least _some_ styling (when using site builders like Squarespace, Wix, etc).

Edit: Turns out this site is from 1994 (see
[http://www.pbm.com/](http://www.pbm.com/)). How are you guys finding these
ancient sites? :P

~~~
egeozcan
I'm not your typical JS/CSS hater but for this document, I found the lack of
styling perfectly fine. It also works without problems on any mobile device I
tested (as expected). IMHO, not every page needs CSS and lots of breakpoints.

~~~
kthartic
The text covers the full width of my 27" monitor which, while readable, is not
nearly as comfortable to read as text that doesn't.

~~~
alejohausner
Make your browser window narrower.

~~~
kthartic
That's not a valid design decision. Car seats too small? Lose weight.

Look, I realise now it's a site from 1994, I'm just astounded by the number of
people that seem to think this design is still acceptable by today's standards
and that I'm some sort of new-age hipster for suggesting otherwise.

