The YURT

“Nature creates in circles and moves in circles. Atoms and galaxies are circular, and most organic things in between. The Earth is round. The wind whirls. The womb is no shoebox. Where are the corners of the egg and the sky?” Tom Robbins, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

Our yurt roof under construction

A traditional yurt

The choice of yurt for Mayab Center was a perfect one. It fit so well with our intention to build with nature in mind, to build WITH nature, not against it. The yurt is light, portable, leaves no permanent footprint on the earth. We can take it down and pack it up in under an hour if a hurricane threatens (let’s hope that won’t be necessary). It offers the benefits of a tent – the feeling of very little separating you from the chirping birds and soft sunlight through the canvas walls. . .

From The Hoopoe Yurt Hotel, Spain

Yet, it feels really strong and sturdy:

Very strong roof

(Not even the mean old grizzly bear lurking in the forest outside our Alaskan yurt broke in that night! I felt really safe.)

More on the process of building our first yurt to come. . .

Why did we build a YURT?

When we started designing Mayab Center, we knew we wanted the structures to be eco-friendly. Low impact. Originally, we planned on erecting some kind of tents, maybe putting them up off the ground on decks. Then, last summer, Joe and I traveled to Alaska and had the opportunity to kayak out to an island in the Kenai Peninsula and hike out into the forest where we slept in a yurt.

That began our obsession. We spoke with various sellers and builders of yurts and examined them thoroughly. By the end of that trip, we were convinced that when we finally started building Mayab Center, we would be building yurts on the beach.

For about a year, we researched yurts on-line, checked out every library book we could get our hands on, and drove out to rural Minnesota to look at a traditional Mongolian yurt set up at a felting festival. We even found a guy living in the heart of South Minneapolis who had built two yurts, adapting traditional style with modern materials, and he was living in them all winter long! We poked around inside them and picked his brain for hours.

That day, I remember feeling like I could build a yurt – definitely. It’s a basic and simple design. But then I would consider the complexity of the geometry involved – the way the you need to decide on the roof angle, the number of poles, the diameter of the walls, spacing the poles evenly, how to build the yurt so it holds together using tension! Not to mention how to choose the right materials, how to sew the skin. . . my head was spinning. I lost all confidence.

We went back to the research and starting collecting photos and making lists,

watching videos on youtube:

 

reading forums, and talking with yurt fanatics from all around the world.

Things started to come together.

Yurt photos

Here are a few photos from the construction of yurt #1 — which is yet to be named or christened.

Tying the walls together

 

Figuring out how the walls work

 

 

The skeleton

Fitting the roof

 

The crown fitting

 

 

Fitting the fabric