Category Archives: Building

Sky Yurt debuts at the Champlain Makers Faire

Lots of visitors, lots of interest

Exhibiting the Sky Yurt at the Champlain Makers Faire was a wonderful experience. We were set up right next to the entrance to the Carriage Barn where all the indoor exhibits were housed. People stopped to read our text display, played with some of the models, and prowled around the Sky Yurt. Kids laid on the the grass and looked up at the sky through the ribs and cross stays. Lots of head scratching, Questions kept emerging. Then as some folks began to understand the design challenges, they began to share ideas. Some conceptual, some very concrete and practical. All thought provoking and useful.

Whirlwind getting ready for the Faire

The three broken ribs on the structure was really a set back for the team. I was able to replace one and then repair and sister the other two. I got an outer top cover finished, but didn’t have time to test it and the tie down system. So I just went with the framework. My engineer/artist buddy Andy Wekin and his crew Otis and Ezra worked with me to get the legs installed and reinforced. I replaced some broken connectors, made an exhibit poster, and we were ready to roll. It was a scramble to get the structure set up. We got a good start on Friday afternoon and evening. Darla – my main squeeze – pitched in on Saturday morning and just as the first of the crowd trickled in, we were up.

Where to take this project next?

I learned a lot from the ideas that visitors shared with me. I’ll post some of them in due time. But the big learnings for me are guiding to the next steps for the project.Time to go back to the drawing board and get a designer/engineer involved who knows tensile/tent structures and can do the math. The yurt structure could be so much lighter and much better engineered. My build/design process can only take me so far. Using off the shelf items, and build/designing as I go, has real limitations. I need to have someone on the team who can look at the whole system and come up with design parameters for the components. For instance, maybe properly sized tubing for the ribs and cross connectors with aluminum hubs. The whole frame structure could be lightweight and go up quickly. So I am putting the building to bed for the winter. When I start next summer, I hope to have a much improved and well thought out design to build from.

Sky Yurt crashes – Cracks some ribs

Cracked ribs

Damn. What was I thinking. I was planning to put the cover on today. Finally got it finished. But the wind was blowing too hard, so I moved on to some mechanical stuff. Building some braces for the frame. Deciding on some modifications for the lower cover panels. I have been thinking a lot about how I was going to get the telescoping legs inserted into the trampoline frame.Once the legs are in, the structure can be jacked up incrementally, raised to a 10 foot height and leveled, one leg at a time.

The challenge

The telescoping legs are about 6 feet high in the down position. So my plan was to dismantle the Sky Yurt structure, including the floor, put the legs in. Build the Sky Yurt back, and then incrementally raise the structure on its legs. Sensible, safe, practical. But then today I thought, what the hell, I’ll give it a shot. Maybe I can get those legs inserted without having to take the Sky Yurt down. Of course, I was planning to have some help. At least another pair of hands But maybe I just might be able to do it myself.

Disaster strikes

Got one leg jacked up OK. But it got pretty wobbly. Should have just put it down again, until I had some help. But as I left the jack and began to shore up one of the other legs, the whole structure cam down with a crash. One corner dropped 3-4 feet. It looked OK, but on further examination, I realized I had cracked three of the lower laminated cedar beams, one clean through. I don’t like to call myself stupid, but I was sure exercising poor judgement. One thing I am good at is disaster control (I think you might be able to guess why). Got busy and took all of the hubs and connecting rods off the upper beams, to take weight off the lower beams. I’ll break the whole structure down. I plan to repair the cracked beams with epoxy and fiberglass tape. I still hope to exhibit at the Makers Faire, but probably without the cover or the outer skirt. But I do plan to have the frame 10 feet up in the air.

It’s Official – The Sky Yurt will be exhibited at the Champlain Mini-Makers Faire

Yes! Just got the word that the Sky Yurt will be an exhibit at the Makers Faire at Shelburne Farms in Vermont September 28 and 29. Details at http://www.champlainmakerfaire.com/. I understand that there is lots of discussion in my little community of Essex as to “What is that space ship thing in the backyard?” I am working hard to get the prototype completed in time for set up on the Friday before the Faire. At first glance it doesn’t look like much has changed. But I am booming ahead in two important areas – getting the Yurt cover designed, laid out, cut and taped together. And building and painting the telescoping legs that will progressively lift the tramp frame to approx.10 feet off the ground.

Polytarp cut and tape sails

I am taking a page from the book of the folks who are using polytarp for sails to for small home-made boats. The word is that the sails out of this stuff will last for at least a couple of seasons. I am using Tyvek house wrap to make the roof and the side panels for the Sky Yurt. Why Tyvek? It is relatively easy to work with – it cuts with a scissors, can be marked on with a felt tip pen and the panels can be fastened with double-sided, fiberglass reinforced, indoor-outdoor carpet tape. I won’t be the final fabric that I chose for the cover, but it will work as I am experimenting with with the best way to shape and secure the panels.

Challenged to the core

Oh, I am so challenged making and fitting the test panels – which I will use for patterns for the other panels. I am rather dyslexic, always have had trouble with spelling and jig saw puzzles and scrabble and linear sequencing. And while the Tyvek is flat, the Sky Yurt roof and sides are curved. Yikes, I’ve been up and down the ladder too many times with my test panels, marking, measuring, cutting, taping,. Doing lots of head scratching. But I think I got it now. One more modification and then I can begin turning out panels and taping them together. Yahoo!

Third Sky Yurt Prototype structure is up

Sky Yurt as an exhibit at the Makers Faire in Vermont?

2013 Yurt structure

Now that I have the basic structure up, I felt confident enough to apply to the Makers Faire to exhibit the Sky Yurt in Shelburne, Vermont on the weekend of September 28-29. Here is some of the text from the application:

The Sky Yurt is the first prototype in a series of designs that provide working/ living structures for a nomadic community of artists/crafters/makers. The eight –sided Sky Yurt ‘s floor is 14 feet in diameter, with roof extending to almost 20 feet in diameter. The floor is perched 10 feet above the lower tent-canopied workspace which is an integral unit 32 feet in diameter and separate from the upper living space of the Sky Yurt. This lower space acts as the mother ship, and the upper living space structure actually “docks” to the trampoline frame at the center of the mother ship.

The prototype as as an on-going experiment

The prototype is a full scale working model which is allowing experimentation with design challenges inherent in two separate tent structures, the work structure on the ground and the yurt structure elevated 10 feet of the ground, combined with the need to make the combined structure portable. Structural materials, except for the laminated cedar beams, are readily available and easy to modify, including the trampoline frame, plywood, lumber, building wrap, epoxy, PVC pipe fittings, and fiberglass fence posts.

The design is “open sourced” and as the structure is modified and the engineering needs are better understood, future prototypes will utilize lightweight “engineered” materials and design features that improve portability.

Moving ahead

I worked out a deal with my neighbors Bev and Brian to set up the Sky yurt in their big backyard in exchange for doing their lawn. I just have one more set of cross struts to add to the lower structure, and then I can begin building the fabric covers for the tent structures. I will also start to deploy my anchoring system. I am moving into new territory with this prototype. I see the Faire as an opportunity to engage makers, elicit design ideas and move the open sourcing of the project ahead.

Sky Yurt design breakthrough???

Docking to the “mother ship”

Prototype 2 – Lower hub support

It was important to me to keep the lower tent-canopied workspace as an integral unit, separate from the upper living space of the Sky Yurt. This lower space would act as the mother ship, and the upper living space structure would actually “dock” to the trampoline frame at the center of the mother ship. But docking the Sky yurt structure by resting the lower beams on the trampoline frame created an additional bending stress on those beams.Maybe I could carry the weight of the Sky Yurt structure on the lower hub.

Design breakthrough

I realized that the circular trampoline frame was incredibly strong in compression. I could use cables from the frame to support a separate central lower hub that would support the Sky Yurt hub and provide a platform for a pillar that could be used to support the center of the floor as well. I used a bicycle wheel rim with drilled eye bolts for this lower support hub in the next prototype. If I could use the trampoline frame to carry the floor and support the weight of the Sky Yurt by the lower hub, then the Sky yurt tent frame could be light and airy. It only had to support its own weight and the force of the wind on the tent fabric.

Adjusting the tension in the Sky Yurt tent

Prototype 2

As I worked to solve one set of design challenges, I kept learning that based on the new concepts, new challenges always emerged. If I was going the support the Sky Yurt tent upper structure on its bottom hub and just let it kiss the trampoline frame, then I needed to be able to move the bottom hub up and down, to get the right clearance from the beams to the tramp frame. All this started to come together when I began to build the second prototype in the summer of 2012.

First Sky Yurt Prototype – PVC

Why PVC?

Prototype hub – PVC

My first goal in building a full scale prototype was to see if the basic engineering for the Sky Yurt tension structure would work. The PVC pipe was 2″ in diameter, dirt cheap (I did have to wash it all) and under tension I could get it to bend. I built two plywood hubs, about 2 feet in diameter with slots for the PVC beams made out of 2×4’s sandwiched between the top and bottom plywood circles. On the ends of the PVC beams I added end caps with eye bolts to catch the stainless steel cable. I had a primitive system to tension the outside cable. The structure went up with a minimum of hassle. It nestied inside the 14 foot diameter trampoline frame Andy and I bolted together.

Checking out the forces on the structure

As I increased the tension on the Sky Yurt structure the PVC beams wanted to move closer together. They began to bend in a sweet curve vertically, but they also wanted to begin to bend horizontally. Also they wanted to rotate the hubs so that the beams could begin to “pass” each other. Another problem – the lower beams were resting on the trampoline frame; they were carrying the weight of the whole Sky Yurt structure, and were beginning to bend upward. I experimented with adding struts – 1/1/2″ PVC pipe – between the upper and lower beams. It was fun using the chop saw that Andy lent me to cut PVC fittings at the angles I needed to connect the struts with the beams.

Structural lesson learned

Prototype 1 – struts

The struts, by tying together the upper and and lower beams, added lots of rigidity to the beams, but I wanted a structure that could be tensioned, so it needed to be strong, but flexible. I didn’t want to make the lower beams beefier than the upper beams. I would be screwing around with the symmetry, making the structure more complicated, and even more difficult for me to get my head around. One thing that was clear was that I would need beams that had a rectangular cross-section or a built-in vertical curve to minimize sideways bending under tension. I was also going to need some cross bracing between the beams to provide support for the cover and to stiffen up the beams. I did end up with a pretty elegant set of solutions to these issues that were incorporated in the second prototype.

Working on the Ground – Living in the Sky

First concepts

Sky Yurt drawing #1

I started making very rough sketches years ago. I wanted an open, circular, covered workspace on ground-level. The living space needed to be elevated, so you could almost walk underneath it, or at least see through it. I flattened out the tall tipi shape to make it more like a diamond, like in my early dowel and wire model. I decided the yurt would set on vertical uprights, doubled under each set of beams. The workspace tent structure would then radiate out from the eight-sided elevated yurt-like living space. The fabric cover on the workspace would need to be adjustable, so one side could be tucked down to block the wind, while the opposite side might want to be open wide and high to let in the warm early morning sun..

First models

Sky Yurt Concept #2

I made a painstaking model out of dimensional balsa wood -held together with pins and light wire. That got lost in the shuffle over the years. The next model used clear straws for beams and joists, pipe cleaners at the outer ends of the beams, and cardboard and hot glue for the center hubs. I really liked the look of the design but some real concerns began to emerge.

I was still stuck on using vertical posts to hold the yurt off the ground. The whole structure was looking less like a tension structure. Those posts were going to need to be heavy and I was thinking that the whole structure was going to need to be pretty beefy to match it. And hell, this needed to be nomadic – meaning light and strong.

I ain’t no designer

You need to know as I walk you through this process, if you haven’t figured it out already, that my skills as a designer are severely limited. I can’t draw worth a hill of beans. I am dyslexic and have trouble with sequencing. I can get an idea, walk around thinking about it almost all the time – but I have to build the damn thing so I can begin to figure out if my “design” idea will really work. My neighbor Bruce, who has watch my “follies” emerge in the backyard laughed the other day, “I have heard of design/build, but I think what you do is build/design”. And he hit the nail on the head. That my process – build/design. It ain’t pretty, won’t work for a brick and mortar house, but with my Sky Yurt, I can take it apart, fix what doesn’t work and give it another shot.

Why a shelter sky high?

First time getting the tipi cover up with help from J C and Pew

The idea for Sky High Shelters has been brewing since I lived in a tipi on the top of a hill studded with small pines in Cavendish, Vermont in the 1970’s. My brother John had a tipi one field over. I had an open-sided kitchen lean-to with an old wood stove for baking bread and a cable spool from the power company as a table. We would sit in directors chairs around the table, drinking perked coffee, smelling the bread in the oven, watching the day unfold. Then I would turn to my bro and ask, “So what are we going to do today?”

Outside all day

I loved being outside all day. I had a kick wheel for making pots with local clay tucked under the lean-to. Even in the tipi with a fire going I was “outside”. I could feel any change in the sky or weather through the white canvas. And the inside air never heated up – all the warmth came from the radiant heat of the fire on my body – just like the warm sun on a cold day.

When I stood on this spot on the top of the hill where the snow had melted away, and I looked at the view of the valley and mountains to the east and the deep woods to the west, I realized that as soon as I put my tipi on this beautiful spot, I was going to lose this 360 degree view. The structure would be in the way.

What if…

What if I could put the tipi up in the air and have an tent structure under it that could be open on all sides when the weather was fair. The smoke flaps on the tipi could be adjusted like a jacket collar to block the wind so the fire would draw well. Maybe the open tent structure’s fabric could adjust to block the wind or be wide- open to light breezes on a beautiful day. And that open tent space would become my kitchen and workshop. And at the end of the day my sweetheart and I could retreat into our tipi nest, sit around the small fire, talk, plan, make love and fall asleep breathing the cool evening air.

The dream deferred

But life changed. I married a woman with small boys. Lived in houses. Got a real job. Had a daughter. Got a graduate degree. Divorced. Fell in love. Got married again. Lived in an old school house. Made babies, boys this time. Got a bigger house in town. And a summer house. And a series of sailboats. And all the time I kept making drawings and models of my “Sky Tipi”. Two summers ago I asked my new friend Andy, an artist who had gone back to school to be an engineer, to work with me and we started to build the first prototype in the backyard. I started to call it my “Sky Yurt”.