The Nomad Yurt

A yurt is a great shedworking space as we've said before here and the Nomad Yurt from Ecoshack is particularly suitable for smaller back garden spaces.It comes with a modular base which makes it easier to move than traditional yurts and has a base diameter of 12', a bamboo frame diameter of 14', and a height of over 7' 6". There's a central opening for sunlight and gentle breezes. Ecoshack, who are very keen on identifying the yurt's green credentials, say you can put it up in an hour... I particularly like their sales pitch: "Circular living = good living. Yurt lifestyle is ... Comfortable. Groovy. Bohemian. And free to roam."

There's an interesting piece on yurts in the Daily Telegraph here and a discussion about the price of it at Treehugger.

Yurt debuts at Open House London

For the first time ever, Open House London has a yurt available to visit. 82 Priory Gardens, London will be open 2-6pm on Saturday 19 September, and 11am-5pm on Sunday 20 September: in the garden will be a yurt featuring pottery by the UK's leading salt-glaze potter Sarah Walton (on display and for sale) not to mention homemade lemonade, apple and honey. And if that were not enough, it is apparently the nearest yurt in the world to an underground station... Please do support this shedlike event as all donations will go to Shelter. Photos: Ruti Frensdorff.

Crochet your own garden office

It sounds like a lot of hard work (it IS a lot of hard work) but that's exactly what Kate Pokorny is attempting to do. To be more precise, she's crocheting a yurt and detailing her work at Yurt Alert. Here's what she says:

"I started crocheting a lot, and was making many small domes when I realized that the same form could be made much larger into a crocheted yurt. Historically, Mongolian nomads made felt for their yurts via a labor intensive process that still required an internal structure at the end of the day. My project is to take that design a step further and make a locally-sourced (local to New Hampshire), self-supporting crocheted yurt out of hand-felted cording approximately 1.5 – 2 inches thick. I’m fundraising for the materials currently, the 500 lbs of wool and all of the cleaning and processing will be the bulk of that."

You can donate to the project by clicking here.
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The Guardian: yurtworking

The Guardian has been working in a yurt (provided by The Round House whose site is well worth exploring for shedworking possibilities) at the Hay Festival this week, inviting in famous folk and chatting to them about life and yurts. Here's what Jon Henley from the Guardian says:

"Over three fine days at the Hay Festival our yurt (yurta in Russian, kejez uj in Kazakh, boz yj in Kyrgyz, ak oy in Turkmen, ger in Mongolian, jirga or ooee in Afghan, yurt in Tajik) proved to be not just a pretty cool place for talking to some of the nearly 600 writers, philosophers, artists and academics in town this year, as well as general lounging for those festival-goers in need of a rest, but a talking point in itself."

There's a nice slideshow of other visitors here.

Unusual home offices - Yurts

Every day this week I’ll focus on a type of home office that is a little out of the ordinary. The first is the noble Mongolian yurt, the felt-lined tent of the nomadic Mongolian people. Importers Amanda and Peter Copp of The Authentic Mongolian Yurt Company are selling them to customers not just as homes and meditation spaces but also home offices.

“Because the crown is so much larger than UK-made yurts the Mongolian yurt is very light,” says Amanda, “and with a thick cosy layer of felt as well as a heavy canvas cover, they are perfect for year round use.” Mongolian yurts are designed to be warm in winter and cool in summer and one of the unexpected benefits of the thick felt is the noise insulation. They have wonderful decoratively-painted woodwork, a bit like the painting on gypsy caravans.

For more details got to their website here.

Yurt lecture

The Yurt - ancient dwelling, modern lifestyle: Learn about elements of traditional yurt design and how a structure that has been a primary dwelling of nomads for centuries relates to modern technology, culture and lifestyles. Alan Bair, owner and president of Pacific Yurts Inc., presents a lecture about the contemporary use of yurts around the world and how they reflect his belief that cross-cultural exchanges are essential for global understanding.

A talk at the Mingei International Museum (Escondido), San Diego, on Saturday January 10 at 1pm.
Via Dwell Blog

Nearings yurt

Shedworking's literary editor Sarah Salway has been on the road again searching out shedlike atmospheres, this time in the USA. Here is her photo of the spectacular yurt at the Nearings smallholding in Maine. Here's what she says:

"The yurt was just beautiful. Scott Nearing built it - with help - in his nineties without using any electrical tools, etc, and it was used for meetings, classes and so on."

More details about the Nearings and The Good Life Center here and here's their mission statement:

The mission of The Good Life Center is to perpetuate the philosophies and lifeways promoted and exemplified by Helen and Scott Nearing, two of America’s most inspirational practitioners of simple, frugal and purposeful living. Building on the Nearing legacy, The Good Life Center encourages and supports individual and collective efforts to live sustainably into the future. Guided by the principles of kindness, respect and compassion in relationships with natural and human communities, The Good Life Center promotes active participation in the advancement of social justice, creative integration of the life of the mind, body and spirit, and deliberate choice in living responsibly and harmoniously in an increasingly complicated world.

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Choosing a shed (US) - GoYurt Shelters

Howie from GoYurt Shelters has been in touch to spread the word about his rather attractive shedworking atmospheres. "We make truly portable yurts designed to be lightweight and easy to set up," he says. "We are the first and only yurt builder to be FSC certified, we are 100% PVC-free, and we only use natural finishes." They currently offer a 13 foot diameter yurt with 11 foot and 16 foot versions in development. They also have some nice accessories including a portable wood stove. The site is a pleasure to look at and well worth a browse.

How to build a timber-framed yurt

If you like yurts and fancy building your own, Rotunda Roundhouses has an interesting case study on their site following the progress of Paul Irish from Somerset-based The Yurt Retreat.

"His vision was for a Roundhouse he could design and build himself to the standards and aesthetics which would tie in with his existing style," says Gemma Roe, owner of Rotunda. His site already had four luxury 20ft yurts (not to mention a treehouse, luxury shepherds huts and boutique barn conversions), so Paul was after something that would fit well among that selection.

"Guided by his requirements, Rotunda designed and built the cassettes only, the structural framework, and provided him with the  walls and the roof panels which cleverly slot into their positions and bolt onto the structural steelwork at the dome aperture," explains Gemma. "As with all of our self-build kits, we always install the structure and leave it watertight prior to handing it over to the client on site. In this instance, we erected the walls and roof. We gave him the bolt-on service of  tiling the roof with the 100% recycled flexible eco-slates and then left Paul and his team to work their magic."

Click the link at the top of this post for more details and photos of the build. Excellent photo by Matthew Heritage.

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Nomadnessyurts: Home Of The Modern Yurt

Nomadnessyurts is run by Jonathan Ridgeon and Greg Kemp who originally started making yurts from hazel coppice and reclaimed army tents. Their current models, ideal for a garden office with a considerable difference, stand up to very strong winds, are fine with wet weather and claim to be virtually maintenance free. "We now use ultrasonically welded UV stabilised PVC and our new product is only now just going into manufacture," says Jonathan. "Currently we are deleloping an off grid hot shower solution using heat from the stove and water collected from the yurt roof." You can find out more about them at their web site, on Twitter and at their Facebook page.
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Yurtworking: Laurel Nest Yurts

There's a section in the Shedworking book about working in a yurt because there's something very appealing about this kind of garden office. Laurel Nest Yurts are particularly attractive, come in various sizes (above are the 18', 12' and 'yurtle' on wheels) and the (eco)friendly owners even offer DIY help as well as classes. The 18' - which they call the 'studio' model - is a two-person shedworking space which also works as a small classroom while the 12' (actually it's 11’9”) is their most popular yurt in urban areas.
Via Tiny House Blog


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The Comeback Cube

Apartment Therapy has a nice roundup of the shedlike prefab designs on offer at the recent Dwell on Design conference. Regular readers of Shedworking will be familiar with the likes of EcoShack's Nomadic yurt and the KitHaus featured there as well as Gregg Fleishman whose Comeback Cube looks particularly appealing.

Fleishman has a decades-long interest in modular building systems and the exhibition featured a full size single cube module in 3/4 inch European Birch, measuring 9 ft by 9 ft by 9 ft with an 81 square foot rooftop deck, with a waterproof resin coating. He says the single cube is permit exempt therefore ideal for shedworking. Here's what he says about this lovely work:

"In architecture today, the green movement focuses mostly on the origins of material and use of energy. This work proposes that there is another way to be green in architecture, a way that focuses on process in building going beyond the factory. It is in geometry, with its repeating similar forms, and smaller similar parts that we find the advantages we are looking for. These include greater structural efficiency, manufacturing economies, easier handling, less specialized work force, and lower start up costs. What distinguishes this geometry from Fuller's is that it excludes the pentagon, instead focusing generally on the cube and the octagon, more specifically variations of a 3D checkerboard of cubes or "rhombicubes". When oriented in different ways, these cubes have provided for a veritable bouquet of new and different building types to sprout up using faceted geometrical faces that can provide a new and more natural look and feel to our buildings."

“The ultimate work-from-home house”

Billed rather dramatically by Lee Koffman of Sotheby’s International Realty as "the ultimate work-from-home house" this property for sale in London (admittedly at just over £1.5 million) does indeed have a intriguing dual garden office set-up - a 16ft wide yurt with wooden floor and front door, and a 'traditional' garden office which is being used at the moment as an acupuncture room (apparently there is also permission for a larger garden office should you want on). At half the price is a one-bedroomed flat in London on with Winkworth which comes with the garden office below.

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Suburban tipi

John Paananen says the idea behind the suburban tipi was to "take the fused nomadic home designs of the yurt, tipi, and igloo and slip the straitjacket of suburban values, materials, and methods of construction over them". The outside is built of pvc siding, polypropylene fluted sheeting, engineered timber, polycarbonate structured sheeting, foil-foam-foil insulation plywood, and polyethylene sheeting. Inside you've got plastic laminate flooring, concrete firepit, carpet tiles, hardboard panels, and polypropylene fluted sheeting. The whole thing is 18' diameter x 16' high. More photos at his extensive flickr site.Via Shed & Shelter

Shepherd's hut with Celtic knot hand carving

A lovely 15ft x 7ft one-off shepherd's hut from Bob the Yurt which is up for sale now. Features include a mini kitchen, woodburning stove, mineral wool insulation, and a removable top bunk with Celtic knot hand carving, cut-work doors and windows. It's not road legal, but can easily be towed. It's built from timber cut from the woodland in which it sits and it's very wood-rich inside. More details at its former ebay listing.
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Rotunda Living

Rotunda Living is now up and running for those of you with a penchant for circular shedworking. Pictured above and below is their first 4m pod, modelled by the company's founder Gemma Roe and her new baby, which you can now see at their show site in Knutsford (and on their Facebook page)

Gemma says the aim is to produce "ecologically friendly circular micro-buildings and garden rooms for your mind, body and soul". They're partially inspired by the Mongolian Yurt but are designed as holistic ‘pods’ for yoga, meditation and feng shui purposes ("circular buildings naturally promote the flow of positive energy and are beautiful, restful spaces in which to spend your time," says Gemma).

The pods have a central rooflight dome and are circular, timber framed, fully insulated buildings with an estimated natural lifespan of more than 50 years. They come in various sizes from the micro-3m diameter garden studio to the 6m or 8m diameter with options such as a log burning stove, seedum roofing, reed bed water filtration systems, solar panels and bespoke storage and furniture. Larch, oak and sweet chestnut are locally sourced.

"We believe that our built environment affects our psychology on a daily basis and can certainly affect our well-being on both a physical and emotional level," says Gemma. "Our human connection with round buildings is hard-wired into our subconscious; round is a familiar and soothing shape in nature, from birds nests and unfurling ferns to the swirling events in our atmosphere. Our ancient Ancestral homes were round and beautiful. Yurts, igloos, wigwams and tipis."

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Around the shedworld

Yanko Design covers John Paananen's efforts at living in a suburban tipi... Treehugger reports that Design Within Reach is now selling the marvellous Kithaus... Valentine Low's shed of the year is Thomas Pausz's recreation of the Manor Gardens allotment community shed... Designboom highlights life inside a yurt at Polar Inertia... Shedblog covers the Prince Charles-inspired folly at Chevy Chase as reported in the Washington Post (pictured below)...The Museum of Garden History is still looking for shed gear from the 1970s including an actual shed...BLDGBLOG focuses on the shedlike atmospheres of Lúcio Santos including his dining experience (pictured below)...

Hideouts: Grand Vacations in Tiny Getaways

Gestalten is arguably the leading publisher of microarchitecture coffee books which feature a range of garden offices and other shedlike atmospheres (see here for reviews of previous publications). Here's the latest, Hideouts, which is highly illustrated and features builds from around the world. And here's what they say about it:

The way we travel has changed. We no longer want a generic, one-size-fits-all vacation: We want to explore on our own terms and immerse ourselves in local culture. Simply witnessing nature is no longer enough—we want to live in it. A fusion of glamour and camping, Hideouts will guide you to experience the most awe-inspiring locales around the world. Across the globe, you’ll find incredible destinations, each offering their own unique advantages. You can wake up in a yurt on a mountain top, reside in the forest canopy in a treehouse, or take in incredible panoramic views in an eco-lodge—and that’s just to name a few.

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