Housing

Today, we began to set up the foundations for our houses and hexayurts. In the early part of this century, a fellow by the name of Vinay Gupta was brilliantly inspired to create the hexayurt. The design was simplicity itself. Twelve 4 X 8 panels, a way to cut six of the panels and some tape. In the years following, the hexayurt became not only the standard refugee shelter, but was adopted by millions and used for as many reasons. During the early years of its development, the hexayurt had some shortcomings. Its first incarnation only worked in an arid environment. There was also a UV deterioration problem. Some people were not too picky about their choice of materials and encountered either a fire hazard or off gassing. Happily, at the time of this writing, all of the bugs have been worked out and the concept is doings yeomen’s duty all over the planet. During the earlier stages of development, I had redesigned the structure to be made out of insulated panels with a plywood outer skin. The inner skin could be either drywall or plywood. There was insulation in the panels. In order to keep the costs down, wood doorlites were modified to make sliding windows. If the structure needed to be KD (Knock Down) each panel was fitted with bed frame hardware. Once the thing was assembled, a bead of RTV (Room Temperature Vulcanizing) gasket material was applied to a rebate (Pronounced rabbit) built into each panel and roof section. The only problem I had was the floor. I was forced to come up with a very fussy system of joists and floor sections. They were hard to store and PItA (you can figure that one on your own, can’t you?) to assemble. The use of the floor system was restricted to the housing units and the textile shops. All the rest of the outbuildings used dirt floors. Here are a couple of drawings:

This time around, primarily due to some extraordinary good fortune, we are going try pouring a clay floor. Two recent finds made this experiment possible. First, while exploring our new location some of our residents came across the remains of what must have been a finishing/refinishing shop. At the back of the shop were a couple of dozen drums of linseed oil. Someone then remembered a clay deposit not to far distant. It should be interesting.

Most residents of our enclave have houses. Again, somewhere around 2002 I noted what could best be described as a neo-minimalist movement starting up. This movement was a reaction to all of the 5000 sq. ft. McMansions springing up. One of the most prolific Architects that responded to the cry for tiny houses was Jay Shafer. He has been drawing up these little gems for a while now.

Photos courtesy of Tumbleweed tiny homes

The Buildings are pretty straight forward stick construction. One of the delightful features of many of his designs is that they fit onto a standard double axle trailer. The overall height is just a smidge under 13 feet so they can be hauled anywhere. We use composting toilets in order to save time and energy building infrastructure. There is a grey water recovery system that allows us to use shower and dishwashing water over again. Each place has a very nicely appointed sleeping loft area and a ton of great other features. All in all, we are quite pleased with them.

On a final note, I would like to mention another housing system that we have used in the past. There is a great organization of people in the Atlanta area called “The Mad Housers” They quietly seek out and work with homeless people in Atlanta. They have developed a couple of designs that, in a pinch make dandy shelters. If so inclined, stop by their website for a visit.

It is not the intent of this blog post to go into all of the ramifications of housing designs. However, in our experience this is stuff that has worked for us. Please bear in mind, ReDS, is spreading and the food system is failing. Refugees/Patients will need to be housed. Any ideas on how you will accomplish this?

Regards

Megiddo