Hexayurts For Occupation

Getting kicked out of our parks last weekend may have been doing us a favor. Surely, our #N17 actions would not have been nearly so large had the kick-outs not happened. It also gives us a decent excuse to go home for the winter, which a lot of occupiers are going to take. And when we do move back in, possibly in the spring, we have the opportunity to begin the camps from scratch, with a little more intentionality. Perhaps we can achieve a space that doesn't so closely resemble a refugee camp.

It is ironic, then, that the subject of today's post was designed for refugee camps. This is the Hexayurt.

If you've been following appropriate technology for the last few years, you've probably seen the Hexayurt. Developed by Vinay Gupta, it's a simple to assemble hut made from 12 sheets of 4x8 material such plywood or foam board. Six of these sheets are cut in half along the diagonal, and then the 8' sides are joined to form 6 near-equilateral triangles. These form the roof, while the other six sheets form the walls. There is no wasted material. The hut itself had a 16' diameter, is 8' tall at the center, and encloses 166 sf of space. The design is inexpensive, easy to ship, and can be constructed by unskilled labor.

What's especially interesting about the Hexayurt is the number of variant designs that have come about. The design is open source and in the public domain. This means anyone can use it and anyone can modify it. The basic geometry of triangles and 4x8 sheets can be assembled into many different geometries while maintaining the no-waste construction. People have come up with forms to fill a variety of needs. There's the Mini-yurt, for when you only need a 1-man shelter, The H13, which gives greater headroom and a full-height door, and even the Nearodesic Domes, which combine the advantages of Geodesics with the efficiency of Hexayurt Geometries. A simple search for Hexayurt on Google will turn up a dozen more examples.

If, as a movement, we choose to re-occupy the spaces we've been removed from, the Hexayurt is a good choice for semi-permanent occupation. It can meet all five criteria from the manifesto.

Hexayurts are affordable. 4X8 sheets of plywood are inexpensive and readily available. Foam board is also relatively cheap. The space enclosed usually comes in at less than a dollar a square foot. The fact that no material goes to waste cuts on costs and makes clean-up easier. 4X8 sheets of plywood can also be purchased in bulk, which can cut costs further. Compare the idea of spending 1000 dollars on a winterized tent to buying 1000 dollars worth of insulation board at bulk prices, and how much space that can enclose with Hexayurts.

Hexayurts can be portable. There are many examples of folding Hexayurts. Foam board is light, and plywood isn't too hard to carry either. The Boards can be painted as protest signs, which can disguise the fact that we're carrying building material on-site.

Hexayurts are comfortable. They are more permanent than tents, providing a sense of stability and structure. Foam insulation board can have an R-value of up to 6, meaning space inside will be warmer. At least half the space inside is full standing height.

And the real advantage is that Hexayurts are self-organizing. Individuals can construct their own Hexayurts, either with their own materials or materials provided by the GA. The Hexagonal structures naturally form a grid, interlocking with each other. New yurts built will easily fit this grid. Dozens of different Hexayurt styles exist, so it's easy to find one that fits different needs. Individual protesters can put up Mini-yurts, groups can build standard yurts or H13s, and communal spaces like the Library or the food services can occupy Nearodesic Domes. All the different variants still share basic geometries, fitting the hexagonal grid seamlessly.

And that's the Beauty of the Hexayurt. Sure, an individual Hexayurt may not be the prettiest thing. But the more people adopt Hexayurts, the fewer tarp-based structures the camp will have, improving general the look of the camp. The walls form a surface for painting murals and messages. A camp made up of Hexayurts and their variants will have a unified aesthetic, even when built individually. The self-organizing Hex grid has several advantages. It creates a sense of location because all paths have terminal points. It creates public spaces where paths between structures widen. And it visually contrasts with the orthogonal grid of the city, as the world we want contrasts with the world of the bankers and politicians. The whole camp will serve as a symbol of finding order within freedom, of a new way to live. And that's what an architecture for occupation should do, above all. 

Resources for Hexayurts start at Hexayurt.com. After that, I'd head to Appropedia for some more detailed information. The H-13 and some of the images I borrowed come from DylanToymaker.  More on Nearodesics is available in PDF form. A google search will turn up dozens more: the Hexayurt is a tried and tested structure with tons of implementations.