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EWB Sheffield - Plywood Hexayurt How To

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    Engineers Without Borders Sheffield
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    Plywood Hexayurt How-to Video
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    Having 6 sides it's hard to get a sense of how big the hexayurt is.
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    Our eyes are used to 4-sided buildings.
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    Could I ask you a favour? Could you walk around the hexayurt? ... Thank you!
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    We have some camping mats inside to give a sense of scale.
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    How is that with 5 occupants? Very big!
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    Very big for camping, not for living.
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    With possessions.
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    Fairly standard for 4 1/2 persons. One person for each wall.
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    Central shared space. For cooking.
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    Stove in the center with the smoke going up.
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    In cold climates you'd put a layer of insulation on the inside. Stapled, probably.
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    Parts List
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    All you'll need for $100 USD
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    12 sheets of OSB or Plywood
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    6 for the walls, 6 for the roof
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    Check that the boards are 1.2 by 2.4, because sometimes they are 1.2 by 2.5.
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    Mark the diagonal.
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    (5) pieces of 2x4 8' lumber
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    for (24) 120º and (12) 120º blocks
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    Template for the 150º block, using a pair of cutters as a compass.
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    150º = 60º + 60º + half of 60º.
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    Accurate enough. If there's some error it will be smaller than the error when using the saw.
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    (200) 2" deck screws
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    self-taping if possible
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    Walls first. I'm liking your door, looks like two eyes and a nose.
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    That was not the plan; port-holes was the idea.
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    We love the arch. No meassuring, just using a piece of string and a pen.
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    This is the profile of a block. Takes more cutting but uses less wood.
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    This is the sholanken corner I mentioned before. 6" by 6" and cut the triangle off.
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    So that the wall radius comes inside of the roof radius.
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    One block at the top and one block at the bottom.
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    A pile of spare blocks to hold the roof on.
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    These are the roof triangles.
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    You screw one block on the inside of each one.
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    They overlap by the thickness of one block. If the block is 2" by 4", it's 1.75 inches [?].
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    They all have to be oriented in the same way in terms of left over right or right over left.
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    Once you have the roofs done we're going to do an awkward bit of cutting.
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    Trimming fo the roof triangles
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    (an awkward little detail)
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    We need the boards to overlap on each other at the very top of the hexayurt.
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    So the narrowest angle of each half-panel piece has to be cut twice:
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    - First at the very end, to make it shorter.
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    - Then parallel to the edge of the other board, to make it narrower.
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    How the roof works (and the awkward detail explained)
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    This is how the roof pieces will go.
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    Actually this is over like that. See how they catch?
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    You tack those corners in.
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    Screw the wooden blocks on the inside.
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    That's the overlap of the pieces, where each roof piece rests in the one besides it.
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    That's what forms your roof strength. Each on over the one before.
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    Placing the 150º roof blocks
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    Roughly at half height, you measure the thickness of the block,
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    and then you can screw it in a position like this.
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    So the other piece of the roof wedges right into that corner.
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    Screw from the outside, this edge parallel to that edge.
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    And then the other board will slide up against that and into place.
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    About to finish the roof
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    It's clearly not quite a house, but it's definitly better than a tent.
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    If it was four times the price of a tent it really wouldn't be worth doing it.
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    But at a quarter of the price of a tent it's actually quite a technology.
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    Did I hear somebody just discovered the problem of the end?
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    Someone's got to go inside, that is correct.
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    Actually for safety reasons it's best for about 4 or 5 people inside
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    so the roof can not fall on them.
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    Placing the last two roof blocks
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    The surface of the block aligns up smoothly with the roof.
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    On one side you inset on the other side you outset.
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    The surface of the block is aligned with this surface smoothly
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    so the roof pieces fit right over them and you can screw from the outside.
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    The tricky last roof triangle
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    and lifting the roof on to the walls!
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    Let's drop this solar light in here.
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    Solar panels on the back, light on the front.
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    Now you can see what you're doing.
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    Does it have a disco mode?
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    So we want to slide it on those blocks that come right under the other side.
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    Final piece: you have to slide it in on one side, gently.
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    It's a job for hand power, not for leg power. A precision operation.
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    Slide it in! There you go, easy.
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    Now you need to move it up, push it up some.
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    (That side will go over rather than under, but don't worry about that side yet.)
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    Close enough!
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    Who's going to do the screws?
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    There's someone pressing on the other side?
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    Solid, nicely done!
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    Who's going to take a shot at the one up here?
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    You're pretty light.
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    More people, more people!
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    Can you guys inside lift the roof up a tiny bit, a few inches? Right!
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    Now we do the same thing again.
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    (holding the person who is tightning the screw by the waist
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    so he can work without leaning on the roof)
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    Beautiful!
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    Now the magic:
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    3 people on every wall.
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    Each lifting 10-15 pounds of weight because there are so many. Very gentle lift.
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    Everybody inside gets ready too.
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    We're going to lift it up and then we are going to hold it right where we are.
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    Lift it to full height but we're not going to move around any.
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    Ready? Lift slowly and gently.
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    Lift further so it's easier. Once you're at shoulder height it weighs less.
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    Everybody who is free go inside.
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    Very slowly begin to walk towards the hexayurt.
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    Pass the weight to the people inside.
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    Run to the other side of the building to take it when it comes at the back.
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    Now we need more people on the outside.
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    Lower very gently.
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    Keep it aligned with the corners, mind your fingers.
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    Add more screws to hold down the roof properly.
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    Placing the mid-wall roof-blocks
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    This is a 120º block and it goes right under the section --
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    where the two pieces of the roof cross.
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    Hold the block from below so that it's screwed tight.
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    Then from the inside you put in another screw --
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    and that locks it onto the roof.
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    First footing!
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    (it's a Scottish thing)
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    I can even put my hands up! Quite spacious. Thanks very much!
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    20 people inside and
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    some additional notes
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    For Burning Man people typically have so much equipment with them --
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    that they have to gang-carry stuff on a truck.
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    How many people do we have in here now?
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    17 and we have some space in the middle ... 19.
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    Come on in, it's a hexayurt, not a clown-car.
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    A tonne of shelter for not much money.
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    You don't have to build them out of wood.
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    You can use corrugated plastic and tape and then it can be folding.
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    Hexayurt experience.
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    Half the price of a relief tent, lasts 3 times as long, about the same size.
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    5 years, maybe 10?
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    It's on every continent, now -- test units only, though.
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    Antartica? If you use a nice thick structural insulated panel, why not?
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    Mongolian yurts. Every culture has a shack or a hut which is about this size.
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    The English had benders.
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    Gang carrying the finished hexayurt
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    and the relocatable building idea
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    We need 18 folks all the way around.
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    Don't lift before we have 3 on each side.
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    Focus your lift right at the corners where the hexayurt is screwed down to the wall.
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    Put your hand close to the corners.
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    For the people who are at the corners, hold by the corners --
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    everybody else hold by the middle.
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    We're going to go to that no-fire sign, see it? That's 5 feet.
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    So at the count of 3, lift very slowly - 1, 2, 3 - and walk.
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    So this is the relocatable building thing.
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    And stop, and down. Clap! Good!
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    What you do is you screw some aditional bits of wood to it --
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    to make it a frame to carry it by.
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    Then you get 20 people to carry it on their shoulders --
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    and you just walk somebody's house to where they are going to live in next.
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    That means you can build semipermanent structures --
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    that you can still relocate if you've got to move your camps.
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    For example in Haiti you could build hexayurts --
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    and if you have to relocate 5 miles to a new centre, you can do it.
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    It's a slow process but you have time and lots of manual labour on hand.
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    Thank you!
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    Back to parts
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    This is just running it backwards. Nice work folks. Nice!
Title:
EWB Sheffield - Plywood Hexayurt How To
Description:

http://hexayurt.blip.tv/file/5010740/ is the Plywood Hexayurt for Disaster Relief briefing which goes with this video. A rough how-to video for the plywood hexayurt. See http://files.howtolivewiki.com/hexayurt_in_haiti_v1.1.pdf for a more detailed technical description. http://www.ewb-uk.org/taxonomy/term/1430 is the event the video was made at.
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Video Language:
English

English subtitles

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