Hexayurts don't suck... but they sort of do.

What's the deal?  Hexayurts are awesome!

They sure are!  For those that don't know, hexayurts are those silver hexagon-shaped domes out on the playa during Burning Man.  Since not everyone has been to Burning Man, some folks might still be a little lost.  So let me provide a little background.  Hexayurts are basic, open-source structures constructed out of flat panels.  These panels can be made of just about anything from wood to plastic, and even Styrofoam.  When assembled with a certain amount of ingenuity, the panels are self-supporting allowing the hexayurt to be built without internal structure.  By using even more clever ingenuity, one can build a hexayurt to fold up into a somewhat portable stack of material.  All of this cleverness leads to a groovy structure that can be set up quite easily at a remote location.  So easy, in fact, that some folks are using them for refugee housing and disaster relief!    There are many designs out there.  Tall ones, geodesic ones, some other non-standard shapes.  There are even yurts linked together to form mini communities!  I can list them all painstakingly, or you can just check out The Hexayurt Project on appropedia.  Or do a google search to find all of the creative folks out there who put their own spin on the design.

Though there are a great many ways to build these fabulous shelters listed on the site (mine is a folding 6' stretch, with a few custom modifications), they tend to have a lot in common.  They are usually made from foam insulation panels or some other ultralight material, to create a cheap, easy-to-build, portable, and lightweight structure for camping in.

Image source:  http://www.appropedia.org/Hexayurt_playa_checklist

But wait, what about this "Styrofoam" thing?  Who would build a house of foam?  Haven't you read The Three Little Pigs?

That's the coolest part!  See, the self-supporting geometry is VERY strong, so you don't have to worry about any big bad wolves blowing it down.  The outer shape of this geometry is reasonably aerodynamic.  That fact, combined with their inherant strength means that they can take a very substantial amount of wind.  Up to 90 mph has been documented on the playa without destroying these marvelous creations.  Just make sure to tie them down TIGHT to the ground!  They are easy to build too.  You can head right down to the hardware store and pick up some foil backed insulation called R-Max (though my first 'yurt was built from the less expensive and less insulative Tuff-R), and some bi-filament tape.  Then you just cut it and tape it together based on one of the designs, and boom.  Thanks to the reflective and insulative properties, you have a shelter that keeps the heat off you during the day and the cold out at night.  They also keep the rain off of you, though because they have no bottom, you have to place them on a tarp and then tape the edges down to keep the rain from seeping under the walls.
Protip: Pre-tape a larger than needed tarp to your yurt to negate this step in the future, with slack in the middle to allow it to fold and expand.[1]Source: Personal experience.

These features are great when camping on a dry lake such as you do at Burning Man where there's minimal shade, extreme temperature swings, and lots and lots of wind.  I've used a tent out there, it was not an ideal experience.

I loved my hexayurt.  I mean, I still do.  I have so many fond memories with mine.  Cool afternoons out of the heat and warm nights out of the cold.  And I still have the thing available for friends to use!  It is a lovely 6’ stretch hexayurt[2]http://www.appropedia.org/Hexayurt_schematics that is taped together to pop up on the playa.  I only need to tape the roof (thanks to the protip above) once I get there and boom - ready to go.  I’ve even embedded rope along the trapezoidal roof panels so I can use ratcheting tie downs without having to deal with a rope halo or tape anchors or the like.  Flip, pop, tape, crank.  Done.  I have always liked to do all of the work ahead of time, so as to have less to worry about on arrival.

Boy did this little guy do the job for me!  It kept the heat off during the day, the cold out during the night, and the rain out when it was... umm... properly set up (more on this, later).  It also shrugged off even the most severe of playa winds without any obnoxious flapping noises.  And made me smile knowing I built it with my friends :)

It's alive(ingspace)!

In retrospect, from the sky this may have looked inappropriate.

Why would you complain about it then?

No reason, really.  But many reasons too.  Some of them were my fault.  Like the first time we set up the yurt, we didn't have the built-in bottom tarp.  So we laid out the floor tarp, got it popped up and ratcheted down, and I wanted to be done.  I said “It hardly ever rains at Burning Man, we can finish setting up tomorrow!”   Sure my girlfriend insisted that we should finish taping the edges down to the tarp.  But we had been on the road for 18+ hours!  There were things to do and see!  So I spent more time convincing her to run off into the night with us than it would have taken to tape it down...  And the next morning we had an inch of water inside.  Yeah, that was my fault.  Of course, removing all that water took far more effort than just doing it right the first time would have.  But then again, taping it down was effort I didn't want to spend after a long road trip.  Oh poor me, I know.  But still, there's improvement to be had!  Even beyond the pre-taped-tarp.

It also took up space.  4 feet x 8 feet x 12 inches.  32 cubic feet.  Pretty impressive for a structure so useful and amazing.  But that's a lot of room that could have been used for supplies for a week on the playa!  In our case, we had to pack two of them o.O  Friendship is wonderful and free, but friends also have physical mass and volume.

And so does their stuff.[3]Sources: http://meowgifs.com/252,
http://www.animal-photos.org/photo/25306.html

The real problem was that it wasn't just space.  The Subaru Forester we have could fit that volume inside itself no problem!  But the yurts aren't as liquid as the cats above are.  Yurts fold up into a very flattened out and awkward space.  Without buying a bigger, mightier vehicle, where would we put it all?

Fortunately, Harbor Freight sells a very inexpensive trailer with exactly 4’ x 8’ of bed space.  And it was just the right size for a little SUV or even a car.  With some plywood sides it was able to hold a couple of yurts and a whole bunch of stuff.  It had its limits though...

Things were literally overflowing to the sides of the trailer!

Unfortunately, the best place for the yurts was on the very bottom of the pile of stuff in the trailer.  Oh sure, some folks would have said that’s a terrible idea!  The CG of the trailer would be too high!  It would blow around in the wind.  The "tail would wag the dog” on your poor little Subaru Forester.[4]Little in stature but not in heart!
Source: This post. How meta.  Don’t do it or terrible things will happen!

Well, maybe nobody would say that but I certainly thought it.  Didn’t stop me from doing it anyway… and spoiler alert, TWO 2000[5]A tututhousand.
Source: Say it. mile road trips to Burning Man and nary a mishap.

But it certainly wasn't ideal… not by a long shot.

The only thing to do in line is to take shameful selfies.

I can tell we were about to leave because things
ALWAYS take up more room on the way out.

A final issue with this method wasn't necessarily the yurt's fault, but it makes things tough.  Since the yurts had to go on the bottom of the trailer, we couldn't exactly pack up the trailer the night before you leave and just toss our sleeping equipment on top of the whole mess in the morning.  So we've always been forced to wait for some decent sunlight to roll out.  On the plus side, we got to "sleep in" slightly.  The minus side should be obvious.  The fun was all gone and we had to play tetris[6]An evil version of tetris where the stuff doesn't
disappear when you complete an entire row,
but you still lose if it spills over the top.
Source: http://www.transportation.gov/. with all of this stuff at the crack of dawn in the dirt and go home.  Though some of this could be mitigated with more money, we built our yurts to SAVE money.  There MUST be a better way!

And how are you gonna fix all this?

So what then?  What am I going to do?  How can I make a hexayurt take up LESS space, be easier to set up, and easier to travel with?  And how can I make that happen WITHOUT buying a larger vehicle?  Or dropping a heck of a lot more dough?  And while we are taking crazy-pills, what else can we add to our wish list?

12 volt LED lighting?  Easy.  The last yurt had that.
Built in swamp cooler?  Sure why not?  One less thing to set up.
More room inside?  That would be nice, but wont that make it take up MORE cargo space?
Lifted off the ground and sealed to keep rainwater out?  Yeah buddy, sounds real plausible.
Running water and a shower?  Get outta here.  You said EASIER to set up.  Not harder.  Remember?  Do all the work before you leave???

Well friends, I wish I could bottle up those crazy-pills because that rabbit hole was amazing.  Yes, I’ve done it.  My yurt has wheels!  And a swamp cooler!  And running water!  And lights!  And it’s street legal!  And people look at you funny...  But that's not the point... It works dammit!

I’m going to make a post very shortly about how it was made, so that anyone who wants to can have their very own Hexayurt RV!  That doesn't sound very cool... Hexarvee?  Though technically it’s an Octayurt RV.  So is it Octarvee?  Hexarvee sounds kinda groovy, but  Octarvee doesn’t.  Does it?  It still needs a name is the point.  But the amazing fact that you can build one of them all by yourself is the even bigger point!  So we will end on that note.[7]And also a final footnote where I thank Margaret Kosmala for her
instructions on creating these lovely footnotes.