October 2007
WIRED.com on Hexayurts
Slideshow: Instant Housing and Designing for Disaster (I’m pointing you right at the Hexayurt, which is half way through.)
For the record, I don’t know where they got that cardboard line - maybe when I was discussing future plans?
Anyway, nice-to-see.
Pentayurt - Hexayurt for snow areas
Five sides, otherwise the geometry is unchanged. The steeper roof helps shed snow and I’m fairly sure that it’s steep enough for most snow areas.
Anybody want to modify the Hexayurt models on SketchUp to make some models so we can get an exact height etc?
The back of the envelope calculation suggests about 20% less floor space per panel used but significantly more area over the 6′ line for standable, walkable space.
Technorati Claim
Don’s Hexayurt Village Diagrams
http://www.flickr.com/photos/doneastwest/sets/1223240/
Very, very cool conceptual work. There’s a half-dozen pictures in the middle of the set of SketchUp renderings of collections of hexayurts. Very interesting stuff indeed.
Blog Action Day - all you need to know
It’s a graph. Click on it for the full explanation on The Economist.
Here’s what it says: all the downwards pointing bars are energy savings that pay for themselves. The depth of the bar shows how much you save, and the width of the bar shows how much of that saving is available. It’s like saying “you can buy a unit of savings for $40, and there are 28 available.”
Here’s the point: the very, very large savings available in the “profitable” area - the energy savings which are also financial savings - these savings are by-and-large getting much, much less attention than the items further to the right, which involve financial sacrifice for environmental benefit.
Environmental issues are simply too important to be handled in a way which is financially irresponsible. We must prioritize making the energy savings which are profitable first. Everybody insulate your houses, your water heaters, your windows, your lofts. Get the easy stuff done. Once you’ve done that, and you’re saving money and energy, figure out what the next most profitable energy saving you can make is.
Eventually you’ll run out of money-and-planet saving steps, but until that happens, keep going.
When you actually calculate the return on investment for environmental improvements in the “Smart Green” box, they are often staggering. I was part of the editorial team on Small is Profitable, the Rocky Mountain Institute book on distributed energy generation, and when you see the numbers worked out, over and over again, every day, you come to understand: saving energy is a profit center, not a loss making activity.
Mad boat builder
And this is a cutting plan for a one sheet of plywood boat which is absurdly brilliant, and very reminiscent of both hexayurts and Playatech furniture.
