From: trh@jack.sns.com (Al Trh)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish
Subject: HOME IS WHERE THE YURT IS {The Independent On Sunday, Dec 27 '92} (fwd)
Date: 6 Jan 1993 00:42:20 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
Reply-To: Turkish Cultural Program List <TRKNWS-L%USCVM.BitNet@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU>
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

 HOME IS WHERE THE YURT IS

 A 3,000-year-old  design for desert  living may be  adopted here.
 Nicole Swengley on the future tents of Britaiin.

 Houses made from  wool? More like pulling it over  our eyes. What
 if it rains or blows a hoolie? Living in a tent might be fine for
 nomads in warmer  climes, but camping out in Britain  is hardly a
 cushy option.

 Hal Wynne-Jones  is a builder  who tries hard to  convince people
 otherwise.  He has  launched a  range of  felt-covered dwellings,
 constructed along  the lines  of an Asian  nomadic tent  called a
 "yurt" or "ger",  and believes they will appeal  to everyone from
 lovers of the rural good life to the homeless.

 "Felt is an unbelievably good  insulator," he says. "With a stove
 in the middle,  yurts get too hot rather than  too cool at night.
 They are very strong, but fold up into small components. Designed
 on geometrical  principles, their hemispherical shape  sucks them
 to the ground so they don't blow away."

 the felt,  copper piping  and bamboo  that Hal  Wynne-Jones works
 with  are  a  far cry  from  the  Cotswold  stone  he used  as  a
 Gloucestershire builder for 15 years. His Damascene conversion to
 desert dwellings  happened when  he saw  an engraving  of Genghis
 Khan, 13th-century  ruler of Mongolia, who  controlled his empire
 from a felt tent.

 Wynne-Jones is now building his own empire - so far a small one -
 of enthusiasts dedicated  to the yurt cause. As well  as some New
 Age travellers of no fixed abode, recent purchasers include Susie
 Cole, an interior designer in Lyme Regis. "We're very anticamping
 in  the normal  sense,"  she says,  "but  we use  the  yurt as  a
 portable  ski  chalet  in  Scotland.  It's  very  dry  and  warm,
 sound-proof and takes an hour to put up."

 Chris McHugo, director of a field  studies centre in the south of
 France, uses his yurt as a  staff recreation room and office. "It
 has survived 60mph  winds and six inches of snow,"  he says. "But
 the felt is permeable to rain. I throw a tarpaulin over mine when
 rain when rain  threatens." He likes the fact that  a yurt has no
 machined parts. "It's a work of art as much as anything else."

 Rosemary Verey, the  gardening expert, has quite  a different use
 for her yurt. "Mine has a bamboo skeleton covered with green mesh
 netting which I  use as a store for plants.  It's not frost-proof
 but protects  plants while allowing light  through. Personally, I
 think it would make a marvellous fruit cage." And Hal Wynne-Jones
 thinks there may  be another use for yurts -  as low cost housing
 for homeless  people in this  country and for refugees  in Bosnia
 and Kurdistan.

 Yurts  originated about  3,000 years  ago in  Northern China  and
 Iran. The  domed Chinese willow  tent amalgamated over  the years
 with the Iranian "alachiq", a sophisticated gypsy tent, affording
 protection against cold, extreme heat and high winds.

 Wynne-Jones has  designed a  contemporary version using  a wooden
 frame  joined with  leather thongs,  bound with  a strong  woolen
 band, then  covered with felt. Unlike  most tents, it has  no guy
 ropes and is quickly pitched or dismantled by two people.

 His  first yurt  cost him  L 50  to make.  He assembled  it in  a
 weekend  from wooden  poles covered  with an  old tarpaulin,  and
 lived in  it for three months  until it blew down.  Undaunted, he
 spent a year refining the design to withstand gales yet fold flat
 for travelling. Now  the supports are of  steam-bent oak, covered
 with  felt and  canvas,  and there  is  a waterproof  groundsheet
 floor.

 Modern yurts  can be connected  to a water supply  and electricty
 point, and a  septic tank lavatory can  be installed. Wynne-Jones
 has  lived with  his  family for  a  year in  one  of these  more
 sophisticated models, moving out only  when his field flooded. "I
 learnt that you have to be choosy about sites."

 His  cheapest model  costs L  500, an  8ft diameter  willow frame
 covered  with felt  and  lined with  plastic groundsheet.  Prices
 escalate with  such embellishments  as a  porch, a  raised wooden
 floor  or traditional  tent band  around the  top. A  deluxe 16ft
 diameter model, suitable for a family of four, costs L 4,400.

 Yurts may be comparatively cheap, but are they really suitable as
 homes? Aren't interiors pitch black because they have no windows?
 "They have a large, clear  PVC roof-light," says Hal Wynne-Jones.
 "During the shorter days, we used paraffin lamps and candles. But
 electricity would really  be better." He admits that  living in a
 tent requires  adjustments to  your lifestyle  - such  as earlier
 bedtimes and earlier rising.

 Anyone who relishes this seasonal  retuning of the body clock may
 find the  yurt way  of life  appealing. But  are there  any other
 advantages? "Without  sounding too corny," Wynne-Jones  says, "It
 has a very  calming effect on people; it's very  difficult to get
 angry in a yurt.  I think this is because it  is circular with no
 angles or sharp edges."

 Surely  there  are risks  in  using  a  wood-burning stove  in  a
 construction made of  wood and felt? "The stove is  in the middle
 of the yurt,"  Hal Wynne-Jones explains, "and is safe  if you are
 careful. The stove pipe goes out through a metal guard in the PVC
 part of the roof. We have  just had fire precaution approval from
 British Standards."

 Are we likely, to see a rash  of yurts springing up as homes? Are
 tent   villages  for   homeless  people   really  feasible?   Hal
 Wynne-Jones thinks  so. "They won't  suit everyone, but  I'm sure
 there are some who would prefer to live in their own yurt than in
 bed-and-breakfast accomodation." If old habits die hard, then one
 that dates back 3,000 years may yet enjoy a new lease of life.

 For further information contact  Hal Wynne-Jones, Arlington Mill,
 Bibury,  Near Cirencester,  Gloucestershire, GL7  5NL, UK
 Tel: + (0285) 740593

 {Photographs} 1 Gardener Rosemary Verey has found a novel use for
                 her yurt, as a store of plants.
               2 An original design {of the yurt} on the Plains of
                 TURKIYE.

 THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY, London, 27 December 1992
             _
 |-| /-\ |_ |_| |<
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish