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Don't forget that bugs would get inside, that you couldn't have any reasonable sort of climate control, etc. Domes are cool for camping, events, and as very tem

Don't forget that bugs would get inside, that you couldn't have any reasonable sort of climate control, etc. Domes are cool for camping, events, and as very temporary emergency shelters, but living in one like this is not very sustainable. The Better Shelter exists and is a good product: http://www.bettershelter.org http://www.bettershelter.org

pbhjpbhj 9y ago
FWIW it also says the "temporary shelter" produced by the organisation Better Shelter is intended to last 3 years (product page). The Yurt seems to have been doing well, it's close to a raised dome, has replaceable modular construction, is easy to erect and move, has been tested for centuries (millennia?) in some of the harshest climate on the planet, namely the Mongolian steppe. In UK a few people use them as permanent homes. They won't fit well in a rectangular road grid (unless you want to use the margins to provide outdoor space, eg for growing), but would pack in to a tri-/hex-grid. Of course bugs might get in, just like a house in a Western city, seems a strange objection? Do you live in a cleanroom?
- pamqzl 9y ago
  I can buy a metal garden shed for a couple of hundred bucks, assemble it myself, and it'll stand for decades without needing much if any maintenance. I could get one with a window, and a door that locks. It wouldn't give me any Whole Foods cred like a dome or a yurt, but aside from that issue it seems more practical than either of those, if I wanted to live in one small and poorly insulated room without plumbing. I've just looked at the Better Shelter page and it seems that their idea is the same as mine -- a metal shed.
  - pbhjpbhj 9y ago
    There's looks like a good shed, extendible, more insulated than sheet metal. The metal shed you get now, is likely to be designed to break and be hard to repair, 10 years ago its predecessor was probably much better. At least their shed is designed with repairability in mind.
  - erikpukinskis 9y ago
    > I could get one with a window, and a door that locks. For a couple hundred bucks?
    - pamqzl 9y ago
      Well, okay, closest I could find was this $279 one with a lockable door but no window, but I haven't looked all that hard.
  - AlotOfReading 9y ago
    Gers/Yurts aren't poorly insulated. They're actually a bit over-insulated for most places. You could easily add locking doors or plumbing (I've seen both in Mongolian gers), but the real design advantages are the portability and wind load factors.

pbhjpbhj 9y ago

FWIW it also says the "temporary shelter" produced by the organisation Better Shelter is intended to last 3 years (product page). The Yurt seems to have been doing well, it's close to a raised dome, has replaceable modular construction, is easy to erect and move, has been tested for centuries (millennia?) in some of the harshest climate on the planet, namely the Mongolian steppe. In UK a few people use them as permanent homes. They won't fit well in a rectangular road grid (unless you want to use the margins to provide outdoor space, eg for growing), but would pack in to a tri-/hex-grid. Of course bugs might get in, just like a house in a Western city, seems a strange objection? Do you live in a cleanroom?

pamqzl 9y ago
I can buy a metal garden shed for a couple of hundred bucks, assemble it myself, and it'll stand for decades without needing much if any maintenance. I could get one with a window, and a door that locks. It wouldn't give me any Whole Foods cred like a dome or a yurt, but aside from that issue it seems more practical than either of those, if I wanted to live in one small and poorly insulated room without plumbing. I've just looked at the Better Shelter page and it seems that their idea is the same as mine -- a metal shed.
- pbhjpbhj 9y ago
  There's looks like a good shed, extendible, more insulated than sheet metal. The metal shed you get now, is likely to be designed to break and be hard to repair, 10 years ago its predecessor was probably much better. At least their shed is designed with repairability in mind.
- erikpukinskis 9y ago
  > I could get one with a window, and a door that locks. For a couple hundred bucks?
  - pamqzl 9y ago
    Well, okay, closest I could find was this $279 one with a lockable door but no window, but I haven't looked all that hard.
- AlotOfReading 9y ago
  Gers/Yurts aren't poorly insulated. They're actually a bit over-insulated for most places. You could easily add locking doors or plumbing (I've seen both in Mongolian gers), but the real design advantages are the portability and wind load factors.