Sarah one of my readers brought this new yurt to my attention. It is very unique and I think has some real possibilities. A company based in Colorado called circHouse has designed this visionary shelter that could be used for many activities, but I see the potential of a tiny house and a very modern take on the old fashioned yurt.
One of the issues with yurts that sends many people away is the fact that they are made of canvas or wood and usually have a lattice skeleton which blocks your view. A serious concern if you are in a beautiful area. circHouse has taken the age old shape of the yurt and put technology to work creating an innovative new structure. By utilizing polycabonate and acrylic wall structures, a recycled steel frame and natural wood paneling they have created a modern looking structure that is compact for shipping and that can be assembled in a few short hours.
Here is what they say about the house for Recreational and Vacationing: “The circHouse for the recreational setting takes advantage of the full view floor to ceiling picture window and sliding window capabilities. We use wood panels where desired to create a more “natural” feel to the structure. The Polygal greenhouse roof panels can be used to let in lots of natural light and warmth. A simple Photovoltaic system, wood stove and solar water heating system can provide the comforts of home in an off grid and remote location. You can start putting the circHouse up in the morning and have lunch in your new getaway vacation home!”
I see great potential for a tiny house and their price on the website for a 20 foot cirHouse is $11,950, which is comparable to many canvas yurts. I would enjoy seeing one of these in person and hope to send a couple of my friends in Colorado to get a first hand look at it. If you are in the Denver area, I would suggest you check out this company and give me your opinion on this fine new design.
After looking over their website I still have the question of insulation. I would love one for a lake house get-a-way. Great for remote locations and off grid living.
nice, but i prefer recHouse. They fit on trailers.
Hi,
This is a nice idea for quick assembly. I applaud the diversity we are seeing in the tiny house market.
I looked for “rechoue” on both a google and a tiny house blog search and could find nothing that seems to be what Nan is describing. Can anyone direct me to an article or website for “rechouse”?
Sorry Carey, that was meant to be a play on the “cirHouse” theme for us rectangular people.
I too googled rec house…..thanks for the clarification.
BUT….the Yurtle was on this site a while ago.
http://tinyhouseblog.com/yurts/laurel-nests-yurtle/
It is a yurt on a trailer….
I’ve never subscribed to the concept that round houses are better than square ones, though they are interesting. I too wonder about insulation but more about condensation. Might be able to insulate with one of those foil bubble wrap type products under the panelling. Spending a lot of time in a fibreglass trailer makes you very aware of how big an issue condensation can be. It looks good at keeping water out though. When I first saw the photo it looked like a water tank, so the overall aesthetic might need a bit of tweaking. They don’t show many panelling options on their website, mostly looks like plywood.
You can get them made of galvanized steel, around here we call them grain bins.
Oh yeah, that was the other thing it looked like! There are a lot of dark green water tanks about the size of that thing near my place, not too many grain bins. Haven’t seen one of those for a while.
Round v. Square is an interesting discussion. One of the reasons some folks prefer round has to do with perimeter and area. A circle gives you the greatest area with the least perimeter. So, a smaller perimeter means less building materials and, according to many builders, cheaper heating/cooling costs.
The perimeter of a 20ft. yurt is about 62.8 feet and the area is about 314 square feet. If you wanted a square building with 314 square feet, the sides would be about 17.7ft. and the perimeter would be 70.8 feet. That’s 8 more feet of perimeter to heat/cool.
That’s just a basic example, and assumes that the two buildings being compared have the same insulation R-factor and are in the same climate. It also doesn’t take into account that there might be more wasted space inside a circular building than inside a rectangular building.
I kind of like the look of circular and have been playing with designs and drawings for a circular house for years. (Never been able to figure out a good place for the garage, tho. It is needed to protect my sturdy little car, but kind of spoils the whole circle effect…)
This yurt seems like it could work for some people. I would need to do something with the outside- maybe a wall mural…?
I don’t care for this particular abode but I do like the roundness aspect of homes. It’s a different feel that to me is cozy. I don’t care for interior doors either so maybe that has something to do with it. Even in woodwork, I like it over the sharp corners. Fun tidbit-In northern ME, many of the old homes have a rounded look at the corners inside. They were built by the shipbuilders and didn’t know how to make them any other way.
I was just in northern ME!!! Well, Northeastern ME. We drove from Boston to Calais and then into Canada. Saw all sorts of road signs to watch out for moose but didn’t see one single moose. I feel cheated.
Enjoyed exploring Portland. I think I could live in Maine- reminds me of my state but it has more snow in the winter. Love me some snow.
$12,000? For that?? Absurd. Try maybe $6G.
These manufacturers have to get real.
As I can’t afford their asking prices, I’ll build my own, maybe I can crack the $6k cabin price. I guess most of these people are just trying to make back their money a little bit.
I like the looks of the house, and it has some nice windows with those clear panels. Nan had a great idea if they made a similar set up but square. Probably would be even simpler to put up.
It certainly lacks the warmth of a yurt. And I’m not talking temperature.
Lots of industrial materials – can it be recycled/upcycled?
Not sure how I feel about this one. I like the simplicity for certain… the ability for three people to put the whole thing together in half a day is definitely nice. But as much fuss as they make about the windows providing a view (unlike the “feel at home in jail” view of traditional yurts apparently… lol), the actual building is really ugly. It looks kind of like the top of a silo, only without the character. 🙂 Would love to see these have a little more character somehow, though I suppose that’s going to crush that 12K price tag fast.
Not sure how I feel about this one. I like the simplicity for certain… the ability for three people to put the whole thing together in half a day is definitely nice. But as much fuss as they make about the windows providing a view (unlike the “feel at home in jail” view of traditional yurts apparently… lol), the actual building is really ugly. It looks kind of like the top of a silo, only without the character. 🙂 Would love to see these have a little more character somehow, though I suppose that’s going to crush that 12K price tag fast.
I think I actually like the greenhouse images of this the best. At least they have a little more character to them.
There are some pretty interesting looking greenhouse kits out there, wonder if any of those can be adapted for a similar house project? Some here http://www.bcgreenhouses.com/hobby_greenhouse_kits/featured_models.php
If they are going to market it as a house, they need to decorate a model as a home to show the possibilities.
Yurts embody a soulful connection between the earth and the people who inhabit them. These look like housing for robots.
A couple of week ago I built a steel storage shed for a client. At 8 x 12 it was about 1/3 the size of this. The kicker was that shed only cost about 300 bucks.
At about 12 times the per sq foot price I’m not seeing where all that extra money is going. If that plywood inside is 1/4″ and the circle 62 feet in dia. Then 16 sheets at 25 ea + about 400..so double that for the outside ABS..add some roof and colums beams etc. you might have 4 grand in parts…add 50% for profit and you get about 6K…kkep in mind that does not include any materials for the Floor…a deck big enough for that will easily add another 3 to 4 grand.
Reminds me of Buckminster’s Dymaxion house.
Get a professional photographer to stage it and take pictures. This shots are awful and make it look crappy. I remember when I took pictures of my house, I thought I did such a great job. Then our housemate was saying, “those are terrible photos, do you mind if I give it a try?” I thought, right, everyone thinks they are a photographer. But when she took the photos, suddenly I realized that she was right, the ones that I had taken didn’t capture the beauty of our house AT ALL. My brains saw my house, but people who looked only at our photos did NOT see the house. It is SO WORTH IT to get someone else, who knows about staging a house, and who knows how to take the pictures to capture the feeling of being in the house, do that. I see this all the time on your Tiny House Blog, where the person who took the pictures is often someone who isn’t as good at it as our housemate!~
I agree with some of the earlier posts. I can build a customized, more attractive, more durable version of this for half the price, & that is buying my materials retail AND putting in the foundation/footing. Isn’t mass production supposed to *lower* costs? I understand high prices for some eco-friendly solutions, but up-pricing just because you put a *green* label on something really angers me.
For a far more beautiful take on the yurt, please see the Yome, by Red Sky Shelters:www.redskyshelters.com/ I stayed in one of these geodesic/yurt hybrids a few years ago and have been hankering for one ever since. They can be insulated and extra windows/doors added. The light was ethereal. The structure was strong but did not get in the way of the view, as in a typical yurt.