How to Build a DIY Yurt at Low Cost from Sticks, String, and Mud

This variation on the endlessly adaptable Mongolian yurt design was inspired by the work of master builder Bill Coperthwaite.

Reader Contribution by Kiko Denzer
Published on January 18, 2021
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Kiko Denzer

This low-cost yurt design combines basketry, wattle-and-daub, and basic lashing (similar to skin-on-frame boats). Not much more than a glorified tent, you can learn how to build a DIY yurt from sticks, string, and mud, making a very comfortable, durable, and beautiful tiny house, studio, or meditation space.

In 2007, I visited Bill Coperthwaite at his home in northern Maine and fell in love with the only round house I’ve ever been in that really works. The beauty of it grew directly from the circle itself; Bill didn’t try to make it fit a squared-off floorplan: no right angles, and the big spaces (the main living space is about 30 feet in diameter) were simply divided in half or in thirds. People in one portion had privacy but could reach any other part of the building easily via a generous circular “room” that was open all the way around the perimeter.

Bill’s designs would make a wonderful book (in addition to his classic, A Handmade Life), but I went home wondering how I could combine his ideas with my own favorite material: mud.

Young People Peering Up Through Natural Building Structure

How to Build a DIY Yurt

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