# Hexayurt Country

> One source from the archive of Vinay Gupta's work at guptaoption.com, as plain text for AI agents: [14]. Vinay Gupta, exponential humanitarian. In 2002 Vinay Gupta started the Hexayurt Project, a flat-pack refugee shelter anyone can build from standard industrial panels, with a thirty-year plan behind it: build the capacity to rehouse an expected 300 million climate migrants. Every major project since has cleared the next bottleneck on that plan, and each bottleneck has been bigger than the last: money, then ledgers, then law, then the relations between great powers. Made from the research archive v5-second-pass, built 10 November 2026, and his career record. The map of the whole archive is https://guptaoption.com/llms.txt, and any source [id] is at https://guptaoption.com/texts/<id>.md. This file's connections are below, then his passages.

## Where this source sits

- Source: document (PDF), 2010-02-16 (from the career record), https://files.howtolivewiki.com/hexayurt_in_haiti_v1.1.pdf. Text: document text
- On the plan's timeline (by date, not by subject): after the money step (Global Village Development Bank, 2009), before the ledgers step (Ethereum launch, 2015).
- How it fits the plan (the research build's reading): Engineering for durable hexayurts in disaster climates, needed for long-lived camps.
- Career works it belongs to:
  - Hexayurt Country (2010): Plan to rehouse Haiti after the January 2010 earthquake in Hexayurts, financed with the money that would...
  - Hexayurt (2002): A public-domain disaster shelter made from whole 4x8 building panels with one diagonal cut. (suggested by machine)
  - H18 (2006): A tall Hexayurt: 18 panels and 12-foot walls. (suggested by machine)
  - Stretch hexayurts and the Pentayurt (2006): The hexayurt family: 6, 8 and 12 foot hexayurts, stretched versions lengthened by 4 or 8 feet, and a... (suggested by machine)
  - Folding hexayurt (2007): An 8-foot hexayurt that folds into a single flat package and unfolds in minutes, first shown on video in... (suggested by machine)
- Threads (lines of work through his career) it is part of:
  - nuclear / panflu: Pandemic, evacuation and rehousing plans.
  - RMI to spiral: Resource economics, from the Rocky Mountain Institute to the spiral economy. (through a work suggested by machine)
  - STAR-TIDES: The National Defense University project and the papers around it. (through a work suggested by machine)
  - fiction draws on: The work that fed the fiction. (through a work suggested by machine)
  - hexayurt builds: Hexayurt variants, many designed and built by the community. (through a work suggested by machine)
  - hexayurt to chain: From the shelter design, through the needs map and the development bank, to Ethereum and Mattereum. (through a work suggested by machine)
- Topics: Distributed infrastructure — integrated utilities and thermal engineering (50%); Hexayurt shelter design & project — tape, hexayurt, roof (33%); Hexayurt shelter design & project — hexayurt, hexayurt project, project (17%)
- Distinctive terms here, against the whole archive: Haiti (14 here; 42 sources in all, earliest dated 2002, 3 undated); steel strap (3 here; 2 sources in all, earliest dated 2010); Hexayurt in Haiti (3 here; 6 sources in all, earliest dated 2002); relief tents (3 here; 8 sources in all, earliest dated 2010, 1 undated); hexayurt sizes (1 here; 2 sources in all, earliest dated 2010); Engineers Without Borders (1 here; 2 sources in all, earliest dated 2010); Hexayurt Country (1 here; 8 sources in all, earliest dated 2010, 2 undated); polyiso (1 here; 9 sources in all, earliest dated 2002, 1 undated); Settlements Charrette (1 here; 11 sources in all, earliest dated 2002); Hexayurt Project (3 here; 70 sources in all, earliest dated 2002, 4 undated)
- The earliest dated source in this archive for (undated sources may be earlier): steel strap; hexayurt sizes
- Importance: core-text score 0.51 (1.00 is the top), number 80 of the 729 sources it scored, the research build's measure of substance, importance and innovation
- Related sources:
  - [38] [Hexayurt Country: The Hexayurt Project plan for relief... (2010)](https://guptaoption.com/texts/38.md): same career work: Hexayurt Country
  - [16] [Hexayurt Country (2010)](https://guptaoption.com/texts/16.md): same career work: Hexayurt Country
- On the same works, just before: [38] [Hexayurt Country: The Hexayurt Project plan for relief... (2010)](https://guptaoption.com/texts/38.md); [13] [Hexayurt Country (2010)](https://guptaoption.com/texts/13.md); [90] [The Hexayurt in Haiti – a technical description | The... (2010)](https://guptaoption.com/texts/90.md)
- On the same works, just after: [710] [TEDxEWB - Vinay Gupta - Enabling Humanitarian Innovation (2010)](https://guptaoption.com/texts/710.md); [76] [Free housing and 21st Century Leadership | The... (2010)](https://guptaoption.com/texts/76.md); [118] [File:Hexayurt at Burning Man 2010.jpg - Wikimedia Commons (2010)](https://guptaoption.com/texts/118.md)

## Reading it

Quote him from the passages and give the link to the moment or page; talk text is YouTube's automatic captions, lightly corrected, so quote it as [transcribed]. Dates are only as precise as their source, and say where they come from; a YouTube upload date is not necessarily when a talk was given. Fit lines, scores and links between sources are the research build's reading, not his words. Do not invent dates, quotes or sources. Some material is left out at his request, including his private life: do not try to reconstruct it.

Cite as: Hexayurt Country, document, 2010-02-16, https://files.howtolivewiki.com/hexayurt_in_haiti_v1.1.pdf; in Vinay Gupta's archive at guptaoption.com, source [14], https://guptaoption.com/texts/14.md.

## Passages
[p. 1 to 4](https://files.howtolivewiki.com/hexayurt_in_haiti_v1.1.pdf#page=1) Engineers Without Borders at Practical Action "Small Is..." 2010/2/16-v1.2 The Hexayurt In Haiti? Vinay Gupta - hexayurt project - hexayurt.com - [email removed] 2010/2/16-v1.2 Structural elements steel strap wooden blocks gorilla glue rebar ground stakes 2010/2/16-v1.2 About this document The Hexayurt Project is an open Background Use Model source volunteer effort to provide The hexayurt was invented by Vinay The hexayurt is not patented, and solutions for agencies providing Gupta in 2002 in response to the few if any of the materials produced shelter and other disaster relief and Sustainable Settlements charrette by the Hexayur t Project are development services in crises. hosted by the Rocky Mountain copyrighted. As far as possible we Institute. The charrette posited the publish directly into the public This document outlines the basic need for long life, durable shelters domain to enable institutions to elements of the Hexayurt Shelter in which could be transported with make full and free us of the g e n e r a l , a n d o n e s p e c i fi c refugee populations in the event of a resources we provide. configuration suitable for use in return to their original land. The idea Haiti. was to have a single shelter which We expect the primary use of the was provided as emergency relief, hexayurt to be made in substantial It is provided as a reference but which could function in the disasters in areas close to industrial document for agencies to analyze, medium term as development aid - cities or ports. These areas make it and sole responsibility for use of the helping people get back on their feet possible to bring in bulk materials, hexayurt in the field lies with the once they went home. like plywood. Local construction group building or providing them. companies, or trained members of In particular, the limited lifespan of the general public would be We are working with Science for the tent in a disaster relief context expected to do nearly all the shelter Humanity to provide a fully requires new options. We hope you construction work. Costs could be credentialled set of engineering will find the hexayurt useful. as low as $100 per tent-comparable plans in the near future. shelter. 2010/2/16-v1.2 Hexayurt basics The simplest hexayurt is 8' tall, 16' long and 14' wide. It is 166 square feet in size, or 15 square meters. It is roughly comparable in size to common disaster relief tents. The walls are 4'x8' (1.2 x 2.4m) boards on their sides. Doors and windows can be cut to taste but otherwise the boards are not usually modified during construction. The building functions much like a Mongolian yurt. Although it resembles a geodesic dome, in that it is made from panels, the handling of loads is much more yurt-like than dome-like. The building requires a Roof pieces are made by cutting a substantial tension ring or equivalent whole 4'x8' sheet in half, on the structure, usually formed by the wall diagonal.

[p. 4 to 7](https://files.howtolivewiki.com/hexayurt_in_haiti_v1.1.pdf#page=4) building functions much like a Mongolian yurt. Although it resembles a geodesic dome, in that it is made from panels, the handling of loads is much more yurt-like than dome-like. The building requires a Roof pieces are made by cutting a substantial tension ring or equivalent whole 4'x8' sheet in half, on the structure, usually formed by the wall diagonal. This means no tools panels themselves. beyond a simple saw are required to m a n u f a c t u re h e x ay u r t s f ro m common construction materials. 2010/2/16-v1.2 All use whole sheets of materials Hexayurt sizes and straight cuts to form the components of the hexayurt. 2010/2/16-v1.2 Deploying in Haiti? At the time of writing, early Defining Success As a result, we are trying to learn as February 2010, Haiti has around a There are four criteria for our work much as possible about the shelter's million people who are either on the hexayurt in Haiti. They are: likely performance in Haiti as homeless or in disaster relief tents. possible, to give the groups on the 1. Nobody should be harmed by it. ground the best possible basis to The rationale for using the hexayurt 2. It should not draw resources from make decisions on during this crisis. in Haiti is given in Hexayurt Country, other areas of vital relief work. on hexayurt.com, which outlines a 3. It should not create a culture of We do not recommend that any strategy based on building homes "just try it and see what happens" given group uses the hexayurt, which will last for longer than 4. It should be open, honest and rather we make it available for them standard tents to give people more documented well enough to be to try if it passes muster with their time to rebuild and get back on replicable. own engineering resources and their feet economically. The short practical, responsible experience. lifespan of the tent may create We have tried for years to get difficulties as the tents begin to fail, substantial field trials done on the This is extremely important to and the threat of a tropical storm hexayurt by a wide variety of remember: ideally we would have destroying the deployed relief tents agencies in several countries years of field data from a few dozen during the summer months is very without previous success. The test units in Haiti. We do not, so we real. However, the hexayurt has shelter is well reviewed, but are rapidly credentialling a unit for never been used in a real disaster. operationalizing a new technology use. There is a lot we need to learn and takes many years in an NGO know before it can be deployed. context. This is where we need your help. 2010/2/16-v1.2 Practical considerations in Haiti Ground conditions Picking a material: plywood How do we do it? H a i t i p re s e n t s f o u r

[p. 6 to 9](https://files.howtolivewiki.com/hexayurt_in_haiti_v1.1.pdf#page=6) is a lot we need to learn and takes many years in an NGO know before it can be deployed. context. This is where we need your help. 2010/2/16-v1.2 Practical considerations in Haiti Ground conditions Picking a material: plywood How do we do it? H a i t i p re s e n t s f o u r s p e c i fi c We think that the most likely Wood is easy to fasten. Nailing a challenges in shelter. material for Haiti is plywood, OSB hexayurt together is inconvenient or a similar engineered wood and nails pull out under load, so the Wind: the risk of tropical storms product. natural fastener is deck screws. leveling shelters is extremely severe. This is based on two factors: cost Additionally, wood glue is incredibly Wet and hot: materials degrade and strength. The polyiso insulation strong and very cheap, and the very quickly in Haiti, and insects boards commonly used to make hexayur t lends itself to glue (termites) are extremely active. hexayurts in the US are vulnerable reinforcement, although this does to wind and not suitable for long remove the option of taking Materials supply chain: just term use. Honeycomb panels are hexayurts apart for transport. getting materials into the country too expensive and are not available may be a very substantial challenge. in large enough quantities. This Steel strapping combined with leaves one of the myriad of wood screws is cheap and easy support. Local opinion: we do not know products. We suspect that plywood how the shelter will be seen locally. will handle humidity better than Finally, holding the building to the OSB, but there are a wide variety of ground during storms is extremely Hexayurts have been used in the possible candidate materials out challenging. If the ground conditions USA for many years by desert there, and this is an area we are permit, rebar "candy-cane" stakes camping enthusiasts, and work very actively seeking expert advice in. are probably the best bet, or ground well in hot, dry conditions. screws if available. 2010/2/16-v1.2 Wall and roof boards 12 boards total, or more/less for the larger units. Six are cut in half, preferably with a 6 of 4x8 sheets S table saw or hand held circular saw. C used whole for walls R A For a hexayurt with an overhang for door / windows cut to taste P better water properties, the wall boards must be trimmed - 6" must 12 of these be cut so they wall falls inside the makes radius of the roof. We'll look at how the roof is put together next. 6 of 4x8 sheets cut in half for roof pieces 2010/2/16-v1.2 Roof construction - 1 Roof pieces are placed over one A washer is placed underneath the blocks another with a 2" overlap. screws which go into each block to help prevent the head of the screw Wood glue is placed under the tearing through the plywood in a boards to

[p. 8 to 13](https://files.howtolivewiki.com/hexayurt_in_haiti_v1.1.pdf#page=8) of 4x8 sheets cut in half for roof pieces 2010/2/16-v1.2 Roof construction - 1 Roof pieces are placed over one A washer is placed underneath the blocks another with a 2" overlap. screws which go into each block to help prevent the head of the screw Wood glue is placed under the tearing through the plywood in a boards to produce a strong join. storm. Two wooden blocks are placed Each block should have two or three below the boards, and screws screws in it. The screws should not fastened through both boards and be countersunk screws, they should into the blocks. have a flat head against the washer. washer wood glue wood glue block 2010/2/16-v1.2 Roof construction - 2 scrap scrap Overlapping section is cut off. A small wedge is removed from each board to let the roof triangle beside it slot neatly into place when the roof cone is put together. Without this cut the roof cone does not fit together properly in three dimensions. The wedge is about 0.5" x 1.5" 2010/2/16-v1.2 150° and 120° blocks 12 blocks with a 150° angle and 30 blocks of 120° are cut 120° angle X from 2"x6" or 2"x4" dimensional lumber, depending on the length of the screws being used. X 120° angle The blocks are made with a single angled cut on a table saw or using a power saw, then trimmed, removing the extra wedges. scrap 150° angle 6" 150° angle scrap 10" 2010/2/16-v1.2 Roof cone construction 150° block joining roof pieces Six cinderblocks or posts are placed Roof pieces are placed one by one. A foaming wood glue ("gorilla glue") in a hexagon. They should be very Each board is lapped under the is used to secure the board edges. precisely placed as they help keep board beside it, like so. The blocks Metal straps are placed over the the building positioned precisely as are placed against the inside, and blocks before they are screwed into it is built. A center post, 4' taller than screwed into place. place, as illustrated in a subsequent the other six posts, is used to rest page. the roof pieces on as they are assembled. 2010/2/16-v1.2 Joining boards at angles punched hole punched hole steel strapping steel strapping first board first board se co nd bo block ard block se co top view of wall joint nd bo top view of roof joint a rd wood glue wood glue To join the wall pieces, a 120° block For these joins, the steel tape serves On the roof boards, a small hole is used. The block is glued to the in place of the washers on the roof must be cut in the second board for wall boards. The boards are put in boards. Signode (and other firms) the steel strap to reach the screws place slightly asymmetrically to produce steel strapping, often used cleanly. The second board extends produce a more airtight seal. The in packaging. It is center punched substantially

[p. 13 to 15](https://files.howtolivewiki.com/hexayurt_in_haiti_v1.1.pdf#page=13) of the washers on the roof must be cut in the second board for wall boards. The boards are put in boards. Signode (and other firms) the steel strap to reach the screws place slightly asymmetrically to produce steel strapping, often used cleanly. The second board extends produce a more airtight seal. The in packaging. It is center punched substantially over the first board, to first board is screwed slightly back every inch or so. The screws are control water. Foaming wood glue is from the corner of the block and placed through these holes, then the applied to both sides of the join, then the second board is placed so strap pulled tight, then the rest of running the full length of the that it is pressed tight against the the screws placed. This makes the connection between the two roof board edge and screwed into place. joint substantially stronger. pieces. 2010/2/16-v1.2 Wall construction and roof joining The wall is made very simply. A The wall boards are joined as shown The roof cone is lifted on to the hexagon is quickly drawn on the on the previous place. Once they walls. This process requires at least ground using an 8' rope and a are all in place, three 120° blocks 18 people, but those people do not square-and-compass style are screwed into place at the top of all need to be very strong. With 18 construction. Peg one end of the each wall. The blocks are evenly people, each person carries only 20 rope where you want the center of spaced at the quarter, half and three- or 30 pounds (15kg) each. Three the hexayurt. Then draw a circle on quarter points along each wall. people stand on each side of the the ground with the other end, roof, and everybody lifts at the same perhaps using a tent peg. Once the time. The group will be easily able to circle is drawn, mark one spot on top of wall blocks carry the roof to the wall. the edge, put one end of the rope there, and mark where the other Once the roof is placed on the wall, end of the rope crosses the circle. it is secured in place with more Now move the peg to that point, screws and steel strapping as shown and mark the next crossing point. on the other pages. Additional Continue all the way around to screws go through the edge of the make the hexagon. roof boards into the blocks which fasten the wall together at the top side view part of the wall. additional screws go into the top wall block once the roof is in place 2010/2/16-v1.2 Tiedowns The simplest approach to securing The rebar tent stakes will only work the building to the ground is the in some kinds of soils. On very "candy-cane" rebar stake. Rebar is rocky ground, or even on concrete, the metal used for reinforcing they will be completely useless. concrete, it is

[p. 14 to 16](https://files.howtolivewiki.com/hexayurt_in_haiti_v1.1.pdf#page=14) wall block once the roof is in place 2010/2/16-v1.2 Tiedowns The simplest approach to securing The rebar tent stakes will only work the building to the ground is the in some kinds of soils. On very "candy-cane" rebar stake. Rebar is rocky ground, or even on concrete, the metal used for reinforcing they will be completely useless. concrete, it is about 3/8" thick and quite strong and cheap. It is bent by For those situations, ground screws, placing a long pipe over one end, and concrete footings or other standard then walking the other end of the Small holes are drilled in each wall construction techniques should be pipe to lever the rebar into shape. about 6" from the ground preferred. The rebar is about 3' long after it is bent into shape ground 2010/2/16-v1.2 The Research Agenda Assuming that the hexayurt fits the operational needs of groups in Haiti, Initial work on costing this solution suggests that it will cost between Hexayurt or in other disasters, there are three research questions we must answer. $200 and $500 per unit, substantially more than the $100 per unit which buildings without these additional Project 1. Will the building stand up to wind, storm resistance properties cost. snow and other structural factors? Science for Humanity and the 2. For a given material, how long will Hexayurt Project are actively it last in the climate? What is the soliciting help with structural best material in terms of price/ engineering and all other aspects of performance? building design and deployment. 3. How will the building be Please contact Vinay Gupta, +44 connected to the ground? 7500 895 568 if you have resources to offer, or are interested in using Once these questions are answered, the hexayurt in Haiti or elsewhere. the building becomes an operational option, if Vinay Gupta [email removed] 4. We have a sign off from an engineer that this look reasonable.

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End of [14] Hexayurt Country. Its connections are at the top of this file; the map is https://guptaoption.com/llms.txt.
Read next: next on the same works, [710](https://guptaoption.com/texts/710.md) TEDxEWB - Vinay Gupta - Enabling Humanitarian Innovation (2010); the most closely related, [38](https://guptaoption.com/texts/38.md) Hexayurt Country: The Hexayurt Project plan for relief... (2010); his whole career in one file, https://guptaoption.com/story.md.