Simple Shelters: Tents, Tipis, Yurts, Domes and Other Ancient Homes
The need for shelter is one of mankind's most basic, and mankind has been inventive in creating homes to fill this need. This book looks at the principal types of wooden and stick frame structures built around the world, and examines how their shape and form reflect cultural and cosmological considerations as well as climatic and utilitarian ones. The book charts the gradual shift from the circular homes of nomads to the rectangular ones favored by settled people, and examines the new geodesic experiments of the 20th Century.

- Explore simple home materials: grasses, woven panels, bamboo, canvas, skin and bark

- Learn the characteristics of Native American tipis, yurts and their variations, and Bedouin tents

- Discover construction principles that make simple homes sound: "squared timber" and pegged mortise and tenon joints, geodesic domes, and triangularity

1101904918
Simple Shelters: Tents, Tipis, Yurts, Domes and Other Ancient Homes
The need for shelter is one of mankind's most basic, and mankind has been inventive in creating homes to fill this need. This book looks at the principal types of wooden and stick frame structures built around the world, and examines how their shape and form reflect cultural and cosmological considerations as well as climatic and utilitarian ones. The book charts the gradual shift from the circular homes of nomads to the rectangular ones favored by settled people, and examines the new geodesic experiments of the 20th Century.

- Explore simple home materials: grasses, woven panels, bamboo, canvas, skin and bark

- Learn the characteristics of Native American tipis, yurts and their variations, and Bedouin tents

- Discover construction principles that make simple homes sound: "squared timber" and pegged mortise and tenon joints, geodesic domes, and triangularity

14.0 In Stock
Simple Shelters: Tents, Tipis, Yurts, Domes and Other Ancient Homes

Simple Shelters: Tents, Tipis, Yurts, Domes and Other Ancient Homes

by Jonathan Horning
Simple Shelters: Tents, Tipis, Yurts, Domes and Other Ancient Homes

Simple Shelters: Tents, Tipis, Yurts, Domes and Other Ancient Homes

by Jonathan Horning

Hardcover

$14.00 
  • SHIP THIS ITEM
    Qualifies for Free Shipping
  • PICK UP IN STORE

    Your local store may have stock of this item.

Related collections and offers


Overview

The need for shelter is one of mankind's most basic, and mankind has been inventive in creating homes to fill this need. This book looks at the principal types of wooden and stick frame structures built around the world, and examines how their shape and form reflect cultural and cosmological considerations as well as climatic and utilitarian ones. The book charts the gradual shift from the circular homes of nomads to the rectangular ones favored by settled people, and examines the new geodesic experiments of the 20th Century.

- Explore simple home materials: grasses, woven panels, bamboo, canvas, skin and bark

- Learn the characteristics of Native American tipis, yurts and their variations, and Bedouin tents

- Discover construction principles that make simple homes sound: "squared timber" and pegged mortise and tenon joints, geodesic domes, and triangularity


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780802717733
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Publication date: 11/03/2009
Series: Wooden Books Series
Pages: 64
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 6.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Jonathan Horning has taught geometry and workshop skills at the Prince's School of Traditional Arts in London for over 15 years. Also an experienced carpenter and joiner, he lives in Devon, UK, with his wife and children.

Read an Excerpt

Despite their simple form, shelters are far from simplistic. A detailed knowledge of nature, and some finely honed skills are required to modify the environment successfully in such a way as to survive the harsh conditions that occur around the world. All the ancient shelters featured in this little book evolved as functional responses to local climate, the availability of materials, and temporal requirements, nomadic, seasonal or settled. Some are designed to be carried around, others stand for years. Almost all fade back into the landscape with little or no damage nor waste.
Traditional shelters not only provide an excellent snapshot of the many ingenious ways in which mankind has perfected the art of protection, they also clearly demonstrate how their inhabitants operate as a conscious part of nature. In addition, many if not all ancient dwellings symbolise the entirety of creation for the tribes and peoples who live in them, providing a constant reminder of their place within the universe, a summary of their traditions and perception of wholeness. This is perhaps most simply reflected in the almost exclusive circular plan of early human shelters, which also represent the circle of the year, and the cyclical patterns of nomadic existence.
More recent techniques of straw bale construction and geodesic domes are included because of their ingenuity and building simplicity. The definition of a simple shelter is obviously personal, but I hope that you, the reader, will try to build at least one of the lovely homes in these pages at some point in your life, and spend a dream filled night in it.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Primary Forms 2

Tensioned Coverings 4

Black Tents 6

More Black Tents 8

Simple Benders 10

Bigger Benders 12

Woven and Conical 14

Tipis 16

More Tipis 18

Kathe 20

Yurts 22

More Yurts 24

Yaranga and Chorama Dyu 26

Earth Lodges and Pit Houses 28

Log Cabins 30

Hogans 32

Bamboo Huts 34

Bamboo Sophistication 36

Rounded Timber-Framed 38

Squared Timber-Framed 40

Adobe Mud Brick 42

Straw Bales 44

Igloos 46

Geodesic Domes 48

More Complex Domes 50

Orientation and Symbolism 52

Cladding and Finishing 54

Appendix 56

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews