Resiliency lessons of traditional living in nomadic yurts

Abstract

Technological advancements in the 20th century have significantly changed contemporary lifestyles and housing. Modern homes are well-insulated, and people in them typically expect minimally varying indoor thermal environments, bought at significant operational and embodied energy costs. The changing climate forces us to urgently transition towards a rapid de-carbonization of buildings and lifestyles with more resilient buildings and engineering systems. A quest for inspiration on designing such buildings led to this analysis of how people survived and thrived in traditional dwellings in an extremely cold environment. The study details thermal performance in a case study nomadic yurt in Tuva (Russia) comparing it to a modern Danish highly insulated case study house. Although the traditional and contemporary dwellings are drastically different, resiliency lessons from living in nomadic yurts can be drawn from, and potentially applied to, modern housing. First, the indoor thermal environment in yurts is highly dynamic, and heating is provided only when the occupant is indoors using a fast-responding heat source. Second, resource-saving sufficiency is practised by nomads by using the most effective, low-grade materials to hand. These are a few of many factors making the nomadic yurts an excellent example of a resilient dwelling, used successfully for over 2,500 years.