Last winter, my husband built a new door and frame for the jurta. The primary requirement was that it would easily break down for transport, unlike the red and black doors,which were transported in one piece. The construction was inspired by a yurt door design in “Yurta: a Central Asian Nomad’s Hearth and Home”, a video produced as part of a kirghiz yurt exhibit at the Mingei International Museum in San Diego in 1997.
In late March 2012, I had an opportunity to document the process of putting to the jurta door together.
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- The door parts are laid out on the ground approximately the way they will go together.
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- The base of the door showing the slot into which the frame upright fits, as well as the pin on which the door panel pivots.
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- This is the end of one of the door frame uprights. You can see the tab that goes into the slot in the base as well as the u-shaped hollow into which the yurt wall fits.
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- This picture is showing you the pin hole in the base of one of the door panels that fits over the upright pin on the base.
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- Fitting the frame upright tab into the door base slot. Note that the hollow portion of the frame upright faces outward from the opening.
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- Fitting the second upright into the base. Again, the hollow portion faces away from the doors. The uprights require support at this point.
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- The next step is to add the door panels to the base. They will need to be supported until the header is added.
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- Both door panels have been added to the frame and uprights. It all has to be held together at this point.
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- The header is added. This part was a little fiddly as the header has pins pointing downwards that need to line up with holes in the door panels.
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- The change in humidity made the door parts a little more challenging to go together. The fit is quite tight.
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- And there you have it. A door!
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- The reverse of the doors. They’ve been strengthed with cross braces, because the panels themselves are glued wood strips.
The Mingei is actually in San Diego.
Thanks! I’ve made the correction.
YAY!