Playa tech
Day 8 Thursday
Just about every industry has conferences where people get together to share ideas about their trade. Burning man is like that. We get together on the playa to share ideas on "open source yurt. In fact she had stopped by the lounge to see if she could talk to the habitant of a yurt that she said was built based on her designs. Another was the employee of a company that sold pre-made structures to large organizations (presumably government agencies like FEMA). At least one of them was camped at PlayaTech which, unfortunately, I wasn't able to visit.
There "green" exhibit near the man that featured a yurt dome that I imagine must have been based on the hexayurt designs. I visited it midday and was floored by how cool it was. The design was simple yet extremely effective. The only drawback was that it appeared to be much bulkier than yurts made from flexible materials like the shelter systems yurt dome.
The green exhibit had examples of some really creative and seemingly easy to build furniture based on cleverly interlocking pieces of wood. You can find the designs on the PlayaTech website. The designs seem so simple I might try making one myself.