which incorporates tensile elements as a yurt does, and can be cut with no waste from industry standard 4'x8' or similar sheet goods.
v A Hexacomb (Kraft paper honeycomb) panel is the most appropriate material for Hexayurts. It can cost as little as $10 per panel. It can be insulated with blown cellulose (shredded newspaper) and treated to resist moisture. The panel surface is aluminum about the thickness of a soft drink can, creating a cheap, waterproof, long-lasting, green structural insulated panel (SIP.) The durable aluminum exterior sheds sunlight, keeping the building cool. (http://www.pregis.com/Products_NA/ProtectivePackaging/Hexacomb/Structural.aspx)

Hexacomb panels can be made in the field, starting with compressed honeycomb (the hexagonal cells are closed, forming a dense block) and two large sheets of paper-backed aluminum. The honeycomb is stretched out to 20 times its size, opening the hexagonal cells, and coated with glue using a roller. It is then glued to the paper-backed aluminum sheets, and put in a press (using volunteers for weight, or sand bags,) while the glue dries, forming a rigid panel. Materials for a Hexayurt will fit into a 6'x1'x1' space for easy shipping. (reference Mark Jacobson of http://hexacomb.com, http://www.appropedia.org/Hexayurt_rapid_deployment#Flat_Packed_Cardboard)
v In the US and Europe we use off-the-shelf polyisocyanurate insulation panels to make Hexayurts because they are easily available.

Only 12 panels make the 166 square foot, 8' tall Hexayurt. 6 panels are used whole forming the hexagonal wall. Six more panels, cut in half diagonally, form the roof cone. Windows and doors are cut as needed.

The building is taped together.

Modern filament tapes have tensile strengths of 150 lbs per inch and are up to 6" wide, for a working load of up to 900 pounds, making them suitable for light structural applications. (http://tinyurl.com/245l9w)

A Hexayurt has 12 continuous filament tape straps, each capable of carrying up to 900 pounds, for up to 10,000 pounds of anchoring and support against wind loads. There is also a tension ring like a yurt. There is no point loading on the structure. (http://ia341215.us.archive.org/2/items/Hexayurt_Clips_From_Combined_Endeavor/Hexayurt_Tape_Anchors_Old_Method_256kb.mp4)

The building can be taken down and put up again many times - cut the tape and re-tape the building later. A layer of aluminum foil tape protects the structural tape from ultraviolet light, which rots tents and tarpaulin shelters very quickly, giving the Hexayurt long, long life.

8' Hexayurts have handled 40-60 mph winds without difficulty. Larger units can also be made but will require stronger materials to take heavy wind loads. We have also made folding Hexayurts. (http://youtube.com/watch?v=x1GjymP3MUc)

In use, a basic educational curriculum will be printed on every Hexayurt, oriented towards survival skills and relevant basic science like germ theory. We anticipate using manual screen printing to do this in the field. An online content creation and translation effort is key to this approach. (http://www.appropedia.org/Hexayurt_basic_education)

Hexayurt components will also be labeled to make them easy to track and do statistical analysis on, using 2D bar codes which can be read with cell phones. (http://www.appropedia.org/Hexayurt_informatics_strategy#Hexayurt_Object_Database)

We see these features as being key to leveraging the power of the internet.

The Utilities Package
A complete utilities package can ship with each Hexayurt, providing life-supporting essential services like sanitation. A typical desert area system might look like this:

For toilets, the Sulabh toilet (http://www.sulabhinternational.org/) starts at $10. Thermophilic composting toilets are another good option.

Solar Cookers International (http://solarcookers.org) promotes purifying water by heating it to 160F for several hours, killing pathogens. A melting wax indicator (the WAPI) shows when the water is potable. The reflective walls of the Hexayurt can act as a solar cooker in some climates. (http://www.solarcooking.org/pasteurization/metcalf.htm, http://65.108.108.197/catalog/waterpasteurizationindicatorwapi-p-42.html)

Biomass stoves, like the wood gasification stove (http://woodgascampstove.com) or a rocket stove (http://aprovecho.org/) provide additional cooking and heating.

Lighting can be provided by a village solar panel, used to rapidly (15 minutes) charge AA batteries. Think of it as an "electricity well" that people use every day or two to refill their batteries. A wind-up charger (http://potenco) may be also work.

Cold-cathode (CCFL) lights are as efficient and robust as LEDs. Their even light, coupled with the reflective interior of the hexayurt, allows for even illumination over the whole Hexayurt. The eye dark-adapts to the even light, making the room seem much brighter than it is.

A Zeer pot (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pot-in-pot_refrigerator) can provide refrigeration, and a ducted fan like the SleepBreeze (http://sleepbreeze.co.uk) can provide affordable cooling for individuals vulnerable to thermal stress.

Whole systems thinking allows us to provide all essential services at extremely low cost. Other climates present other challenges and we would produce an infrastructure package to suit.

Impact
Tens of millions of refugees are in the field for more than a decade on average. The Hexayurt system gives refugees permanent housing that can be taken home with them, easing resettlement and bridging the line between refugee support and development aid. This may be a key feature. (brief notes at http://www.carebridge.info/carebridge/community/charrette2.html)

Cheap, efficient housing and utilities can greatly increase the well-being of the poor on their available budget. The improvements in health, and child and infant mortality are likely to be large, due to better drinking water quality, reduced smoke inhalation and better shelter. Mass production will bring the prices down, and small hexayurts may cost only $30, affordable on a microcredit loan.

Next Steps
The Hexayurt Project has to go beyond demonstrations and into field testing. Three groups are ready to assist us.

• Mata Amritanandamayi (Ammachi) asked us in person to work with her ashram, a UN NGO, to transfer our technology. We anticipate significantly extending the reach of their 100,000 unit free housing program. (http://www.amritapuri.org/social/kuteeram/kuteeram.php)
• The American Red Cross is enthusiastic about our work on using Hexayurts to shelter millions of American citizens in catastrophes. Greg O'Ryon, a Senior Director, is one of our references. (see our plan at http://disastr.org)
• The US Department of Defense has demonstrated Hexayurts at three US DoD events (Strong Angel III, Combined Endeavor 07, STAR-TIDES http://star-tides.net) and we have strong support from Dr. Linton Wells II, Professor of Force Transformation at National Defense University, who is also one of our references.

However, institutional funding processes are extremely slow and inflexible. Technology which cuts across categories (is it shelter? infrastructure? materials science? which budget do we use?) has proved to be incredibly hard to fund. People have tried, but the project still has no ongoing support.

We publish our work into the public domain, without copyright or patents, so that anybody can use it for any purpose. This makes raising money in the commercial sector hard. Our work is for the world, and investors always want intellectual property locks.

With the support of this prize, we can independently fund our work. We can simply show up, train local teams, build shelters, document the process on video, and publish to the web as we have been doing for years, but now we can do it in the developing world for the people who actually need our help, not just at demonstrations. Funding allows us to work directly with and teach the people who need shelter how to do it for themselves, which is our fundamental goal.

One of our key next steps is an open source training film to teach people how to do build their own Hexayurts, showing the entire construction process and explaining the utilities systems and relevant science. The film is designed to be dubbed into different languages so that essentially the same footage can be used all over the world with minimal additional overheads. A bilingual person simply watches the film with head phones on and narrates in the chosen language. The video will be made by Jonathan Sanderson, a British science TV producer with enormous experience in filming educational science television. (http://www.nesta.org.uk/informing/articles/creative_cut_on_science.aspx)

How We Will Use The Prize Money
We anticipate four main expenses:
* Test units and equipment.
* International travel to test sites.
* Professional services (engineering for the most part.)
* Subsistence living expenses for Lindsey Darby and Vinay Gupta.
Based on reasonable projections of real costs, we expect the prize to cover our full time engagement and all associated travel, materials and services for 18 months to two years, including multiple test sites. We may work part time and use the money over five years to fund multi-year field testing in the villages.

About Us
Lindsey Darby and Vinay Gupta are the designers of the Hexayurt. Lindsey's primary focus is women's rights, child advocacy and education for all. Vinay is an engineer who's primary focus is enabling technology for the poor. He co-edited Amory Lovins' last two books while volunteering at the Rocky Mountain Institute. (http://rmi.org, http://smallisprofitable.org, http://oilendgame.com).

For more detailed information on the Hexayurt project, please see http://hexayurt.com/bfi