Although the average person may think of yurts as specialty recreation buildings, the concept of yurt homes has been a way of life in some parts of the world for hundreds if not thousands of years. The nomadic people in Central Asia including Mongolia, Turkestan and Kazakhstan, for example, are famous for living in yurt homes. Traditionally made out of felted wool constructed over a lattice work frame of wood, with wooden poles supporting the roof, the yurt is also called a gur, sometimes spelled ger.
But these portable tent like structures as full time dwelling units are no longer restricted to the steppes of sheep herders and horsemen half way around the world. On the contrary, you can now find people who are living in yurts as their home in Colorado, California, Canada and pretty much all across North America and parts of Europe. There are most likely several good reasons for the increasing popularity of the yurt. These include practical factors such as low cost to build, and speed of construction as a yurt can be set up remarkably quickly. But just as important are the less tangible aesthetic, artistic and spiritual factors that make them so appealing.
Of course the standard shape and design of most of our buildings is square. Maybe it is because of the fact that it is so much simpler to make a rectangular shape when you use building materials like logs, but for whatever reason, from log cabins to high rise skyscrapers, just about every structure whether it was designed by a professionally schooled architect or a self taught lumberjack is not round but a square or a rectangle. Yes, there are a few notable exceptions, particularly in the case of churches that were built in a circular shape, but these are so rare that they have become famous. Eskimo igloos notwithstanding, yurts are just about the only round shaped dwellings that come to mind.
It may not simply be coincidental that many renowned round shaped buildings are churches. Could it be that there are no corners for the devil or other evil spirits to hide? For whatever reason, being inside a round building, whether it be a yurt or a church, gives the occupant a different feeling. We suspect this is why a lot of people who buy or build a yurt use them for purposes that have a spiritual nature. They use them in spas for aromatherapy and massages, or as rooms in which to do yoga, tai chi, reiki, other martial arts or meditation and finally art studios.
We see, therefore, that although it has been traditional in some more distant parts of the world to live in yurt homes, in the 21st century there are even more diverse uses for yurts all over the globe.