yea, the traditional yurt does weigh a bit, but from the looks of his setup it seems to weigh a heck of a lot less than that considering he can lift, move, and set up all on his own.

I was just thinking, what if there was a way to redesign it even further for more portability. For example, have each pole divided in half, one half being hollow and the other have a smaller diameter fitting inside the hollow half.

When you go to unfold the whole thing you first extend all the poles, maybe some sort of pull system can be built in to open them all out to full length and lock them into place. Then just unfold the yurt as normal.

Then when it's time to pack up and move, fold the yurt back up and close the poles in on themselves. So, if the wall height of the poles is six feet, then a fully packed yurt would be a little over three feet. Small in height, but it might be a bit too wide for one person to carry around on their own, but at least it can be packed on top of a car or in the trunk, taken out and setup all by one person.

I'll try and make a small scale model within the next month. Would be kind of cool to see such a thing built.

Here's an idea, since the issue of weight came up, use bamboo poles. Light in weight, hollow, and naturally strong as all hell. Easily movable by one person. Since they are hollow, you would have an easier time nesting two poles into each other to create a collapsible pole to make the yurt fold and then close up down to three feet in height for packing.

I already have the plans drawn up, sometime in the next week or two I'm going to get the needed supplies for a scale model, Also came up with a design for the yurt covering to be completely closed up so as to keep out all nasty critters and a light weight floor structure as well. Might have a chance at building a full scale prototype early next year.