DDB offers custom residential design and construction consultation services, specializing in round house (wooden yurt) design.

Construction consultation services can be tailored to suit each individual project’s needs. This can be anything from educating builders about the yurt assembly process by phone, up to an including travelling to remote sites to advise the building process in person. Many clients and contractors have realized tremendous savings—both financially and emotionally—by having a highly experienced wooden yurt builder on hand!

At the end of the design process, you will receive a full set of construction drawings (minus engineering): 

• • Foundation and Framing Plans
  • Dimensioned and Annotated Floor Plans
  • Building Sections and Details
  • Four Elevations

While we specialize in round house (wooden yurt) design, DDB’s principal Matthew Smith has an extensive background in many areas of custom residential architecture. Let us know what you have in mind!

DDB started out as a Design + Build company (hence the name). Currently we are focused exclusively on design work, while bringing our extensive construction knowledge into the design process. That said, we are happy to help you vet potential builders as part of our construction consultation services!

DDB does not offer structural engineering services. However, we have a long-standing working relationship with high quality and affordable engineers who we refer most of our clients to.

While we have experience in permit documentation, we do not offer this service at this time. In certain circumstances and depending upon locality, we may be able to team you up with a permit specialist.

Your imagination is the limit! Prefabricated yurt kits produced by www.SmilingWoodsYurts.com come in 20’, 25’, 30’, 35’, & 41’ diameter options. Exterior walls can be anywhere from 8’ to 14’ tall (15’ can be discussed). They can be multiple stories, added on to, combined with breezeways, and placed on multiple types of foundations. See our Design page to explore the endless possibilities!

We work with prefabricated wooden yurt templates that are produced by the extraordinary crew at www.SmilingWoodsYurts.com. Please visit their website to explore the options, and say hello from their friends at Dream.Design.Build.! 

Once we enter into contract following an initial consultation, we will schedule your design project. The design work itself is very much a collaborative and iterative process, with a lot of back and forth from beginning to end. When the design drawings are completed and final payment made, your digital drawing files will be forwarded to a trusted, highly qualified structural engineer (who you will contract separately with). For yurt house clients, the drawings will initially be sent to Smiling Woods Yurts who will guide you through both the kit production and engineering processes.

Once your foundation and floor deck are completed, you can assemble the prefabricated yurt kit in as little as a week with an experienced crew and the right planning and resources on hand.  That said, because a wooden yurt house can be anything from a simple cabin to a high-end custom home, it is important to set your schedule and gauge your expectations accordingly. 

There are significant cost savings in building a wooden yurt house as compared to a more contemporary house. The factory production of the prefabricated kits greatly reduces wasted resources and labor representing major savings. The construction time in the field is also dramatically sped up, so that you have a dried-in “shell” to operate from very early in the building process, representing further savings. At the end of the day though, it bears repeating that you are building a house and so you should adjust your budget expectations accordingly!