Passive House Design for Gers in the Ger Districts - A Moonshot Project

Figure 1: Walking back from the ger kinder Garden after picking up the kids with Dolma.

In Ulaanbaatar, the crisis level of air pollution in the winter has been an increasingly serious threat for about 10 years - of which 80 % of the pollution is being produced by coal burning stoves in the ger districts (1). Since then, a plethora of ideas, plans, and initiatives have been discussed and occasionally implemented. Whether it be in attempts stemming from government organizations, NGOs, universities, large scale urban planning schemes, or even corporate throes - none have yet to substantially provide (legitimately) measured improved results.

In 2007, the Millenium Challenge Corporation worked with Mongolian government officials embarked on a “full-scale air quality management study, seeking a complete understanding of the sources, concentration levels, and health impacts of pollution - outlining the most cost-effective abatement option for the short, medium, and long term.”(1)  As the Mongolian government was not yet certain to prioritize stove removal, particularly given the cost, they decided to switch out existing stoves with a variety of different efficiently burning stoves - which at the time made perfect sense, as the solution aimed to reduce the coal consumption per heating season by 40-50%, ultimately reducing the amount of particulate matter being produced on a daily basis (1). Yet, a few problems came from the Efficient Stoves Project’s implementation; the issue of buyers re-selling the subsidized product to individuals outside of Ulaanbaatar for profit (the subsidy was set so high (85 to 95% of product cost) by the multilateral organizations that households re-sold their stoves in breach of their contracts), the lack of adherence to the instruction manual, a lack of a market/infrastructure for after-sales service and repair, and while per-capita coal burning and while there is a potential for emissions to have gone down - however the continued trend of migration into the city led to an increase in aggregate emissions regardless of the program. (2)

Figure 2: Efficient Stove - Source : http://cleancookstoves.org/about/news/06-27-2015-study-shows-broad-impacts-of-stove-adoption-in-mongolia.html

As a result, negative market sentiment developed towards the "efficient" stoves project, prompting a shift towards housing-focused initiatives. Understanding that the air pollution problem came from not only the polluting energy source but from the lack of energy efficient housing, whether it be traditional gers or DIY baishins (conventional homes that families build themselves), these single family homes are generally poorly insulated, ventilated, not air tight, and often containing thermally bridging connections (F1) - essentially creating more inefficient heat loss. Institutions therefore began to tackle other potential urban planning and housing challenges. Organizations such as the Asia Development Bank, the Asia foundation, Geres, GGGI, People in Need, XacBank, Arig Bank, GIZ and the Mongolian University of Science and Technology, the Ger Community Mapping Center, NGOs, and a slew of others have each developed a variety of initiatives related to alternative housing solutions. Whether it be large scale urban development plans (displacing families from homes to apartments) or creating incentives for companies or individuals to develop low-income energy efficient housing (which would eventually be subsidized through the Mongolian Green Credit Fund (F2)) - most organizations are developing housing solutions that ultimately aim for families to move out of their gers into energy efficient homes or conventional apartments.

So why is everyone in Ulaanbaatar choosing to leave behind the ger? Because baishins and apartments are perceived to be better in almost every way.

Over the past 15 years (3), there has been a growing trend of families in the ger districts undertaking the construction of their own homes, seeking out the comfort and practicality of conventional single family homes. My understanding of this growing trend was confirmed by meetings I have had and articles shared with me by local organizations, as well as interviews I conducted throughout my time living in the ger districts in December 2017. Of the small sample of 18 families we interviewed in collaboration with GerHub and EcoTown, my research assistant and I sought to understand how families came to live in the ger districts (see figure 3 for map of families interviewed in EcoTown ger districts), how they felt about living in the ger districts, what their current financial situation was, and what their future housing aspirations are. While only 3 families lived in a baishin, and the rest still lived in gers, almost all families perceived the baishin to be more desirable in a variety of ways (4).

The baishin is perceived to be :

Figure 3: Map of UB, zooming in on EcoTown Ger District Community where insights were collected from 18 families. Pink building is EcoTown's head quarters, and 18 families interviewed are represented in Blue.

• Easier to maintain (because you do not have to air out the felt walls twice a year to prevent mold growth, as you would in a ger)

• Cleaner (families believe you don’t have to clean the home as much)

• More spacious (as the baishin can be built as a larger home, with a non-fixed shape - compared to a ger)

• More private (families can build separate rooms for privacy)

• Warmer (because of the hard walls and the removal of the “toono” - which is an open air skylight/oculos at the center of a ger)

• Have more daylight (with the ability to have windows inserted in hard walls, instead of simply relying on the toono), and if families can save enough money, they look forward to having plumbing indoors (with an indoor toilet, shower, and sink system, instead of relying on an outhouse.

• that requires one to walk to outdoors, which can be a quite nipply walk on a cold winter night).

So why in the world would anyone try to apply the most stringent energy design standards such as passive house to the Mongolian ger - which, though a cherished symbol and a critical part of Mongolia’s national heritage, is perceived as less attractive than a baishin?

First, in considering the conventional housing redevelopment proposals, apartments aren't a silver bullet solution because the option depends on a decades-long transition of ger-area redevelopment that isn't even targeting all areas of the ger district. Furthermore, baishins still present a substantial financial investment that could be difficult for many families to afford, and a "passive ger" could be an option for that middle market.(5)

Figure 4: Modern Mongol ger being built the same way at 700 years ago. (source: https://wildfiregames.com/forum/index.php?/topic/22832-minifaction-nomads-xiongnu/)

Second, contrary to popular belief, the ger has experienced many stages of evolution from the simple wigwag to modern mongol ger (figure 4). Evolving over time to be the most suitable mobile home for nomadic herding life, from 3000s BC to 15th century, the ger underwent critical transformation to adapt to new human and technological advances and social changes at each stage(6). Therefore, if there is a current need for the ger to adapt to the sedentary urban context of Ulaanbaatar - why shouldn’t it continue its centuries-long evolution to meet contemporary demands of modern housing amenities and pollution strains, when the technology of the ger has always adapted in the past?

Figure 5: Map of Data Collection of four 5 Khana gers in the EcoTown Ger District Community.

Third, this project aims to provide a holistic clean energy efficient housing package, which will include measured results of the improved housing performance and its impact on reducing air pollution. In comparison to pollution point source initiatives of the past decade - and current piecemeal approaches to ger-district apartment development - applying the passive house standard to the ger requires precise energy consumption benchmarks that the ger has to meet - creating measured accountability that ensures you are in fact developing an energy efficient housing assembly. With the goal of having a baseline measurement of the current ger to compare the passive ger to, GerHub and I installed 4 energy monitoring packages in four 5 khana gers (a standard ger size with a square footage for approximately 27m2) in the ger districts to collect initial metrics regarding the ger’s current energy performance (including the ger’s heating cycles, its heat loss, each ger’s coal consumption, combustion and air quality assessment) (Figure 5 above maps out the gers with the current data monitoring equipment). In turn, once the passive ger is built, we will be able to demonstrate a measured comparison of how the passive ger is performing in relation to a traditional 5 khana ger - creating a 1-to-1 comparison of what the final overall gains of the passive ger are.

Figure 6: Collecting Insights with Batzorig in Tuya's Ger.

Fourth, considering that currently Mongolia doesn’t even have requirements in their building code for buildings that are less than 2 stories high(3), there is an opportunity to empower low-income communities and enable them to leapfrog into their desired future living environment by providing them with a housing solution that not only no longer burns coal, but has the potential to produce energy and be self sufficient through non-polluting sources. In addition, if the ger is not only energy efficient but contains the modern amenities families are looking for (such as proper plumbing and ventilation, separate rooms, easy heating systems, low heating requirements, etc.), maybe families would appreciate having the opportunity to stay in their traditional housing system, vs. having to adapt to “a hard four-walled box”(4). While initiatives such as the efficient stove project were focused on improving the coal combustion efficiency, maybe we can offer a housing solution that improves their overall quality of life by significant leaps of improvements in multiple areas at once - providing a chance to empower low-income families to be self-sufficient in energy producing gers vs. dependent on energy polluting gers.

Figure 7: Concept Diagram demonstrating the evolution of the ger for the Passive House Standard.

Lastly, there will continue to be an influx of families migrating from the countryside, or other cities in Mongolia, to Ulaanbaatar - even if UB claims to have implemented a ban on migration to the city in 2017. And as the government indicates a paradigm shift towards coal, planning to ban the transport of coal into UB by 2019, and banning coal combustion overall by 2020, there will need to be solutions like clean energy efficient housing assemblies to fill the housing gap(5). The project therefore doesn’t seek to propose a single utopian value as to how all energy efficient homes should be constructed in Ulaanbaatar, it is simply trying to prioritize one approach to energy efficient sustainable design, by addressing one sector of the housing market.

To conclude, I want to clarify it is important to see this project through an inventors lens - because “your grandest ideas are crude to begin with, so you must be willing to build a prototype in order to figure out what you don’t understand”(7). As a Fulbright Research Fellow and a partner of GerHub, I am in a unique position where I do not have to fit within a pre-existing institution’s marketing or financial agenda and can instead provide critical thought in problem solving versus competing against a trend. We have the rare opportunity to test ideas regarding daunting social and technical housing challenges by collaborating with local organizations and individuals to create and test a moonshot project - not prescribing to an ideal future housing Ulaanbaatar should subscribe to, but modeling through science and locally developed technologies in order to arrive at practical solutions that indicate in what directions we could aspire to go in.

Figure 8: Ger in the Ger Districts on Dec. 17 2017.

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FOOTNOTES:

F1) “Thermal bridges are localized areas with higher thermal conductivity than their neighboring areas. The rate of heat flow through a thermal bridge depends on a number of factors:

• The temperature difference between the heat source and heat “sink”

• The thermal conductivity of the materials passing through the insulation layer

• The cross sectional area of the thermal bridge

• How easily heat can get into and out of the thermal bridge, which, in turn, depends on:

− The relative area and surface conductivity of the surfaces of the thermal bridge facing the source of heat and those facing the heat sink

− The lateral heat flow paths in the assembly that can bring heat to and from the thermal bridge

It is simple to say that “heat flow takes the easiest path,” but it is sometimes very difficult to analyze what those three-dimensional paths are, how much heat flows through them, and what actually happens when you block one path. In fact, this analysis was almost impossible before the availability of 2D and 3D computer models. The recognition of how significant thermal bridges can be – and what the best ways to mitigate them are – has grown in direct relation to the availability of such tools. Still, one needs to understand the basic principles of heat ow through thermal bridges in order to effectively mitigate them.”

F1 - SOURCE: “Design Guide: Solutions to Prevent Thermal Bridging.”Https://Www.schoeck.co.uk/En-Gb/Home, Schock Isokorb, June 2014, www.schoeck.co.uk/en-gb/home.

F2) The "Green Climate Fund" is a financing mechanism established by 194 countries under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to fund climate change mitigation activities, and as of 2015, the Fund has a $ 10 billion fund . 

F2 - SOURCE: http://mba.mn/gcf-mgcf-funding-news-mn/

SOURCES:

1)Amarsaikhan, D. et al. (2014). A Study on Air Pollution in Ulaanbaatar City, Mongolia. Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection, 2, 123-128. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/gep.2014.22017

2)“Mongolia - Energy and Environment Project 2012-2013, Stove Subsidies Component.” Microdata World Bank, Millennium Challenge Corporation - MCC -, 1 June 2015, microdata.worldbank.org/index.php/catalog/2287/accesspolicy.

3) Meeting with Munkhbayar Buyan - Building Scientist and professor at the Department of Environmental Engineering, Mongolian University of Science and Technology.

4) Insights collected from the ger districts with Batzorig and Myself. 

5) Greg Zegas, XacBank

6) Robinson, Carl. Mongolia: Nomad Empire of Eternal Blue Sky. Odyssey Books, 2010.

7) Bret Weinstein

Life On Planet Mars

I can’t stop thinking about NASA’s 3D Printed Habitat Challenge. Assuming the National Aeronautics and Space Administration will be ready for their manned mission to Mars by the 2030s (1), the organization has created a competition through its Centennial Challenges Program to foster the development of new technologies that additively manufacture a habitat using local indigenous and/or recyclable materials in space (2). The competition is broken up into a 3-phase challenge: developing the concept behind an architectural habitat built through 3D printing, defining the material technologies needed to manufacture the structural components from a combination of indigenous materials and recyclables, and finally an on-site build competition (building their design as if they were on Mars).

Essentially NASA is outsourcing idea generation of how we could eventually construct shelters for future human explorers on Mars for a total of 2.25 million dollar prize (6).

SHIT IS DOPE.

Well, that's what I originally thought. Until I lived in Ulaanbaatar Mongolia in the winter months... let me explain.

9am in Songino Khairkhan on Dec. 11. Smoke creeping up the valley. 

Living in Mongolia is a lot like what I imagine living on Mars to be like. While the temperature on Mars can range from minus -126 C (-195 F) in the winter at the poles, to 20 C (68 F) during the summer near the equator - the average temperature on Mars (- 60 C (- 80 F)) is only 20 degrees Celsius less than in a Mongolian winter (- 40 C / - 40 F).

While Mars’ temperature variations often result in powerful dust storms, in Ulaanbaatar their are timely bursts of pollution fumigating from families lighting up their coal burning stoves; once in the morning to heat their homes and a few more times in the evening when they return home. This phenomenon creates distinct bursts of smoke that worms its way through the city twice a day until a gust of wind blows it away (that is if your lucky on a good day).

I imagine that the buildings on Mars would similarly have dust clogging the hallways of their entrances. Although I hope NASA can develop a more sophisticated ventilation system - considering Mars’s atmosphere is 95% carbon dioxide compared to earth’s 0.03% carbon dioxide (3)… yikes.

Dulguun (5 years old) practicing to put on his mask

I imagine we would be similarly trapped indoors, warned against going outside without the appropriate head and body gear - wearing 3 layers of heavy winter clothes and a handy dandy 3M N95 pollution mask to muzzle your face in Ulaanbaatar, versus a good old fashioned spacesuit on Mars. Although I hope NASA’s space suits don’t create the same condensation of snot and murky breadth around future Martians’ faces, as the pollution masks have a tendency to do here.

You see in UB I even hesitate to walk quickly if I’m running late for a meeting. I’m worried that even those extra breaths you need to catch as you shuffle your feet just a little bit faster outdoors will be one breath too many for that extra fine 2.5 microns of particulate matter that is hanging in the air. Even so, we are not sheltered from the smoke indoors. You carry it with you down the hallways, up the stairs, on your window sills, in your clothes and hope the little fan you have running with the sloppy black air filter hanging by a strap will help save your lungs, heart, brain, pancreas, and fetus from almost certain impact… (4)

My roommate's air Filter for her room after 2 months

Over the holiday break, I went to visit a friend in Zhuhai China, a fairly tropical climate. On my first night there I was dreaming about UB. What woke me from the dream was the soft sounds of birds chirping outdoors and the faint fluttering of leaves mapping out the breeze. Confused by this strange fantasy, even in a dream my brain clearly recognized the incompatibility.

So why do I keep thinking about NASA’s 3D Printed Habitat Challenge? Because despite all their ingenious technologies and capabilities of creating a safe and technically habitable space - I’m not sure even NASA’s most brilliant engineers will be able to recreate some of nature’s finest haptic qualities(5), even if they do eventually figure out a way to terraform Mars.

Foster + Partners Proposal Drawing for NASA’s 3D Printed Habitat Challenge (5)

Nevertheless, I can't help but feel that I would miss the little pleasures that life has to offer on planet Earth. As I rose from Sufda's Ger in the Bayangol District, Ulaanbaatar extended itself before my eyes this morning. I watched the smoke close in on our valley as it creeped up the hill. For a little while we were lucky enough to take advantage of a bright blue sky and a warm sun. The kids and I ran around playing tag until the smoke signaled it was time for us to return indoors to safety - retiring to tame games that didn't require us to use our lungs so much. I drew their portraits and they drew mine, and I watched the air quality sensor as it rose to a whopping 1358pm indoors...  

Air quality sensor reading inside Sufda's ger on Feb. 4.

SOURCES:

1) Contributor, Joseph Castro Space.com. “What Would It Be Like to Live on Mars?”Space.com, 17 Feb. 2015, www.space.com/28557-how-to-live-on-mars.html. 

2) Hall, Loura. “3D-Printed Habitat Challenge.” NASA, NASA, 6 Oct. 2016, www.nasa.gov/solve/challenge/3D-Printed_Habitat_Challenge.

3) “Google Search.” What+Is+Mars's+Atmosphere+Made+of+Compared+to+Earth - Google Search, www.google.mn/search?rlz=1C5CHFA_enFR758MN765&ei=tAJzWpjTBcWa0gSr8ZfQBw&q=what%2Bis%2Bmars%27s%2Batmosphere%2Bmade%2Bof%2Bcompared%2Bto%2Bearth&oq=what%2Bis%2Bmars%27s%2Batmosphere%2Bmade%2Bof%2Bcompared%2Bto%2Bearth&gs_l=psy-ab.3..33i22i29i30k1l2.916.6375.0.6575.18.18.0.0.0.0.165.1950.0j15.15.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..3.12.1560...0i22i30k1.0.cKCIBOQrt44. 

4) Chodosh, Sara, and Kendra Pierre-Louis. “Here's How Air Pollution Kills 3,450,000 People a Year.” Popular Science, 30 Mar. 2017, www.popsci.com/air-pollution-death.

5) www.fosterandpartners.com, Foster + Partners /. “Mars Habitat.” Foster + Partners, www.fosterandpartners.com/projects/mars-habitat/#drawings.

6) Pti. “NASA Offers USD 2.25 Million for Building 3D-Printed Space Habitat.”Https://Www.deccanchronicle.com/, Deccan Chronicle, 19 May 2015, www.deccanchronicle.com/150519/technology-science-and-trends/article/nasa-offers-usd-225-million-building-3d-printed-space.

My First Stay with a Herder Family (Dec. 14-16)

1. Onon, Urgunge. The Secret History of the Mongols: the Life and Times of Chinggis Khan. Publ. House "Bolor Sudar", 2005.

2. LeGrys, Samuel, "Grey to Green: e Wolf as Culture and Pro t in Mongolia and the Importance of Its Survival" (2009). Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection. Paper 800.

THE PROJECT : What does it mean to live in a textile home?

What does it mean to have a material understanding of our built environment – to holistically grasp the ways in which our formal and social geographies create the building blocks of our homes? Here is the question that inspired to origins of my architectural career.

Fig. 1 Tents and carts on birch-bark container, Tomb 7, Tsaram (Source 1)

This year I have embarked on a Fulbright research project that seeks to study the Mongolian ger - a housing typology which has molded over time by long standing cultural traditions, stemming from particular geographic and social influences. This flexible fabric housing enclosure is unlike many civilizations’ traditionally rigid architectural iconographies however - for its adaptable and modular housing configuration has functioned hand-in-hand with the demands of nomadic life since the 3rd century BC (See Fig. 1, drawings of two-wheeled vehicles on birch-bark containers of the Xiongnu show covered vehicles with a structure mounted on the wheels and yoke apparatus) (1).

Today, however, with globalization and the massive urban influx of Mongolians to the capital of Ulaanbaatar, the once sustainable textile home is no longer suited to the sedentary life style of the urban community; specifically in a context where winter temperatures often drop below - 40 degrees Celsius, and families living in gers surrounding Ulaanbaatar are burning coal and other found objects to heat their homes.

The research seeks to develop an understanding of the Mongolian ger by developing a comparative case study of the housing typology between the clustered, often polluted, sedentary, and contemporary urban environment of the ger districts in the Mongolian Capital, Ulaanbaatar, and the longstanding nomadic traditions still practiced in the wide and windy plains of the rural steppe. Furthermore, in an attempt to combat the pollution problem, I will co-teach an architecture course in the spring, at Ulaanbaatar’s Institute of Engineering and Technology. Throughout this time, we will teach our students about design thinking, sustainable design methods, and basic building science practices using local materials in order to enable the students to apply these principles to the Mongolian ger and enable individual households in the ger districts to consume less energy and produce significantly less pollution. As a result, this project could hold future potential by empowering the ger district communities to apply accessible sustainable design solutions to their urban based gers.

Fig. 2 Techstyle Haus at the Solar Decathlon 2014

Although there is a large body of work that has already been conducted on Mongolian gers, I feel personally drawn to this research question as the foundation of my architectural practice began with a sustainable textile house. As an undergraduate studying architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), in the summer of 2012, I decided to participate in the 2014 European Solar Decathlon, with a team of students from RISD, Brown University, and the University of Applied Sciences in Erfurt, Germany. Our international team combined inter-disciplinary skills to exceed the requirements of the competition - designing, fundraising, and building the world’s first modular textile passive home, known as Techstyle Haus (Fig. 2). Over the next 2 years, our collaborative efforts developing Techstyle Haus enabled me to explore my personal interest in sustainable textile architecture - experiencing the full breadth of an architectural project through the material lens of textiles, affording me the opportunity to gain a materialized understanding of what is means to build a home (Fig. 3-7).

Fig. 3) Concept model of modular textile wall assembly , Fig. 4) Full scale mock up of textile wall assembly, Fig. 5) Installing fiber glass insulation in woven ratchet strap configuration, Fig. 6) Installing interior Showtex M1 first rated knit, Fig. 7) Final instillation of interior textile.

The “sustainable” elements of the project however proved to not be truly renewable. In practicing our western sustainable construction methods, and not addressing an urban based social context, we watched our attempts at a future form of sustainable construction unravel. The innovative construction methods revealed many inefficiencies, as the high-performance textile enclosure produced too much material and non-recyclable waste, through the products’ cradle to grave lifecycle; while the highly engineered materials and the unique application of these products resulted in an extremely high housing cost. While the house was undoubtedly beautiful (Fig. 8), the culmination of these aspects ultimately made the project inaccessible, lacking in tangible future socio-economic prospects.

Fig. 8 Techstyle Haus Interior

So here I am, 3 years later at it again, trying to understand what it really means to live in a textile home from one of the most renowned textile dwelling societies, the nomads of the eastern Eurasian steppes.  

1. Miller, Bryan K. “Vehicles of the Steppe Elite: Chariots and Carts in Xiongnu Tombs.” The Silkroad Foundation, 2012, pp. 29–38., file:///Users/kdm_sg_mac/Downloads/Miller%202012%20Vehicles%20of%20the%20Steppe%20Elite%20SilkRoad_10_2012%20.pdf.

Winter is Coming →

Only a week in Mongolia now and the intrinsic link between the community and its environment, whether rural or urban, has been the most dominating observation.

Although traditionally a nomadic society, in the second half of the 20th century sedentary culture has become a more prominent lifestyle - shifting from nomadism to settlement living(2). Autumn, September and October, is a time for transition - where herders in rural regions, just as well as Mongolians living in the ger districts, migrate to new locations - allowing the felt of the ger to temporarily breathe as they dismantle and reassemble their ger in preparation for Winter. While herders will migrate to new and warmer pastures, Mongolians living in the ger districts will move primarily to warmer settlements along the hills and hollow valleys in Sukhbaatar, Chingeltei, Songinokhairkhan and Bayanzurkh districts - although gers currently exist in all nine districts of Ulaanbaatar (2).

As I arrive on the brink of winter and inform locals that I will largely be based in Ulaanbaatar, I watch disappointment move across their face. They share with me romantic stories of the beautiful countryside in the land of the eternal blue sky through the past summer months. In a landscape where man is believed to be in harmony between earth and sky; earth, specifically mountains, must not be disturbed (or dug up) and Tengri (Тэнгэр "sky") is the chief deity worshiped by the steppes people(3).

Yet the fast developing urban life of Ulaanbaatar conveniently contradicts these long standing traditions and value systems due to modern initiatives for economic growth and development. Sitting in a tall contemporary building wrapped in glass with heavy foundations burrowing deep into the ground, I am reminded that Ulaanbaatar is the exception to the 250 days of sun that one would traditionally benefit from in year in the countryside (4). Instead, I am to take heed of the fast approaching below freezing winter - which brings about a heavy pollution that casts the city in a dark smog for at least six months throughout the year.

“Winter is coming” has been a daily reminder from locals since my arrival. And while I am fully aware that Ulaanbaatar’s current pollution problem is not a fiction, I smile as I can’t help but be reminded of a popular American fantasy television series, Game of Thrones, and a theory that the show is really all about climate change (5). The show is an adaptation of “A Song of Ice and Fire” by George R. R. Martin, a novel series that tells the story of five different noble houses that are too busy fighting each other over control of the kingdom instead of coming together over a common threat - sometimes even denying that the threat is real at all, even though the characters repeat incessantly that “winter is coming”. While in the show the common threat is the White Walkers, horrifying monsters with a zombie army that kills everyone, a political scientist at the University of Massachusetts, Charlie Carpenter, calls Game of Thrones a collective action story; where “the story of the northern wall and the forces that hold it at bay, is about the mistaken belief that the industrial civilization can stand against the changing forces of nature” (5).

Game of Thrones- White Walkers and their zombie army : http://betterlivingthroughbeowulf.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/White-Walkers.png

1. Cover Photo - Ulaanbaatar in the Winter : Rezwan. “Nomad Green: Air Pollution in Winter in Mongolia.” Rising Voices, 27 Mar. 2010, rising.globalvoices.org/files/2010/03/Nomad-green-smog-ulaanbaater-640x480.jpg.

2. Bayartsetseg, Terbish. “Emerging Subjects Blog.” Emerging Subjects Blog RSS, 24 June 2015,blogs.ucl.ac.uk/mongolian-economy/2015/06/24/social-exclusion-in-the-ger-districts-of-ulaanbaatar/.

3. “Tengri.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Sept. 2017, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tengri.

4. “ Weeping Camel: A Real Mongolian Tear-Jerker.” National Geographic, National Geographic Society, 2 Oct. 2017, news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/07/0719_040719_weepingcamel_2.html.

5. Beauchamp, Christophe Haubursin and Zack. “Game of Thrones Is Secretly All about Climate Change.” Vox, Vox, 14 July 2017, www.vox.com/videos/2017/7/14/15969034/game-of-thrones-theory-climate-change.

Are Yurts Going Out of Style?

On July 24 2017, The Economist published an article titled “Why Yurts are Going Out of Style in Mongolia”, touching precisely on one of the core pillars of my Fulbright research project. The article discusses the “second-best-known emblem of Mongolia ... the humble nomadic dwelling known as a yurt” (also known as a Ger in Mongolia) and how the Ger Districts in Mongolia’s Capital, Ulaanbaatar, are “generating horrendous pollution”(1).

The article goes on to describe how yurts are on the decline, as “Mongolians are heeding the siren song of modern living and being lured out of their yurts”. Yet contrary to the article’s position, I believe there is still much we can learn from in the structure’s primary nomadic advantage - portability. Since 2000, there has been a massive influx of herders to Ulaanbaatar - creating an exceptionally fast growth in the city (1). This is a problem trending not only in Mongolia but on a global scale, as “continuing population growth and urbanization are projected to add 2.5 billion people to the world’s urban population by 2050, with nearly 90 per cent of the increase concentrated in Asia and Africa”(2).

So what can we do to address such a daunting growth? How can the architecture of city structures be designed to adjust and adapt in order receive this massive influx of individuals seeking a modern urban life?

Therein lies one of my many interests in investigating the Mongolian Yurt; to assess what kind of technologies this portable housing system could inspire. In what ways could the adjustable lattice system and fabric enclosure demonstrate intelligent architectural adaptability? Could the world benefit from prefabricated architectural systems designed with the notion that the building could be reconfigured overtime to re-adjust for the large influx of populations on their way? Could this architectural system potentially allow for continued economic growth while also honoring planetary boundaries (3)?

For while the Mongolian Nomadic Yurt may be an object of the past - this cultural emblem could invigorate new insights into architectural practices of the future.

Image source: https://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2017/07/economist-explains-17

SOURCES:
         1) P, T. "Why Yurts Are Going Out of Style." The Economist (n.d.): n. pag. Web. 24 July 2017. 
         2) "World Urbanization Prospects: The 2014 Revision." United Nations (n.d.): n. pag. Web. 09 Sept. 2017.
         3) Sachs, Jeffery. Sustainable Development. N.p.: Columbia UP, 2015. Print.