Mongolian Yurts / Gers

In preparation for an appearance on "Architecture in the Den" as @thearchitectscoach, the podcast host Lisa Raynes RIBA asked me for some background on Mongolian Yurts.

I found the Wikipedia article on Yurts to be a useful starting point: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yurt, and the following further reading links are provided there, from Wikimedia images to an Encyclopedia entry and some 'expert tips'.

•  Media related to Yurts at Wikimedia Commons
• Yurt Info – A comprehensive resource for yurts and related structures
• Yurt Forum – A community resource for yurts and related structures
• Yurt - World History Encyclopedia 
• What is Mongolia Ger?(Mongolia Yurt)
• Timelapse of Yurt construction at Blackdown Yurts – Devon, England by Mike Lusmore
• Yurts of the Nomadic Chahar People. Inner Mongolia, China, 1874
• Yurt living tips from experts

Nomadology in Architecture (2002) my own Master of Architecture dissertation covers yurts in chapter 3

The yurt also appears in a more academic 'ethno-architectural' work by Peter Alford Andrews (1999) Felt Tents and Pavilions; the nomadic tradition and its interaction with princely tentage, Cologne Ethnology Report Sp. Iss. Melinde London.   

See also fb.me/Mongoliantraditionalyurt

Mascha

In Nils Elmark's blog on Mascha Kaléko, poet and femme fatale of Weimar Berlin, we revisit a poet of Mitteleuropa's metropolis. From her 1933 first publication at age 27 until her disbarment in 1935 and exile in New York in 1938, her work is richly redolent of Weimar Berlin.

In her poetry of the everyday, "Mascha" (Die Mascha) absorbed the urban life of Berlin, as 'lyrical stenographer' and chronicler of the city, from conveying the energy of the weekend's hit musical tune to Tuesday's lonely evening with a few photos of an ex-lover. From feverishly glowing hot rooves to the train departing at 09.07. (Das lyrische Stenogrammheft, 1933) "Ich sitz in meinen Stammcafé es ist schon spät. Ich gähne… Ich habe Sehnsucht nach René Und außerdem Migräne" ...I sit in the café ...It is late, I yawn ...I miss René ...but I have a migraine [transl. GC] Renate Hoffman's 2019 entry in the "Blättchen", entitled 'A reader's letter to Mascha', takes us wandering the streets of Berlin, window shopping through Tauentzien high street, and into the Emperor's Memorial Church on a July evening, and her lines of verse come alive. "Mit Mascha Kaléko schlendert man durch Berlins Straßen, über den Tauentzien und in einer Julinacht zur Gedächtniskirche. Plötzlich gewinnen ihre Verszeilen Leben: „Die Dächer glühn als lägen sie im Fieber. / Es schlägt der vielgerühmte Puls der Stadt. / Grell sticht Fassadenlicht. Und hoch darüber / Erscheint der Vollmond schlecht rasiert und matt …“ Schlägt der Puls der Stadt langsamer, zu vorgeschrittener Stunde, dann klingt der Abend in träger Müdigkeit aus: „Jetzt ruhn auch schon die letzten Großstadthäuser. / Im Tanzpalast ist die Musik verstummt / Bis auf den Boy, der einen Schlager summt. / Und hinter Schenkentüren wird es leiser. …“ („Spät nachts“) Melancholie schleicht sich ein und die Dichterin hegt quiemelige Gedanken: „Ich sitz in meinem Stammcafé / Es ist schon spät. Ich gähne … / Ich habe Sehnsucht nach René / Und außerdem Migräne. / Der große Blonde an der Bar / Schickt einen Brief. – Beim Lesen / Denke ich: zu spät. Vor einem Jahr / wär der mein Typ gewesen …“ Sie lässt den „Frühling über Berlin“ aufblühen und schildert einen „Sonntagmorgen“ in der Stadt. Es hat wohl seine Bewandtnis damit, dass man M. K. auch eine Dichterin der Großstadt nannte. The Berliner spring time blossoms, and a quiet Sunday morning in the city is signposted by the urban poet. Renate Hoffman 2019 https://das-blaettchen.de/2019/08/lesergruss-an-mascha-49410.html (also https://www.facebook.com/dasblaettchen)

Nomads Won't Stand Still for Their Portraits

Potential Architecture - P3 Gallery

Pamela Buxton - Imagination Unfettered in RIBAJ

Gabriel Coxhead - Potential Architecture in Time Out

texts in collaboration with Cornelius Stiefenhofer and Joar Nango from the catalogue:

Mongolian Bling

I was aware of the beginnings of research on this project when I was in Ulaanbaatar, so it was great to learn recently that the film has just premiered in Perth, Australia.

http://mongolianbling.com/

Review

Bare House

The book documents a project, curated by Annu Wilenius, involving many artists, writers and architects, about "the contemporary experience of dwelling and existence"

Bare Streets

In my chapter, I describe the banners I made for Pori, and their connection to the Bare House project, to the streets of peri-urban Ulaanbaatar, and to this blog about living as an "architect-teacher-trainer" in Ulaanbaatar.

"The future of architecture and streets in peri-urban Ulaanbaatar is in the hands of people like Gursed, Lkhagvaa, Uyanga and Delgerdalai..." (p.83)

The book also features the short film "City of Felt", in the accompanying DVD, and the works of fourteen others.

9 July 2008 with Uyanga and others

Sept 2007; how the year at the college began

Жонон

 

Bare House

Contemporary Mongolian Art

Volunteering

Where to go? What to do?
Boloormaa gives her view on what International Volunteers ought to think about before going to Mongolia - she suggests where she thinks they might be most useful, and explains a little about her work with Voluntary Service Overseas in Mongolia.



More about my time in Mongolia
Detailed report and story