Becoming Urban

• This is the first book to investigate Mongolia’s transformation from nomadic to urban life
• Describes the unique settlement of the Ger districts, comprising traditional nomadic felt tents and detached houses, without any basic infrastructure
• Includes built prototypes and design strategies to improve living conditions and assist in a strategy of incremental change
• Positions the role of the architect as an active agent in the process of urban transformation

This book positions Ulaanbaatar as a unique case and one that allows us to view our urban world differently. Operating as a primordial soup of emerging conditions, Ulaanbaatar is conceived as an incubator for alternative urban concepts. The book rejects the agency of the masterplan as an effective tool in emerging urban conditions and instead positions the framework as a tool for incremental urbanism.

Although specific to the Ger districts of Mongolia, the story of how people, communities, planners, and politicians are grappling with the effects of becoming urban remains one of the critical issues facing the 21st century. How this process will be materialised and organised spatially, and by whom, will have profound ramifications on the climate and the social and economic make-up of our future cities.