Gregory Cowan : Learning from Ulaanbaatar – An Outsider's Perspective
Learning from Ulaanbaatar – An Outsider's Perspective
by Gregory Cowan
Ulaanbaatar and London, University of Westminster
This contribution to the symposium "Along the
Great Wall" is based on work at the Mongolian Con-
struction Technology College, in partnership with Vol-
untary Service Overseas (VSO), an international devel-
opment agency, where I worked as "architect teacher
trainer." The architecture teaching development project
was based in the western peri-urban fringe of the Mon-
golian capital Ulaanbaatar, from August 2007 to August
2008. In early 2009, prior to the symposium, Supreeya
Wungpatcharapon (University of ShefÞeld) and stu-
dents at ShefÞeld and London Metropolitan Universi-
ties joined me in reviewing the project as outsiders. At
the Vienna symposium, I presented some reßections on
the potentials and insights to be drawn from the chal-
lenges of working with architectural education in the
unfamiliar, changing, and resource-poor environment
that is peri-urban Ulaanbaatar.1
This international development project – for the
Þrst time in Voluntary Service Overseas’ 50-year his-
tory – employed the medium of architecture education
to build professional capacity and livelihoods, in VSO’s
work tackling peri-urban poverty. The focus on peri-
urban poverty also provided an opportunity for me
to live and work for a full year on the fringe of Ulaan-
baatar, at the threshold between the formal city and the
sprawling informal tent districts (ger khoorolol), which
are home to half of the Mongolian capital’s population.
A year in Ulaanbaatar
I was tasked with training architectural teachers,
teaching architecture students, encouraging global-
ization through the use of English, and supporting the
development of the architecture profession in Mongo-
lia – in collaboration with Mongolian colleagues. There
was a VSO selection process in 2006, after which I was
inducted into international volunteer work in 2007, with
several training and preparation sessions in London
and Birmingham. I have a background in professional
architectural education, but I had limited Þrst hand in-
ternational development experience. Work in poverty-
affected Mongolia was, as I had expected, slow and in-
cremental, bringing relatively small change. However, it
was a valuable and illuminating life experience, full of
wider insights. Frequently approached by local groups
to work and consult with community and activist or-
ganizations, I was asked to give advice as a "foreign
expert." At the same time, the college’s entrepreneur-
ial approach created interesting projects with "com-
mercial" funding, along with communication difÞculties
and cultural differences. In an environment of constant
change and of scarce resources, local commitment to
projects was also frequently uncertain. Two "live" con-
struction projects with real clients – for Eco-Houses (in
Sanzai) and a Children’s Camp (in Yarmag) – presented
rich opportunities – in the course of "real" practice –
to develop architectural processes of site analysis and
brief writing.
During the year, college teachers developed a
somewhat better practical understanding about the
basics of accessible construction and energy-efÞcient
construction. Practical principles of project manage-
ment, like time management and team planning, site
analysis and project planning, how to organize client
meetings and brieÞngs, and how to research and write
architectural program briefs for projects, were all in
need of development. Educationally, the principles of
applying and communicating these skills – rather than
technical knowledge alone – were of key importance. To
articulate these principles across language and cultural
barriers presented a great challenge, which was over-
come incrementally by perseverance, body language,
gesturing, mutual effort in learning foreign languages,
and by diagramming and drawing.
173
 Gregory Cowan : Learning from Ulaanbaatar – An Outsider's Perspective
New training and development activities we initi-
ated in the project at the college included:
• how teachers can use research in preparing their
lessons,
• extending the teaching of computing – and shar-
ing interest in applications – beyond the available
online help guides,
• encouraging staff and students to learn and put to
use the basic available software for architecture and
construction (virus scanning, Photoshop, AutoCAD,
MS Word, MS Excel, etc.),
• workshops exploring the need to learn and use for-
eign languages for internationalization (e.g. for ac-
cess to online information, trade, communications,
development, education, etc.),
• CV clinics, setting out and improving people’s CVs,
• building staff self-conÞdence,
• free internet-based tools (ßickr.com, blogging,
Google Earth, Wikipedia) and their possible prac-
tical applications in architectural and construction
education.
The architects’ profession in Mongolia
Construction teachers and the architect's associa-
tion in Mongolia generally complain of a lack of govern-
ment support,encouragement and local cooperation, in
the context of the rapidly changing capital city. Inter-
national non-government agencies are now very active
in development there. Mongolia’s pre-soviet architec-
ture, since the empire of Genghis Khan, was primarily
rural, monastic, and residential. After Mongolian culture
had survived the turmoil of the early soviet period, an
architecture profession, in the international sense of
the term, developed in the mid-twentieth century, in a
context of soviet internationalism. The Mongolian critic
N. Chultem documented Mongolian architecture in for-
eign languages during the socialist period (1988). Con-
struction and architecture literature in the Mongolian
language, however, remains very limited.2
Documentary information in Mongolian about ar-
chitecture in the public realm has been limited; even in
2008-09 the ßeeting appearance and disappearance of
the Mongolian language Wikipedia pages is an exam-
174
ple.3 Since modern Mongolian democracy in 1992, the
introduction of free market competition and so called
"freefall capitalism," the architecture profession and
its professional association have not yet developed an
international proÞle. Like other professional communi-
ties in Mongolia (e.g. legal and medical professions), the
architectural profession is not visibly responsive to dif-
Þcult day to day professional challenges of a country in
poverty, for example in health, education, transport, or
tourism. The Mongolian architecture profession clearly
had a limited proÞle in the twentieth century during so-
viet socialism. Better support from universities, govern-
ment, and the non-government sector would help. I was
able to advise the government’s Construction Ministry
on professional development of architects as a valu-
able human resource for the country, but the long-term
value and applications of human resource development
will be slow to absorb and implement.4
After several months of familiarization with lo-
cal construction education systems, I led some com-
parative mapping of architecture degree curricula with
some staff teaching at two local construction colleges.
The activity of analyzing and mapping was itself prob-
ably more useful than the actual minor curriculum dif-
ferences which emerged, and this activity would need
to be frequently rehearsed in order to become part of a
critical constructive process. Developing understanding
and ownership of architecture courses in the changing
and internationalizing city of Ulaanbaatar over the com-
ing years, like elsewhere, will require that the teachers
and directors drive change from within.
Continuing work, construction,
and live projects
At the time of writing in the middle of 2009, the
Mongolian Construction Technology College is current-
ly building its own new Þve-story classroom and work-
shop building in the peri-urban 21st district of Ulaan-
baatar. During 2008, I observed students laboring on
the site as practical trainees, excavating the basement,
(manually in part) building concrete formwork, pouring
concrete, batched on site in mixers, barrow by barrow,
into the forms for columns and ßoor slabs. During the
 Gregory Cowan : Learning from Ulaanbaatar – An Outsider's Perspective
design phase, I was asked for input on the design and
made recommendations, agreed in January by the di-
rectors and architects/teachers. My recommendations
were what I considered realistic and practical design
and safety improvements – to add Þre escapes, to re-
conÞgure classroom layouts for better communication,
and to make the basement and Þrst (ground) levels
wheelchair- and wheelbarrow-accessible by ramps. Not
only should a more physically accessible venue for con-
struction and architectural education result, but more
importantly, a process or modus operandi may be es-
tablished for more participative and inclusive processes
of building design and college management. The com-
pletion of the building is currently delayed, according to
a recent message from a teacher at the college.
The inaugural cohort of MCTC’s three-year architec-
ture diploma course students graduated in 2008 (Þg. 1).
The eight graduates all intend to Þnd work in Mongolia,
and, like the undergraduate students, Þnd work in broadly
construction-related areas as draftspersons or assistants.
Many, who might otherwise be candidates for training as
professional architects/teachers, instead migrate abroad
to work, especially in Seoul, for a better salary and expe-
rience. This phenomenon is common among ambitious
Mongolians – especially men, who often leave their fami-
lies. Some eventually return to Mongolia. One promising
architecture student I met had studied in the UK for one
year, but was then unable to afford to continue, nor to be
away from her young son and family support.
Live projects
Live projects in the MCTC college were proposed as
a way of exploiting and sharing skills of foreign experts
in the school (and also, frankly, a way of exploiting for-
eign experts for marketing the school as a construction
company). Transferring skills to local staff through training
was not explicitly considered. A "model energy efÞcient
house" project for World Vision (at the local Bayankhoshuu
branch) served as a test exercise, a live project which might
have been used for teacher training and inducting gradu-
ates in architectural project processes. World Vision’s lo-
cal area director approached the college vice-director at
a networking event, and together they conceived an ini-
Fig. 1: Graduates (Photo by G. Cowan July 2008)
tial idea for a project for a "model energy efÞcient house
for Bayanhoshuu." After a month’s work establishing a
brief, the World Vision client suddenly changed its strat-
egy. Disregarding professional advice it had sought on a
community consultation strategy, it decided on a specula-
tive scheme which would be Þnanced by bank mortgage.
Mortgage was a completely novel Þnancing model at the
time, for construction on leasehold land in peri-urban in-
formal settlements, and this, combined with the changed
brief and dropping the consultation, led to the project
stalling. The two further projects were initiated by the
college directors in early 2008, and initial design stages
began in spring just after the architecture diploma cohort
had graduated.5
Sanzai – first case study
Designs for "Eco-Houses" on the northern fringe
of Ulaanbaatar were developed for an "international
businessman." The speculative development project
was for the construction of three "ecologically sustain-
able houses" on a piece of land located on a rocky track
about an hour’s (summer) drive from UB, in the fringe
settlement of Sanzai Selbe-Khadat.
The project team carried out a site visit, guided in
the process of recording site observations and col-
lecting photographs. Questions arising, for example,
included winter vehicle access from the city to a year-
175
 Gregory Cowan : Learning from Ulaanbaatar – An Outsider's Perspective
round residence in a district currently comprising en-
tirely summer houses. Sun positions during various sea-
sons and at different times of day, tree locations, and
neighboring buildings locations were all considered.
The team mapped and developed initial sketches for a
site plan. The deÞnition of an "Eco-House" – hitherto
ambiguous in Mongolia – and its response to perfor-
mance speciÞcations (from embodied energy, passive
design, and energy consumption to insulation values of
materials) emerged as the most critical issue in terms of
devising a suitable design brief.6
Yarmag – second case study
The project for the Children’s Camp in Yarmag was
developed for the southern peri-urban fringe district,
Yarmag, at the foot of the Bogd Khan mountains. This
developer client, director of a law school in central UB,
and an acquaintance of the college vice-director, pro-
posed what seemed an audacious investment. The piece
of land, initially identiÞed by GPS coordinates from a title
deed and mapped using Google Earth, appeared to be
in a nature reserve, conveniently accessible from a major
road to Ulaanbaatar International Airport. A consultant’s
report about the nature reserve status of the land was
provided, but kept under wraps, translated as being of
little relevance. Despite ethical concerns about the envi-
ronmental and heritage assessment, the client was con-
Þdent a hotel and conference center for the site would
be permissible.
The design team had a good opportunity to meet
with and discuss developing an architectural brief with
the client and his family. The client brought his well
traveled teenage daughter and wife to contribute to
the Children’s Camp program brief. The teenager, with
international experience of Disney theme parks, add-
ed her view to an exploration of program possibilities
– overnight accommodation, hotel and conference, a
children’s resort, and play spaces were all discussed.
Distribution options of program elements on site were
explored, but the notion of assessing and evaluating
multiple options in design proposals was unfamiliar and
difÞcult for the project team.7
176
The outsiders’ view: Learning
from Ulaanbaatar
The next part of this paper reßects with the ben-
eÞt of distance and hindsight on developing participa-
tion in architectural education and practice at MCTC,
the college in peri-urban Ulaanbaatar. In the two live
projects – "Eco-Houses" in Sanzai and "Children’s
Camp" in Yarmag – newly trained architects and ar-
chitecture students began, at a basic level, to incor-
porate participatory principles in their design projects,
consulting with clients, and exploring options for site
analysis. These processes are often taken for granted in
contemporary Western architectural practice, if not in
university courses. The design processes followed were
already experimental for the Mongolian context, and al-
though levels of client and design team participation in
early design stages were not innovative by international
standards, it was intended that more open systems of
learning and dialog would be tested.
There are extensive differences in content and pro-
cess between this Mongolian College’s curriculum and
the typical curriculum of undergraduate architecture
professional courses internationally, broadly called Part
1 courses.8 This, however, combined with the unusual
business/operational model of the college, which is an
entrepreneurial construction enterprise cum education
college, provided a fertile environment for experimen-
tation and innovation which might be more difÞcult
elsewhere. This freedom was in the context of con-
straints of time frame, seasonality/weather, the poten-
tial of the people involved, and some deep cultural and
linguistic issues.
In 1968, in architecture studio/workshop teaching
led by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown to study
a banal urban context in USA, Yale University students
were involved in drawing and documenting the unfamil-
iar urban terrain of the Las Vegas strip, sometimes using
classical tools such as the Nolli plan – an analysis tool
developed by Roman draftsman Nolli in 1748 to analyze
public and private space distribution by drawing Þgure
and ground. The Venturi-Scott Brown studio work and
the resulting book "Learning from Las Vegas" thus pre-
sented an example of how architecture students might
 Gregory Cowan : Learning from Ulaanbaatar – An Outsider's Perspective
apply existing tools and further develop drawing tools
to deal with the unknown city.9
Participatory processes in architecture remain a
topical theme in architectural practice and education
in the UK. In "Architecture and Participation" (2007),
Peter Blundell Jones and others, charting the course
of participatory architecture as a movement, show its
roots in the participatory process experiments carried
out in 1960s developments of housing architecture in
England and Austria. In Austria, the Eschensiedlung and
Deutschlandsberg 1972-92 were participatory projects
incorporating signiÞcant political and architectural in-
novations. In "Theory and Design in the First Machine
Age" (1976), looking back at the Graz scene of the 60s
a decade or so later, Reyner Banham compared the
Graz experiments of participation in the city of Ragnitz
1965-67 and the radical theoretical experimental tech-
niques of Archigram’s "Control and Choice" model in
the UK.10Participation now forms part of a freestyle ur-
banism movement in developed Western cities, with the
increasing prevalence of urban activists driving grass
roots participation in urban development.11
Workshops – UK university
students’ responses
The University of ShefÞeld architecture and plan-
ning PhD research group "Lines of Flight," led by Supre-
eya Wunpatcharapon, invited me to present on informal
architectures and participatory practices as part of their
seminar series in 2009. The researchers and students
were interested in vernacular architecture in Mongolia,
its relevance applied to practice in the peri-urban set-
ting of informal settlements, and in the processes of en-
gagement and participation in architecture.
Researchers and students at ShefÞeld are familiar
with alternative architectural practice and with archi-
tecture and urban development, through local teacher
practitioners working in experimental ways, including
Doina Petrescu (aaa), Prue Chiles, Tatjana Schneider,
and Jeremy Till.12 Their interests in informal architec-
tures and participatory practices were reßected in the
seminar. The questions they raised included, for ex-
ample:
• How is traditional or vernacular architecture val-
ued by clients and designers of the project, in the
development of peri-urban areas (in Ulaanbaatar)?
• Can traditional Mongolian gers be considered as
positive options for rapid deployment, sustainable,
informal settlement in peri-urban Ulaanbaatar?
• What is the appropriateness of traditional gers for a
design scheme for a sustainable resort?
• Why is participatory practice important in interna-
tional development, especially for new Mongolian
architecture, based on the experience and case
studies in peri-urban Ulaanbaatar with the Mongo-
lian Construction Technology College?13
The questions pose critical challenges for both ar-
chitectural education and for the practice of architec-
ture, in terms of how architects react to the demands
of the dominant "global" modes of architecture, and in
terms of how architects can act as agents of change,
to improve engagement in architectural processes, par-
ticularly in resource-poor informal communities.
What lessons may be learned from the issues of
peri-urban settlement in Mongolia, and what sugges-
tions could be made, or what issues could be further
explored in future work on architecture in development
being undertaken in Mongolia and other parts of Asia?
I worked with students of architecture in international
development at London Metropolitan University, also
considering participatory design and research. Supre-
eya Wungpatcharapon and I with the ShefÞeld students
considered some lessons which might be learned from
Ulaanbaatar. Despite the very different environments
and resources, the processes of understanding sites
and developing design briefs are not altogether differ-
ent to those in other places.
Vernacular architecture
In Mongolian construction colleges, formal study
of Mongolia’s indigenous vernacular architecture does
not appear to be part of the curriculum. Ger (home or
dwelling) and Khiid (monastery) may be reproduced,
but are not analyzed as cultural concepts in construc-
tion courses; indigenous vernacular types seem to be
technologically uninteresting and are overlooked. Most
177
 Gregory Cowan : Learning from Ulaanbaatar – An Outsider's Perspective
students and teachers at the college MCTC, however,
live in peri-urban informal settlements of Ulaanbaatar,
and have extensive personal experience of the ver-
nacular architecture of the ger (yurt or felt tent), and
the self-built cottage tradition. I attended the wedding
of an English teacher colleague, which took place in
the ger he himself had built, as part of the traditional
Mongolian wedding ceremony, in an informal settle-
ment near the college.14 These building traditions are
not formally taught at the college and they are also not
used as models for teaching, apparently because they
are not associated with architecture as a modern and
international form of building. This seems to echo the
history of secular soviet socialist education. The secu-
lar modern urban rituals associated with delguur (shop)
and tsakh (market) are not studied as architecture sub-
jects, although superÞcial reference is often made to
accommodating "shopping" in projects and "market-
ing" considerations in construction design. Internation-
al cultures and styles of architecture (in the same way as
Russian songs, Latin dancing, etc.) are popular for their
aspirational aesthetic, but the mode of teaching these is
didactic rather than investigative or dialogical.
Styles of architecture teaching, particularly in voca-
tional training institutions, especially in my experience
of tertiary colleges and universities in Mongolia, is di-
dactic rather than discursive or participatory. Therefore,
ideas of design studio collaboration, of participative site
analysis, and of "brainstorming" design ideas were all
unfamiliar to Mongolian students. Experiments under-
taken in the live projects – with what in Western settings
might be fairly conventional participatory architectural
studio methods – remind us that these are a develop-
mental aspect of architectural practice which help to
overcome cultural and language barriers and enable a
more rigorous needs assessment in the development of
an architectural design brief.
In peri-urban Ulaanbaatar, the notion of rapid de-
ployment does not seem to be a strong interest in ar-
chitecture, despite the available model presented by
the ger, which is commonplace, but of apparently little
research interest to Mongolian architecture students.
Permanent buildings are the aspirational outcome of
architectural development; these may take a long time
178
in construction, spanning the seasons and necessitat-
ing suspension of the building sites during the bitterly
cold winter.
In reference to the Children’s camp scheme for
Yarmag and also to the live project for Eco-Houses in
Sanzai, the notion of sustainability emerged as a mere
buzzword. The need for energy efÞcient construction
was recognized, although the amortization (pay-off
period) of additional costs to invest in more efÞcient
design and materials was not understood, at least from
the perspective of students, who do not usually study
life-cycle costs of buildings.
Participatory practice in architecture
Participatory practice in architecture is a well estab-
lished concept in western, late capitalist architecture,
and essential to traditional Mongolian ger building and
in monasteries. However, "participation" was not an
idea familiar to contemporary Mongolian architecture
students in the project, who were accustomed to more
didactic and expert-led models of creating architec-
ture. The "architecture" process is apparently regarded
as a foreign, European practice or one of globalization,
settlement, and colonization. Building in general, elec-
trical work, brick laying, and plumbing are all associ-
ated with this imposed foreign process. Professors with
whom I worked and who had been schooled interna-
tionally, whether in the European soviet capital Moscow
or former East Germany, for example, tended towards
didactic teaching styles and modes of design genera-
tion and instructed students to reproduce patterns pro-
vided by masters or from textbooks such as the 1965
Russian edition of Neufert’s "Bauentwurfslehre" (Archi-
tect’s Data). There was little sense of engagement in the
translation and adaptation of foreign architectural ideas
in the MCTC college and little interest in Bat-Od’s locally
written and produced architecture textbook ("Arkhitek-
tur", Ulaanbaatar, 2005, 2007), which also suggests ways
of working with international examples.
In the two live projects in Sanzai and Yarmag, the
Mongolian students and graduates worked on devel-
oping analyses and briefs, with the advantage of work-
ing with real clients, real budgets, and real projects. The
 Gregory Cowan : Learning from Ulaanbaatar – An Outsider's Perspective
limited teaching of "theory of professional practice"
was supplemented with actual live project experience;
team members visited the project sites in the north and
south peripheries of the city respectively and carried
out (apparently for the Þrst time) site analyses, compil-
ing design briefs, and generating multiple-option origi-
nal schematics.
The participatory processes employed in the live
design projects here cannot be compared internation-
ally with an advanced level of participative practice that
allows the end-users of the projects to make decision
towards Þnal design proposals. These live projects,
however, allowed the Mongolian architecture students
to explore alternative ways of developing architectural
schemes as well as creating an open learning system in
the academic environment. By opening a more dialogi-
cal space of learning together amongst teachers, stu-
dents, and clients (the users), it is desirable that the ex-
perience will encourage students to develop alternative
architecture processes and schemes that are appropri-
ate to the Mongolian context rather than those inspired
only by foreign/European architectural design.
Conclusions
During the development of this work since 2006, and
up to the present time, many supporters and correspon-
dents have taken part in critique and direct indirect en-
couragement of the work. The international NGO cohort
addressed a wide range of networked actions. Voluntary
Service Overseas (VSO) colleagues undertook work in
other sectors and shared insights; my companion, Clare
Hill, in developing capacity in the textile sector in Ulaan-
baatar and Erdenet, others engaged in health develop-
ment work, some with disability, some with youth work,
as did Ruth Richardson, who is seen in photographs visit-
ing the MCTC studio as a guest critic. VSO colleagues
and local non-government organizations collaborated
on development initiatives. Collaborations developed
with MCTC counterparts D. Hashbayar, D. Gankhuyag,
D. Boloormaa, G. Ariunaa and Rob van Waardenburg.
Colleagues at the Mongolian University of Science and
Technology (MUST), Purev-Erdene Ershuu and Professor
Gonchigbat, with whom I had little contact in Mongolia,
attended the Vienna symposium and discussed the work.
Of several scholars and development workers whom I as-
sisted in developing projects, Sarah M. Bassett of Chi-
cago led an architecture research project on "Transitional
Architecture" in 2009-10 with a US Fulbright Fellowship.
Bassett will have some contact with the continuation
of this work and welcomes contact in regard to ongo-
ing architecture development work in peri-urban Ulaan-
baatar.15 The development of this paper was also sup-
ported and critically encouraged by colleagues at the
symposium, including anthropologist Melitta Kuglitsch
in connection with her work with art critic Annu Wilenius
on gardens in Ulaanbaatar Ger districts.
I began this paper with the brief report on the teach-
ing development project in 2007-08, ("architect teacher
trainer" as documented elsewhere), and in the inter-
est of ongoing development of the project aims, have
outlined suggestions for "Learning from Ulaanbaatar."
Observing the limitations of architecture education in
poverty and peri-urbanism, the proposed learning is
– rather – of developing constructive and open design
processes, using the studio to develop. By reßecting on
the training and live projects, and subsequent discus-
sions about the outcomes at architecture schools in
the UK, I aimed to share insights about processes and
methods which have been further strengthened from
working in the changing, resource-poor environment of
peri-urban Ulaanbaatar.
Fig. 2: Under Construction - New Architecture School (Photo by
G. Cowan May 2008)
179
 Gregory Cowan : Learning from Ulaanbaatar – An Outsider's Perspective
References
1 A special thankyou to my colleagues in the project at
MCTC, G. Ariunaa, D. Boloormaa, and Rob van Waarden-
burg, advisor and teacher trainer, to MCTC Directors D.
Gankhuyag and D. Hashbayar, and to VSO Mongolia pro-
gramme director B. Erdenebileg.
2 Mongolian Architecture; literature examples include:
Chultem 1988 (Fr, Ger, Sp, Engl.); Bat-Od 2007; Oyunbileg
1990; Wikipedia <http://mn.wikipedia.org/> (Arkhitektur
pages est. 2008 removed 2009).
3 Mongolian language wikipedia page on architecture
Arkhitektur or Uran Barilga <http://mn.wikipedia.org/>.
4 Mongolian Construction Ministry <http://www.pmis.gov.
mn/gov_eng.htm> (available intermittently).
5 The exercise led to a new VSO project at another college,
which is continuing as this document goes to press in
2010.
6 Sanzai (project for Eco-Houses), Photos:
<http://www.ßickr.com/groups/sanzai>;
<http://nomadologist-nomadology.blogspot.com/2008/
06/essential-skills.html>;
<http://nomadologist-nomadology.blogspot.com/2008/
06/site-analysis-initial-discussion.html>
7 Yarmag (project for Childrens’ Camp), Photos:
<http://www.ßickr.com/groups/yarmag;
http://nomadologist-nomadology.blogspot.com/2008/
06/essential-skills.html>;
<http://nomadologist-nomadology.blogspot.com/2008/
06/site-analysis-initial-discussion.html>.
8 Broadly called Part 1, the basic level of professional archi-
tecture course as I have personally experienced teaching,
moderating and validating of courses in Australia, Ma-
laysia, Austria, UK, Korea, Chile and Argentina. More on
RIBA Part 1: <http://www.careersinarchitecture.net/page.
asp?a=2&c=1>
9 See Venturi et al. 1977, and also Venturi et al. 1972.
10 Banham, Reyner, 1976: Megastructures: Urban Futures of
the Recent Past, cited in Blundell Jones et al. 2007, p. 142
11 The Graz experiments and ‘Grazer Schule’ in the 1980s were
part of the architecture scene which inßuenced me, after
graduating in Australia, to go to Graz to work with Michael
Szyszkowitz and Karla Kowalski. Contemporary literature
on urban participation and actions includes the CCA’s re-
cent Actions: What You Can Do With the City (2008) and
“Urban Act” aaa / PREPRAV eds, 2007 - see bibliography.
12 Doina Petrescu, see “Urban Act” (PRERAV 2007), Prue Chil-
es see “What if” in Blundell-Jones et al. 2007; Schneider
see “Flexible Housing” (Architectural Press 2007); Jeremy
Till see “Architecture Depends” (MIT Press 2009).
13 Lines of Flight PhD Researchers Seminar, see in particular
<http://linesofßight.wordpress.com/2009/01/19/seminar09-
informal-architectures-and-participatory-practices/>
180
14 Enkhbold’s wedding:
<http://www.ßickr.com/groups/enkhboldwedding/>
15 Send email, with the subject ‘Transitional Architecture’ to
Sarah M Bassett at the email address: sarahmbassett@
gmail.com
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