Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Over 840,000 people live in the ger districts of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, sprawling districts of gers (traditional felt tents) and self-built houses. Most households use an average 4.1 tons of coal or coke briquettes for heating each winter as temperatures drop below -30°C. There is no sewage or sanitation infrastructure: 95% of residents use pit latrines, 1% have access to piped water, and air pollution is extremely debilitating to health.
The Ger Plug-In 3.0 is an energy efficient house that provides the ger with everything it does not have – access to sanitation, water, and electric heating. The Plug-In is designed to be built incrementally, residents can connect their existing ger to an infrastructural core at a low price, then extend with living and sleeping spaces when they have the financial capacity to do so.
Details
Design: Joshua Bolchover (District Development Unit)
Project Lead: Jersey Poon (District Development Unit)
Project Team: Minjmaa Enkhbat
Implementation Partner: Dulguun Batkhishig and Erdembileg Nemekhbaatar (Energy Efficient Design Build LLC)
Community Partner: Uurtsaikh Sangi, Temuulen Enkhbat (Gerhub NGO)
Completion Date: August 2023
Location: Songino Khairkhan-43, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Funding: District Development Unit Limited and Energy Efficient Design Build LLC
Image Credits: District Development Unit