Gobidobi

GOBIDOBI

Place: Gobi Desert, Mongolia
Time: Summer 2005
Client: Farmers of Bayenlig, Gobi Desert
Sponsor: New Zealand Nature Institute
Deutscher Entwicklungsdienst

After the economic liberalization of early 90’s, the price of the felt (the traditional building material made of sheep wool) got expensive, and the Mongolian nomads were looking for an alternative material to build their yurts. New Zealand Nature Institute had been exploring strawbale, but due to its scarcity it was not faring well. Soon after, Abari proposed a woodless construction method using adobe (sun dried bricks) with the stone foundation because these materials were local and were the prominent building materials up to the 1920’s. For various reasons, however, the knowledge of the materials was disappearing. The material which was used to build big monastaries and impressive palaces was now confined to the construction of garden walls and animal shelters.

It seemed that adobe was an optimal material for the dry and cold climate of the high mongolian desert. As an effort to revive the impressive tradition, Abari proposed and built a woodless, yurt shaped community center, which was 5 meters in diameter.

For more info read http://abari.org/ubpost