After learning of the grant award, many exciting developments ensued. The funding generated significant momentum about the project; it would cover the majority of the costs of travel, lodging, and supplies. The students from University of Virginia who were the actual grant recipients offered new perspectives and knowledge for developing the project. The participating students were R.D., Claire, Sarah, Carlin, and Tashi. All had various skill-sets which would be crucial for successful completion of the project. Bob Swap, a professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences was their advisor. Bob would not be traveling with us.
The rest of our team from Charlottesville consisted of Ken Dabkowski (our key M-CAM project facilitator mentioned in an earlier posting), Greg Smith, and me. Greg is a writer and builder and an all-around super nice guy; he's also a great communicator- very direct- which was an awesome virtue to have on the trip. Greg decided to come almost on a whim, a testament to his sense of adventure. We agreed on the dates for the trip to be June 4- July 2nd. Greg and I would be involved for the 1st two weeks of the trip from June 4th - June 17th.
Because of their role as grantees, the students became primary decision-makers, so there was a certain amount of "letting-go" as we worked collaboratively. Each participant had their own set of expectations, goals and working style. Keeping track of these throughout the project became a challenge in and of itself. We all had a lot to learn about doing development work in a remote location. I soon learned that patience and sensitivity were going to be integral for successful progress in creating a Mongolian greenhouse using recycled glass and other locally sourced materials!
We began to have more regular correspondence with our contacts in Mongolia. One key contact was Nergui. I had met her back in October when she was visiting the States. She is a strong businesswoman who has her hand and head in several different projects. M-CAM created a business partnership with her and the Mongolian Greenhouse project became a part of that. Nergui was instrumental in getting our team connected to other folks on the ground. Not only did we need to determine specifics of the design but we also needed to resolve the trip logistics. Wow! Mongolia!!
The team eventually determined the project site to be HASU Shivert Resort in the Arkanghai Provence in Mongolia. People from M-CAM had visited this site and had some knowledge about the location. We briefly evaluated a traditional A-frame design for the greenhouse, but eventually decided on completing a ger shaped design. Below is a rendering completed by Carlin (a student member of our team studying architecture at UVa) and R.D. (a UVa civil engineering graduate student and home builder).
The design is shown as a "hemi-ger" as we were hoping to build the structure into a hillside to optimize heating and cooling (this turned out to be impractical for the location). The exact materials for the structure were determined as we began detailed communication with our Mongolian contacts to learn what resources were available both on-site and in the urban areas. The structure would be a mixture of reclaimed and purchased materials such as wood, cement, rock, bottle walls (see below), glass panels made with melted bottles, and acrylic panels for the roof. We needed to be ready to improvise with a plethora of construction ideas and techniques.
With this in mind, we completed testing to explore ways of using melted bottles as part of structure. Below are some pictures showing bottles that were melted intact (versus being crushed), also shown are small clay brick samples. We briefly experimented with making our own bricks, not knowing what other construction supplies would be available. The plethora of red clay here in central Virginia made for an easy experiment. Although the brickmaking experiment was successfull, we abandoned this since we were unsure if any clay would be readily found at the Mongolian worksite.
Working with whole bottles affords a more efficient fabrication process (no crushing, simple molds, and less clean-up of the melted edges).
We also experimented with melting whole bottles on to a metal chicken wire as a way to form a lattice type structure for attaching to the roof or walls.
Bill Hutchins, an architect in Tacoma Park, Maryland (http://www.heliconworks.com/) gave us a basic briefing on the technique of constructing bottle walls. Below is a photo of a small bottle wall we created using available clay, straw, and sand as a mortar between whole bottles. The wall has some bottles planted on top to add a sculptural element!
As we made decisions and formed our plans, numerous questions surfaced. It quickly became clear that we would not have answers until we arrived in Mongolia due to a variety of circumstances. The principle reason was the challenge with communication. The work-site had no internet access and phone service was intermittant. Our newly hired translator Baagii was a tremendous help in clarifying important issues such as confirming the presence of electric power at the Hasu Shivert work site and giving us a rough understanding of the availability of other tools and supplies that we could purchase upon arrival. Baagii is young entrepreneur and engineer living in Ulaanbaatar (the capital and largest city in Mongolia).
Alongside testing, we put together a list of materials and tools that we would need to construct the greenhouse. A key piece of equipment was the kiln for melting glass. We evaluated a few options for obtaining the kiln. After some e-mailing back and forth with Baagii, we realized there would not be any kilns or kiln supplies available in Mongolia. We explored purchasing the kiln in China, but after some research, we found it would be too expensive. Ironically, in a country that can make just about anything for a fraction of the price for which it is made here in the States, a studio glass kiln did not come under that category in China! We also considered obtaining and shipping the necessary supplies to construct the kiln. This would include insulating materials such as firebrick or fiberboard, heating elements, electric relays, and a kiln controller. Since I had no experience constructing a kiln from scratch, but rather only minor repair work, we decided to pursue purchasing a kiln from a supplier in the States. We also explored the option of building a low-tech wood-fired kiln. Below are photos of a wood-fired test kiln that we dug into a hill outside my studio. You can see the gray vent pipe sticking out of the ground. This indeed was a learning process as well.
This particular design for the "kiln-in-the-hill" did not function adequately for heating glass. We discovered that we needed ground insulation to prevent the heat from sinking into the earth and we needed some kind of entrance insulation/ blocking to keep the heat from coming the front. Regardless, it was an interesting and worthwhile experiment. We decided that this could be a technique with which we could experiment when we arrived at the project site after determining what supplies were available.
The week before our scheduled departure; the team made a final decision to purchase the kiln from Olympic Kilns (http://www.greatkilns.com/). The team at Olympic was terrific. They were excited to be a part of the project and have one of their kilns be used in Mongolia! Below is a photo of the kiln (we had a shorter stand) that we purchased. Olympic would normally take 1-2 weeks to assemble a kiln; they got it done in 3 days!
Amazingly, UPS would need only 5 days to deliver the kiln to Ulaanbaatar. One uncertainly which came to haunt us a bit later was the amount of time for the kiln to clear customs. Regardless of that, a primary intention of the project was moving forward... that being to reach the goal of melting discarded glass bottles to create window panels for the Mongolian Greenhouse! I was filled with excitement and anticipation that this germ of an idea presented in my studio many months prior would actually become reality.
The additional preparations for our trip consisted of those anyone might take in traveling to a less developed country. We all researched and prepared appropriate personal supplies such as work clothing, immunizations, vitamin supplements, cameras, passport, etc.
As the final days of preparation came to a close, I felt a healthy combination of anticipation, nervousness, and joy about the trip. Regardless of the outcome of the project, I knew that we had already been successful in getting this far, and at the same time, I was ready for more!
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