Temuulen Enkhbat

2026 MAD FELLOW, urban practitioner

Temuulen Enkhbat

2026 MAD FELLOW, urban practitioner

Research Topic

Temuulen’s research examines how community-led design can be embedded in planning systems to improve resilience in informal settlements while preserving cultural continuity and resident agency. Her work focuses on ger districts in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia—areas where former nomadic communities have adapted traditional ger dwellings to urban life. Through design research, she explores how community participation can move beyond one-time consultations and become a lasting part of how cities make planning decisions.

Bio

Temuulen Enkhbat is an urban practitioner and civic designer from Mongolia, pursuing Master in City Planning (MCP) program at MIT. Her work focuses on finding innovative solutions to urban planning and climate resilience challenges in informal settlements through community co-design, youth engagement, and policy advocacy. Before graduate school, she worked as a Program Lead at GerHub, a social innovation nonprofit based in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. There, she led social and environmental impact initiatives focused on renewable energy transition, climate resilience, and informal settlement upgrading, working to amplify community voices in decision-making processes.

In 2023, she co-founded the Ulaanbaatar Oasis, a project transforming underserved urban spaces into green parks in ger districts, a peri-urban settlement of Ulaanbaatar. She was selected as one of the 50 participants from the Global Shapers Community to amplify youth voices at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2024. She is also a fellow of the Urban Emerging Leaders Program by Salzburg Global Seminar and World Urban Parks, and the LeadNext Fellowship Program by the Asia Foundation.

Temuulen is deeply committed to using design as a tool to include historically marginalized communities in the process of urban planning and policymaking processes. Her work seeks to advance systemic change while preserving the historical and cultural identities of place.