––––––––––––– Black Rock City 2013 –––––––––––

The Architecture of Black Rock City is as diverse as its temporary residents.
Most of them have no or little experience of living for a week
in extreme conditions, in a self-reliance mode while participating to
a unique collective adventure.
The artistic nature of the Burning Man event taking place in the city invite all of them to create and build a distinctive habitat that must respect a fragile environment and Leave No Trace at the end in order to resettle the following year.

Over the years several solutions have emerged and have became staple shelters while leaving room for constant improvements and brand new concepts.
One open-source prototype gave rise a decade later to a thousand Hexayurts, the most participants-built shelters followed by monkey huts and  geometry domes both originated from a single web page.
Many types of shelters coexist and thrive among a nascent family of temporary dwellings with every year breakthroughs and unconventional designs.

The goal of this blog is to document the manifold facets of a temporary city created in the desert and bring to a larger public the singularities of its ephemeral architecture.

To promote it, we award The Golden Rebars to any shelter, dwelling, camp that display the spirit of creation and togetherness governing Black Rock City.

Camps or installations misnamed? contact me:
brc(at)philippeglade(dot)com (plz:no flame, all smile)

This is a SFW blog. All the links are SFW.

This blog is a Ginormous labor of love, several hundred of hours of work, not counting the wait at the gate and the exodus, that I want to keep commercial-free adhering to the Decommodification principle.

If you share the same view and still read real paper books, you can support my book illustrating hundreds of solutions built during 15 years in the desert from 1996 to 2010 :

Edition was 1100 books, only o copies left : when it's gone, it's gone 

Remaining books for the USA and the world except Europe :  0
the book is sold out in the USA
(January 30 2014,  3 books from Europe will be restocked in the US)

Remaining books for Europe :  0

Black Rock City, NV the ephemeral architecture of Burning Man

BROWSE IT

This is the new version showing the city from 2011 to 2015

Only available here Enjoy!

2013 Table of contents

8 pages/400 images/81 posts  at the bottom of each column click older posts to access the next one

Posts:

   3 ⇢ 10  The Golden Rebars Award
 11 ⇢ 18  Camps along the Esplanade
 19 ⇢ 34  Inside the City
 35 ⇢ 46  Tents/Hexayurts/Monkey Huts/Parachutes/Fabrics
 47 ⇢ 56  Trailers and RV's/Wood and Metal Frames/Containers
 57 ⇢ 71  Art Installations/Mutant Vehicles/Nightscapes
 72 ⇢ 81  Robot Heart/Citizens/Miscellaneous/Camp Déjà View

 P2→11    P3→21    P4→31    P5→41    P6→52    P7→63    P8→74



Unlock your bike and enjoy the ride

Remember, Leave No Trace.

Super special thanks to Heather Gallagher (camera girl), Michael Vav.

Blog dedicated to Rod Garrett, the city designer/planner who for 16 years created and improved the original grid of the city. 

Previously: 2012  2011  2010  2009  2008  2007 to 1996

Great reading about ravers vs burners

Soundscape for the making of the blog Burridge, Light and Minds

All Images and Text ©Philippe Glade 2013

brc(at)philippeglade(dot)com

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2/ Cityscapes/Welcome Home

Welcome Home...

Black Rock City 2013 plan

69 000

One Week

1 ply!

The MOOP map

Participate.

3/ The Golden Rebars Awards 1/ Metal Pods Village

Golden Rebar Grand Prize

Metal Pods Village by Scott Parenteau

When last year Scott "Tin Man" Parenteau came for the first time to Burning Man, he became an instant celebrity on the playa with his walking pod that since brought him several awards at Maker Faire, and with his two patented metal pods used for shelter was a big draw for his neighbors.

For his second time at Black Rock City, Scott upped the ante and decided to build a village for his friends. He was able to finish his own shelter by adding the third pod, the bedroom on top of a fully operational stainless steel custom made shower and a complete kitchen. 

Scott in the entryway/kitchen.

A bedroom with a view and bamboo flooring.

4/ The Golden Rebars Awards 2/ Loaves of Bread, Namaste

Golden Rebar for Only In Black Rock City and We Want to Keep it this Way

The Dome of Dough

This Shelter was entirely made of 850 Loaves of Bread with an insulation value of  R-5 and lasted the week.

Do we witness the start of a new building trend at Black Rock?

On the blackboard were some possible names: Rye Not? Flour Power, Dill Dough, Make loaves not War... 

Golden Rebar for Recycling

The Palette camp

Golden Rebar for Best Name Camp

Camp Namaste Motherfucker

(p.s. I have the uttermost respect for my teachers, fellow yogis and yoginis, laughing is good for our chakras.)

Golden Rebar for Cardboard Hexayurts

Camp Rejuvenation did not want to use the familiar insulation panels commonly use to build the Hexayurts for health and ecological reasons.

The recycled cardboard cost nothing and was easy to manipulate without splinters.
Overhead, they had a tarp on a metal frame because cardboard is not known for its insulation ability.

5/ The Golden Rebars Awards 3/ Winged H15 hexayurts and Playahuts

Golden Rebar for H15-5 Wings Hexayurt

Since Vinay Gupta built his first prototype on the playa in 2003, the Hexayurt family has taken a life of its own, getting bigger, larger and with every year welcoming new concepts.

This year was no exception with this H15 model sporting no less than 5 wings connected to the main structure.  

The main structure is the communal space while the alcoves act as bedrooms.

Golden Rebar for The Playahut

Derived from the Hexayurt family, these Playahuts are a new direction in design associated with insulation panels. Full size, they hold together with the help of ratchet tie-down straps.

The builders of these Playahuts chose to put the insulation panels inside-out, to keep the brand repetitive markings out of sight, in line with the principle of decommodification we wish more participants could follow this fashion.

6/ The Golden Rebars Awards 4/ The Archimedes Basket and Camp DC not Washington

Golden Rebar for Brand New Design

The Archimedes Basket is a Tensegrity-stabilized dome created by Toby Vann and Michael Gates

who won a Blue Ribbon for this shelter at the 2013 New York World Maker Fair.

Setup and strike is under 1 hour! community space of Camp Things that swing.

In their words:
The result of our innovations is a rope & strut dome. We use the truncated icosahedron (the pattern of hexagons and pentagons on a soccer ball) as the polyhedral shape for our dome; this requires only 1/3 as many struts as a traditional geodesic dome. On their own, the struts that form a truncated icosahedron are unstable; borrowing from tensegrity we stabilize our dome with a tension web.

The double wall shading with airspace between the layers helped disperse the heat and kept the inside cool. Stars are Spandex, inner tent is rip stop Nylon. The 3-parts hubs as well as the struts are just one size. easy to assemble.    
To simplify the potentially complex and time-consuming job of lacing the dome with rope, we developed a harness system for quick assembly and a hub designed for increased stability.
We call our invention the Archimedes Basket. 

Golden Rebar for Scaffolding camp

Camp DC not Washington built a large scaffolding structure to be the embassy of like minded Washingtonians willing to connect with others like they do in DC.

A large inner patio create a more dynamic space.

7/ The Golden Rebars Awards 5/ Geometry dome

Golden Rebar for Geometry Dome

Already seen last year at BRC, we really appreciate the simplicity and elegance of this geometry dome with the distinctive feature of an extended roof acting as a useful awning.

Cosy.

In need of connections?

Golden Rebar for overhead tent shade

These Aluminet shade cloth panels protect this tent like a helmet.

8/ The Golden Rebars Awards 6/ Quonset Domes Camp Manifestation

Golden Rebar for the Quonset Domes of Camp Manifestation

Quonset Domes on the playa are usually covered with an unattractive metallic shiny grey tarp. 

This colorful canopy caught my eyes from afar, soon talking with the designers, brothers Jed and Noah Zilberberg I realized that there was more that meets the eyes.

In the words of Jed Zilberberg:

What is unique is the method through which the structures are secured to the ground as well as the custom canopy coverings. We started with an idea to make the actual build of the domes as easy as possible. We wanted domes that could be fully constructed within a matter of just a couple of hours and that would create a cozy, fully openable or closable space, allowing for air flow on nice days or allowing for protection from dust storms as needed.

The canopy coverings were fully custom design, sewing all pieces (By the 2 Brothers!!) to fit these domes specifically. The over coverings were sewn to have a loose tailored fit and then cuffs were added along the edges to allow for the securing of the canopy from all sides via ropes to a single (or double for entry ways) tether point on each side. This created the effect of holding the structure down without a lot of tension and removed the need to have ropes running over the top of the canopies on the diagonals. There was no luff in the fabric because of the all-sides tie down.

Custom made sinks with recycled totes and running water.

The most important part of having an easily erectable structure is the structure footing design. We needed a footing model that did not require pounding many pieces of straight rebar.

So, the solution was to fabricate feet that were self-contained.

Each footing point of each dome (the 4 corners of each dome) requires 5 spikes on which the PVC poles sit. Instead of having 5 individual pieces of rebar we designed a steel plate that had the 5 spikes attached.
We realized that these spikes should be removable so they had to be bolted on the plate instead of welded on.

Each spike was fabricated from scratch, welding supporting braces on to each side of the mounting bracket that then gets bolted to the foot plate.
The result is a fully portable and modular footing plate.
Each complete plate has 2 holes on either side through which 2 pieces of bent rebar staples are placed and used to secure the plate to the ground.

The ultimate result of this design is that, for 2 domes, instead of having 40 pieces of straight rebar to pound in and take out, we have 16 pieces of bent rebar. The bent rebar are much easier to remove and clearly the number reduction saves on the work load as well.

The canopy sides were sewn to be modular and to be allowed to be opened at any side. Large marine zippers were used to allow for good head clearance and provide sturdy usage for opening and closing. Tie backs were sewn on so that when zipped open the flaps could be held back so that there is a door way created or a space for air flow.

9/ The Golden Rebars Awards 7/ The Landmarks

Golden Rebar for BRC Landmark

The Chiton by D'Milo Hallerberg.

Shelter and community space made of steel tubing and nylon cloth, the Chiton blurs the lines between

architectural concept and art installation, a feat few architects in the default world are capable of.

21 feet high, 22 feet long and 45 feet long.

We need several of them disseminated all over BRC.

Golden Rebar for BRC Landmark

The Gherkin.
This catenoïd dome, formed by rotating a Catenary curve about its axis, was designed by Walter, who chose this optimum shape for a self-supporting arch by following a simpler version of the mathematical equation used on the Eero Saarinen's St. Louis Gateway Arch: f(x)=(4*cosh(2.5))-(4*cosh(x/4)). Yeah.

Inside.

10/ The Golden Rebars Awards 8/ The Camp

Golden Rebar for Best camp

By far the most colorful and elegant camp, Sacred Spaces Village-Ascension Gateway Camp receives the highly coveted Golden Rebar for Best Camp 2103.

The professional team of GuildWorks built an array of dome-temples based on sacred geometry and dedicated to each vehicle of ascension: Body, Mind, Heart and Spirit, enclosed in a stretch fabric facade, creating a huge courtyard private from the playa, shaded by a mesmerizing canopy, the Metatron aerial mandala, made of tension fabrics kept together by tension line towers.

The Metatron Aerial Mandala.

Part of the courtyard with the altar.

The courtyard with greeters and visitors, looking at the Body Temple.

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At the bottom right of this column click Older Posts to see the Esplanade, more camps and stuff.                        ↓

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