Friday, October 16, 2015

Bringing It - No Anarchy-parky


The challenge for city planners and party throwers alike -
Where is everyone going to park??

There are so many design angles from which to explore the infrastructure of the ephemeral Black Rock City. Monumental art, Mutant Vehicles, theme camps, art cars, and basic burners all of which arrive at the same time creating a daunting challenge to the best of city planners. Underneath the spectacular randomness of the confluence known as Burning Man is a remarkable degree of planning and design. The underlying structure provides security and flow for the spontaneous wave that follows. 
Below is the grid that inhabits 70,000 with their cars, tents, RV’s and bounteous regalia. It is roughly the size of San Francisco. The spokes are numbered as a clock, the wheels are named alphabetically for the annual theme, this year 2015 Carnival of Mirrors. So - Meet me at 4:30 and Freak Show.
A camp fire style circular concept which was explored 2 decades ago proved to be constricting.
The grid evolved over the years to become an open curve in keeping with the principles*.    

Architect /Designer Rod Garrett comments:

“..... large artworks were placed in a zone outside the precincts of our city. This was meant to lure participants away from our settlement and into the great silence and open space. Similarly, the open side to the circular scheme of the city takes on spiritual and psychological importance. Instead of completely circling the wagons, we invite the natural world to intrude. We will never further close that arc, as it is humbling to have the vast desert and sky intrude into our self-styled small world. Our hope is that by glimpsing the minute place we occupy in the infinite, we will also sense our unity with it.”


There's a purely theoretical competition to design Black Rock City anew, sponsored by The Black Rock City Ministry of Urban Planning www.brcmup.org. (No affiliation to Burning Man organization (“bmorg”).