Once a tiny counter - cultivation gathering on a San Francisco beach , Burning Man has ballooned into what could be considered an telling experiment in rapid urbanization . Last yr , the population of Black Rock City , which is erected for the fete in the Nevada desert , well to over 70,000 .
Sure , those people are only there for a week , but that growth has not been without its real - humankind problems : late issues includebug infestations , reputation of assault , reverence of overcommercialization , paralyzing rainwater , and theever - impending porta - pottie apocalypse . Now a competition has bring forth 72 thought for improve Burning Man ’s urban plan . The implications of these idea , however , could reach far beyond the gathering of a bunch of drug - muzzy hippies .
Thecompetitionwas spearhead by Brian McConnell , a software system engineer and ten - year Burning Man veteran . The original musical theme was to create a site - specific installation at the fete itself stage visionary thought for the urban planning of Black Rock City . But as McConnell quickly recognise , thinking about designing a smarter impermanent metropolis also surfaced some bigger ideas which might infer into other areas of city - building . McConnell was particularly impressed by the lineament and originality of proposal , he said . “ There are some designs that have gone completely out of the boxwood . ”
What most mass might not have sex about Burning Man is that it is not just a cluster of tents pitch haphazardly in the sand , but rather an actual planned city including parks , public bathrooms , medical clinics , police Stations of the Cross ( called fire warden outstation ) , and ice stores . Many of the submissions riffle upon theexisting city plan , which is a serial publication of stellate and concentric streets with the “ playa ” at the centerfield and “ The Man ” who is burned on the last day .
What ’s fascinating is how Black Rock City is a microcosm for urban problems everywhere . One of the big challenge addressed by the competition is the mind of sassy development — the city postulate to persist compendious enough so multitude can easy take the air ( or bike ) to fulfill their day-after-day needs . The desire for more public space in the dense grid of camps is a top headache for some of the submission , as is the more and more palisade - off infrastructure surrounding more exclusive camps . In fact , many proposal suggest at the sensation that there are “ better ” neighborhoods that do n’t mix as well with the greater community . Burning Man gentrification !
Some of the wilder submissions came not from longtime Burners but from unaffiliated citizenry in the urban preparation and architecture world , which provide valuable foreigner insight . There ’s one submission which proposes using the Black Rock City as a model for a refugee camp . With so many of these camp becoming long - term homes to marginalized communities , it ’s not difficult to see the humanitarian slant in designing a safe , easily navigable city with centralised agreeableness . Black Rock City ’s inclusive housing program could actually offer plenteousness of ideas for how to alleviate the homelessness crisis in the US .
McConnell also sees the possible value of completely reinvent the city ’s plan each year , perhaps with a layout that respond to the theme , which changes annually . “ It ’s gotten so declamatory they ca n’t do radically different things , ” he allege . “ What if each metre you sound it was a significantly different metropolis plan , and you would have to figure it out ? ”
go from lolly might be Burning Man ’s reality if the fete relocates from its current base . Though sting Man is held on federal land , Nevada keep tacking on more taxation to utilize it , which makes lecture of moving the whole affair to Utah a perennial topic .
But this is also where Black Rock City differs from real cities . The fact of the matter is that the site simply ca n’t support many more mass due to the wallop on the part : attending was capped at 50,000 in 2011 by the Bureau of Land Management , then , after an environmental review , anew crownwork was set at 70,000through 2016 . This reality has spurred the production of small regional outcome . In fact , these residential district might benefit the most from the competition as they draw up plans for their own mini - Burning Mans , new irregular metropolises which might soon be distribute all over the world .
[ Black Rock City Ministry of Urban Planning ]
burning manCitiesUrban planningurbanism
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