Photo by: Steve Jurvetson
Burning Man festival’s c-shape layout will soon get an overhaul.
Organisers of the yearly revelry in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert have launched a competition to design ‘a new spatial and geometric masterplan’ for the site – known as Black Rock City.
‘The existing plan has served the community very well, but by creating new city plans, we can create a new world every year,’ says the festival’s Black Rock City Ministry of Urban Planning, the group running the competition.
‘Urban planning is just as much a form of art as sculpture so why not explore what is possible?’
Any proposal will have to include provisions for more than 50,000 people, fit within the site’s existing boundaries and provide large open spaces for the festival’s commissioned art installations.
The Burning Man effigy and temple – two staples of the event – should also remain at the heart of the ‘city’ layout.
Entries will be welcomed from this autumn until the end of the year. A second stage, where the top 10 ideas will be developed further, takes place during the first half of 2016 before festival organisers decide on a winner.
The new design could make its debut in Burning Man’s 2017 edition – marking a change from the current layout the festival has had for almost 20 years.
