Burning Man

Aug 7, 2017 – Sep 2, 2017

Black Rock City, Nevada

Christoph Kumpusch

and

Alessandra Calaguire

Research Question

This immersive workshop is organized around three parts and three places: New York City, California, and Black Rock Desert. With the desert as a canvas, and Burning Man as a context, this workshop is an opportunity for students to become part of a research team that extracts architecture from situations, rather than places. The Extraction Laboratory continuously questions what it means for architecture to be situational: temporary, systematic, reproductive, interactive. During the workshop, this directive is tested through the development of a spatial roof with structural and material weight.

Schedule

NYC [design + fabrication]: Jun – Aug 21
LV [travel + rv]: Aug 22 – Aug 23
BLACK ROCK DESERT [assemble + festival]: Aug 23 – Sep 3

Methodology and Process

Modes of Operation:

Structure
develop a lightweight structural system suitable for the desert
[ 2000 linear feat of structure as radiused 1-3/8” steel tubing + 2000 linear feet of cross bracing as 1/2” steel pipes ]
Joints
develop a system of joints/ connections that can be easily re-assembled in the desert
[ the team developed 600 connections, with 5 connection types ]
Materials
test and prototype fabric panels to create a layered shade structure
[ 4000 sf of fabric ]
Construction
build/ test structure at Northport, NY site
disassemble / ship structure to Black Rock Desert [ pack all structural modules + supplies into 6000 cubic feet of shipping container ] assemble in Black Rock Desert disassemble in Black Rock Desert

Output and Findings

Site: 9:45 / Ceremony
The final output of the Workshop was the event.
The team erected the spatial roof at Burning Man 2017 and created the XTR Camp.
The students worked on three elements while in the desert:

Documentation [feedback-loop]
Habitation [The Camp]
Installation [The Roof]

Student Work

Other 2017 workshops

Building Yacoubian, A Social Biopsy of Modernist Architecture	Ziad Jamaleddine	Beirut, Lebanon	Aug 5, 2017 – Aug 19, 2017
Justice in Place: Downtown Regeneration in the Shadow of Urban Renewal in Hudson River Valley, NY	David Smiley, Justin Moore, Michael Murphy, Lee Altman	Poughkeepsie, New York	Aug 1, 2017 – Aug 18, 2017
Data-Mining China: Urban Village in Shenzhen	Danil Nagy	Shenzhen, China	Jul 15, 2017 – Aug 12, 2017
Aging Tokyo in Japan	Adam Frampton	Tokyo, Japan	Jul 24, 2017 – Aug 4, 2017
Afro-Imaginaries in Harare, Zimbabwe	Mario Gooden	Harare, Zimbabwe	Jun 26, 2017 – Jul 13, 2017
The Environmentalist Dilemma: Reducing the economic and social costs of a low carbon city in Madrid	Alejandro de Castro Mazarro	Madrid, Spain	Jun 10, 2017 – Jul 9, 2017
Heritage Sites of the Jordan Trail: Documenting and Interpreting 7,000 Years of Urban Living in Jordan	William Raynolds	Jordan Trail, Jordan	Jun 13, 2017 – Jun 26, 2017