Burning Man

Burning Man

There Goes the Neighborhood: Oh No, Not Burning Man!

Ben Brown unpacks the components of polarization. Recognizing some people are really pissed off for some really good reasons doesn’t seem to help us make better decisions, whether we’re talking about electing a president or planning a park.

September 27, 2016 - PlaceShakers

Burning Man

Designing the Black Rock City of Burning Man's Dreams

An unofficial, international competition for the Black Rock City master plan applies the imagination inherent to its setting.

September 1, 2016 - Black Rock City Ministry of Urban Planning

Fly Geyser

Burning Man Buys 3,800 Acres in Northwest Nevada

Let the year-round party commence.

August 12, 2016 - The Architect's Newspaper

Downtown Reno

Tactical Urbanism Takes Reno by Storm

Next City's "Urban Vanguard" fellows envision ways to use tactical urbanism to further the evolution of Reno, Nevada. Their presentations helped city leaders reconsider the ways the city thinks about itself.

May 19, 2015 - Next City

Reno Sign

Nevada's Most Interesting City: Reno

Long considered a desert backwater and second fiddle to Las Vegas, the city of Reno is having a resurgence. Small entrepreneurs, industrial giants like Tesla, and artists inspired by Burning Man are converging to overshadow the fading casino economy.

May 4, 2015 - Next City

Burning Man

The Urban Design of Burning Man's Black Rock City

Black Rock City is the temporary city initially designed by Rod Garrett in 1997 that springs up for the annual Burning Man festival. Each year the city expands to accommodate more people, but still retains its core utopian characteristics.

September 18, 2014 - Medium

Largest Gathering in History Attracts Researchers

When the Kumbh Mela, a 48-day Hindu festival held every four years, starts this week in northern India it will be the largest gathering in history. Researchers are using the opportunity to study the formation and inner-workings of a pop-up mega city.

January 15, 2013 - The Atlantic Cities

A Burning Man Guide to City Reinvention

After two decades of pushing the boundaries of what it means to build a community (both physically and spiritually), the annual Burning Man festival has a lot to teach municipalities about providing services and fostering participation.

August 21, 2012 - Shareable

The Urban Planning of Burning Man

The annual Burning Man festival is underway in Nevada, and this piece from The New York Times looks at the urban plan that undergirds the event.

August 30, 2011 - The New York Times

Burning Man Does Good At Home

Burning Man -- the annual arts festival and self-reliance experiment -- is more than a party in the desert. Its organizers are starting a new effort to revitalize the neighborhood around their San Francisco office.

August 19, 2011 - Fast Company

An Aural Trip to Burning Man

Sound recordist and architect Nick Sowers offers an audio experience of the annual festival Burning Man.

January 15, 2011 - Places

The City of Burning Man, Nevada

Planetizen's Nate Berg posits that Burning Man, the yearly freak festival in the Nevada desert, has become "a highly planned, intricately organized and fully functioning city" of 50,000 people.

January 10, 2011 - Places Journal

Burning Man a Dome Zone, But Not Beyond

Buckminster Fuller's geodesic dome housing design is a popular form of housing at the temporary festival Burning Man. But why hasn't a good idea caught on in the mainstream?

December 1, 2010 - Good

Urbanist Thinking at the Temporary Metropolis of Burning Man

It's already disappearing. The temporary city that forms during the annual Burning Man event is fading away, as the tens of thousands of people who traveled out to live in the desert of northwestern Nevada for the past week have filed out of the void and returned back to the rest of the world. The event's organizers and volunteers are still erasing the traces of the event, from demolishing structures to removing fencing to picking up trash. Within another week or so, the entire city will have disappeared. It's an interesting way for a city to exist -- just a few weeks at a time, once a year. But it's been working for Burning Man and Black Rock City, the name of that temporary city that forms and disbands almost as soon as it comes to full life. On top of what's already a unique experiment in citymaking, the theme of this year's event was Metropolis, which spurred the tens of thousands of people and artists who make up the city to think a little more about how their "party in the desert" is actually a little city and community (the fourth largest city in Nevada during its run), and how it relates to their world beyond the desert.

September 6, 2010 - Nate Berg

The Year of the City at Burning Man

The annual arts festival Burning Man is underway in Northwestern Nevada. This year's theme of Metropolis highlights the event's city-like nature.

September 3, 2010 - Next American City

A Data-Based Interpretation of Burning Man

The annual week-long art festival Burning Man is kind of hard to define. This infographic provides some data and context about the event and the temporary city it forms in the Nevada desert every year.

August 22, 2010 - SPUR Urbanist

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