Conde Nast Traveller
THE BURNING MAN PROJECT: SUSTAINABLE DESIGN IN NEVADA’S BLACK ROCK DESERT
by TOBY SKINNER
23 June 2021
Last year the Burning Man Project, which has stewardship of the ranch, ran a competition with the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI), shortlisting 10 bold innovations that could now become actual prototypes. Recently unveiled, they include an orchard inside a rammed-earth spiral, with fruit walls home to insect hotels; biophilic, tent-like structures made of Ferrock, a concrete alternative that absorbs CO2; and a serpentine public loo that turns human waste into fertiliser for hydroponic gardens. ‘The aim of the competition has been to work with the Burning Man community and others to bring a collective creative energy to solving real-world issues,’ says Robert Ferry, who founded LAGI with his partner Elizabeth Monoian, holding previous competitions in locations including Abu Dhabi, Copenhagen and California’s Santa Monica. ‘But we didn’t want to impose a neocolonial vision.’