Burning Man as an Urban Planning Experiment

I have been to Burning Man four times now. My first trip was in 2000 and it was on the tails of the Telluride Tech Festival. At that time, urban planning was  mostly an unfamiliar term to me and the fascination of Burning Man came mainly in the art and the people. It did not occur to me that a mass experiment in planning was taking place. The planned capacity of the event in 1998 was 9,000 people and has grown to over 50,000 now. Can you imagine a city of 50,000 occurring in the desert for one week, then disappearing? Whew, that could be a serious planning disaster. So, how do they do it? The Metropol blog series sheds some light on the planning and lessons behind Burning Man. I have chosen a  few highlights from the series below in relation to urban planning and community development.

• A sign of success in a healthy community is people coming together.
• When the population grew and the feeling of community began to dissipate, plazas brought it back.
• Participants provide the substance and the soul of the community.
• Great cities contain spiritual and ritual centers.
• Zoning in the city is designed to meet the demands of particular elements of the city who have developed different needs and tolerances.
• Streets are connectors - not only between places but between people.
• Great cities are organic, spontaneous, heterogeneous and untidy hubs of social interaction.
• An ongoing problem as it grows is to anticipate problems stemming from perception of isolation within a crowd too large.

This years theme, which I am very excited about, is "Metropolis: The Life of Cities". What a great place to explore the nature of cities. I am attending this years event and will provide a series of posts on planning thoughts during preparation and post burn.