Since they first landed at Black Rock City, the team behind Heartburst, imagined sharing their love for the built environment, community, and artistic expression with the Burning Man community. Heartburst offers those on the playa the invitation to pause, engage, and explore a more profound sense of connection with themselves and the world around them.

Sensitive to the environmental footprint of building temporary structures on the Playa, Heartburst playfully harnesses the healing power of light and sound through a bamboo structure framing views of the vast landscape of deep playa. The art spectacular encourages visitors to slow down, be present in their surroundings, and achieve a state of mindfulness. In addition to its sustainable nature, bamboo enhances the grounding experience of Heartburst, furthering human understanding of materiality in the built environment. The celebration of natural material offers a calming and centering effect, one which promotes a deeper connection to the natural world and a greater sense of stability. Its four heart-shaped entranceways and shared internal intersections embody the power of diversity and promote coming together.

Heartburst was constructed from approximately 884 bamboo poles with roughly 1570 individual connection points categorized through three systems for installation.  Each gridline or “slice” is made up of up to six prefabricated panel sections that fit inside standard 26 ft box trucks. Prior to build week, the team constructed 70 components including 58 prefabricated panels before moving to the playa for final completion. The full structure was then erected over the entire build week (6-7 days) on the playa.

The structure was designed for accidental climbing, while needing to withstand wind gusts of 75 mph. The design used a combination of bolted connection and metal wire lashings using standard rebar wire tying tools and helical earth anchors that are stabilized by diagonal aircraft cables and turn buckles. The earth anchors used to hold the structure in place were each 16x48inch, drilled into the playa by hand. 

Heartburst faced a series of serious challenges in both its development and execution including:

-             Severe shipping delays of the bamboo when being transported from Malaysia to Los Angeles due to weather and customs processing.

-             The delays resulted in the team having only four days to prefabricate panels before beginning build-week on the playa. 

-             Engineering challenges caused the team to have to redesign the structure while the bamboo was already cut and enroute.

-             Weather impact during build week including hurricane and the always present dust storm.

SUSTAINABILITY

Heartburst’s commitment to sustainability at Burning Man is reflected in its use of bamboo. Stronger than steel compared to its weight, bamboo is one of the most sustainable and fastest-growing materials available. By using bamboo as the primary material in the installation, Heartburst advances Burning Man’s commitment to environmental responsibility and demonstrates the possibility of creating stunning spatial experiences without causing harm to the planet.

Working with a leader in socially conscious, sustainable bamboo applications from Malaysia, the team verified the environmental impact of the structure. Using even the most conservative calculations, inclusive of the entire shipment of the bamboo from Malaysia to Los Angeles, the structure’s carbon sink is still negative -7.5 metric tons of CO2 footprint. This is equivalent to a US household carbon footprint for a year, making this sculpture beyond net zero construction and into a “net-negative” build.  In the US, bamboo has not been fully tested for commercial building. Having first conceived of using it for a next-generation fueling station in Malaysia, the designers saw Heartburst as an opportunity to further explore the material’s potential first-hand. Recognizing that the building industry must become more sustainable, the installation aims to bring more awareness and attention to bamboo as a building material, and its role in a more sustainable built environment.

The structure was later reconfigured for an exhibition in October 2023 at the RAM Gallery in Bakersfield, CA. It is currently being considered as a permeant art structure within Bakerfield, giving a longer life to the structure and reducing its impact even further.