OAKLAND COMMERCIAL FACADE
【CLIENT】
Temple Builder's Guild
【PLACE + TIME】
Oakland, CA / 2024
【PROJECT TEAM】
Because We Can ✦ DFMA
【MADE IN OUR SHOP】
Custom cut fabric pieces for the lanterns
Image from the Temple of Together website
For the 2024 Burning Man Festival, Jeffrey McGrew volunteered his time to Temple Builder's Guild (the volunteer group that builds the temple each year). The initial design called for a pair of monumental hands out in front. The Guilder’s Guild team needed help making these real, which is right our my alley - making design ideas buildable.
The Temple at Burning Man has always been special. For those that don't know about it, a quick story: at the Burning Man festival it's become a tradition to build a temple, a non-denominational space for remembrance of those recently lost, celebration, and worship in your own way. A sort of architectural competition, artists submit their ideas for it, and the winning design gets built by a large crew of volunteers working hard to bring it to life (and raise the money to help pay for it all!).
During the festival people leave memorial notes and objects in it, people get married in it, various services are held in it, and then the day after the Man burns the Temple is burned too. When the Man burns, it's a huge raucous party; when the Temple burns, it's somber, with many thousands of people watching in respectful silence. It's incredibly powerful..
We brought the initial Sketchup concept model into Blender, and remodeled it into several different iterations until arriving at the final form.
Working closely with the Builder’s Guild team, we reviewed the timeline, budget, and ease of constructibility (and burn-ability!) of the design, we eventually decided together as a team to go with a more faceted design that could be quickly produced from CNC-cut flat panels of plywood. While we loved the form of the final design, making smooth curved forms would have taken more time, and thinner plywood or other options for skinning them quickly could become a hazard when burned due to them flying off more easily in the wind. So the hands were remodeled to a final faceted form for the hand and front, with a lattice on the backside to match the temple's outer walls.
Before and after photos show the building now with its new green awnings in place. The building exterior was also painted a new warm color, and all the trim painted black to match the existing metal window trim. These updates add a warm inviting look to the building and give the façade some dimension, to better match with the existing neighborhood buildings.
Before having all the awnings made, we created a prototype as we usually do. This one we had fabricated in the full size, as we wanted to assure the gauge of the steel was appropriate for the use. The lower awnings have a risk of a passerby grabbing them with some force, so the gauge & resistance of the material was crucial the the project success.
Through our comprehensive design process, we transform commercial spaces to enhance their aesthetic appeal and functionality, creating a lasting impression on businesses and their communities.
