UK Architecture Students  Design Burning Man Sculptures in Class

In one architecture class at London's University of Westminster, Burning Man is homework.

As part of a class called Diploma Studio 10, architecture students design and build projects for real-life sites, including the famous desert gathering. DS10 has submitted 80 different projects over the last five years to an arts grant program run by Burning Man, The Architect’s Newspaper reports.

The designers who run DS10 first decided to incorporate the artsy festival because of what they call Burning Man’s “guiding principles,” which include “radical self-reliance,” “communal effort,” and “leaving no trace.” As funding allows, members of the class travel to the Nevada gathering to erect their climbable, temporary sculptures as a team.

The class applies for funding from Burning Man to actually make the sculptures a reality, and last year, three got funded. This year, the festival declined to fund any of their projects, so instead the students are taking to Kickstarter. PURSUIT, by designer Joshua Potter, is a cave-like pavilion made of winding stepped columns which allow people to clamber up to the top of the structure.

Burning Man may not be the most conventional place to start an architectural career, but the middle of the desert makes an excellent place to try out radical new architectural ideas.

[h/t The Architect’s Newspaper]

All images courtesy Joshua Potter via Kickstarter.