Once a year, over the course of one week, a temporary city for 45,000 people is built from scratch, then completely dismantled, on a dried-out lake bed in a desert in the western United States for the Burning Man event. An increasingly sophisticated urban structure caters for the annually growing population.

The festival represents a critical stance towards consumerism, allowing no commerce. Inhabitants bring everything they need then take everything away with them, the principle being to “leave no trace”. No evidence of the city remains after it is “undone”, nor is anything permanent in place in the extremely inhospitable site to anticipate the making of the city.

The city is planned radially around the playa, a large central gathering area devoted to sculptures, installations and a “temple”. At the center of the playa is a large wooden effigy of a man, which is burnt at the end of the week. It serves as an orientation device until it is burnt in a spectacle that forms the ritual core of the event, and underscores the temporary nature of the city. In its ordered chaos, Black Rock City instigates creativity via temporary structures, artifacts and infrastructural systems necessary for survival in the harsh desert environment. This emergent, self-organized community supports and stimulates the investigation of new contemporary cultures, with its annual population growth as evidence of its success.