Another Shade Structure. This is the 4th Shade structure that I have built in a five year time period. I’ve learned a few things and I would apply them to this project. I liked using a steel frame with a PVC and hotel bed sheet "curtain wall". It worked well for Apocalypse Lounge and I felt there was more that could be done with this technique. While the PVC is not very rigid it does hold up well in the wind and allows for some unique shapes that I wanted to utilize for this project.

I reused the corner hubs, beams and columns form Apocalypse Lounge. This saved a lot of fabrication time. Another part of my goal was to cut down on set up time once I got to the Playa. I thought if the roof and walls could be attached on the ground then the whole structure could be lifted to attach the columns I would be able to save a lot of time. The easy solution was a forklift or crane, the cheap solution was to build a boom arm off the back of my truck. With the boom I could lift one side of the structure bolt the columns on then drive around to the other side and do the same.

The solution worked great. Most of the work was done low to the ground without ladders. The roof and walls were attached to the beams, then the guy wires were attached all before lifting. After the columns were attached the stakes were hammered into the ground, then the guy wires were attached to the stakes and tensioned. With the cables in place the curtain wall simply rolled down the guy wires and the structure was done.

One other person and myself were able to set the structure up in under 5 hours once we got to the Playa. During the week the structure held up great, even during some of the worst dust storms I have ever seen.

I hope to make improvement and continue to use this structure for future Burning Man events.

Project completed 08.26.2008

LostMachine