In some unknown way, the psyche is transformed at Burning Man by connecting it with art, fire, and community. This project stimulates those connections by establishing intimate neighborhood meeting points for participants to congregate and make new friends as they create art and fire together. Want to build a cool playhouse for our giant sandbox? It ís so easy.

Each Playa Hearth Stop consists of a burn barrel or other fire piece surrounded by four wooden Playa Love Seats to define the space. See pictures at https://www.playatech.com. Each four foot wide Playa Love Seat is easily cut from a single 4×8 1/2î plywood sheet in under an hour pre-playa. It fits in a car as six flat pieces, and assembles on-site in seconds using slots in the parts, without fasteners or glue. Cost is maybe $25-35/seat. The bulk of the playa effort is pounding one rebar per seat and then stoking the flames! During the early days of the event, art can be painted on the Playa Love Seats by participants in the morning, and baked by the hot sun for seat use that night while the community shares a fire ñ see photo on this tribe of this weekís creation painted by many at BMHQ.

Use Playa Hearth Stops as the psyche suggests – village rendezvous points, art car stops, deep playa contemplations, dust storm shelters, theatres, passionate connections, or Ö? Playa Love Seats may be burned by their creators at conclusion of the event if suitable paints are used, or shipped flat back to default for reuse should they survive the playa. They also make great camp chairs! Burn barrel use and fire art are subject to event rules at www.BurningMan.com.

So, would anyone like to create a Playa Hearth Stop in your neighborhood where we can chill awhile? The Playatech website provides drawings for cutting the plywood, and weíll share pointers to suitable paints and other ideas as we find them. Weíll even tell Playa Info where we think youíll locate your stop, and perhaps we’ll arrange a rickshaw tour. You will be self-sufficient about the rest ñ after all, this is Burning Man so if you want a sweet spot to entertain in the middle of nowhere you damn well better go build it yourself!

They say ìitís just a week in the desertî. And this project is just four sheets of ply around a discarded oil drum – everything else will be in our psyches. Want to play make believe in the worldís biggest sandbox with me? Itís been a long time.

– See more at: https://playatech.com/news/#item4