Architects, engineers, and artists are exploring unprecedented ways to create and manifest their work – developing new methods to minimize intrusion on the natural environment.
One such team of designers is the Mumbai-based architecture firm NUDES. It has proposed “Solar Mountain,” a modern structure made from recycled timber and covered in solar photovoltaic panels. It’s a merger between efficient, clean energy production and artistic architecture – a unique solar farm indeed.
Naturally, it’s one of the ten shortlisted projects for Burning Man’s 3,800-acre Fly Ranch in the Nevada Desert. The annual event is well-known for bringing together artists and entrepreneurial people. If the design is built, it could inspire further collaboration between engineers and artists worldwide, ushering in a new wave of nature-oriented power-generating designs.
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The Fly Ranch is a permanent, off-the-grid zone proposed by the organizers of Burning Man. Solar Mountain is one of the finalists to be involved in the project because it aims to contribute 300 MWh of electricity annually while simultaneously providing interactive zones for the community. It’s designed to be a source of renewable power and an interactive installation for the community.
NUDES Founder and Principal Nuru Karim said:
The narrative behind the design is divided into three parts: grow energy, interact, and play.
The Burning Man organizers partnered with Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) to create its infrastructure through a multi-disciplinary design challenge. LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch and its shortlisted entries, including the Solar Mountain, will move to the next prototyping stage.
The Fly Ranch’s natural landscape inspired Solar Mountain. There is home to three geyser, several natural cold and hot springs, dozens of animals, hundreds of acres of wetlands, and over 100 types of plants. The curvy structure consists of a vast assortment of solar panels stretching down from a central spine made of recycled timber in gradient. It looks like a mountain so that it can seamlessly blend into its surroundings.
The project consists of four units. Each one measures a maximum height of 15m, 30m in length, and between 5m-30m in width.
It should offer a permanent and off-grid power source for everything that goes on at the Ranch. The gigantic structure will also provide shade to overheated Burning Man attendees in the middle of the desert. If built, the Solar Mountain project could become a precedent for new approaches to architecture and sustainable engineering – a symbol of the future of solar power applications.
