| Uchronia (meaning "No Time," but was commonly called "The
Belgian Waffle") was an almost 200 foot long, 100 foot
wide and nearly 50 foot tall wooden structure built by ~90 Belgian men
and women as volunteers. It used 100 miles of wood and a million nails.
"The 2-inch-by-3-inch beams ranged
in size from 8 to 10 feet long and
came
from the reject pile at a Canadian lumber mill. [... The] crew
will plant enough trees in Belgium to offset [the] installation's greenhouse
emissions." [source] Masterminded
by Jan Kriekels and Arne Quinze, Uchronia was funded
with $250,000 of Kriekels' own money. (The "volunteers" were
mostly from Kriekel's and Quinze's companies, and were paid salary plus
expenses, which has raised
some questions about BM being used as a backdrop for a branding boost
by Uchronia's designers.) Several
engineers we met—not
affiliated with this effort—were concerned about the safety of
Uchronia (which had a dance club underneath), including
how it would
behave when burned. Fortunately everything (mostly) held together throughout
the week, and the Sunday night burn went smoothly. You can see video
at TV
Free Burning Man (click the 9.01 Art entry and once it's loaded,
scroll nearly to the end). There are also some worthwhile photos and
commentary in this SF
Gate video (click on "listen"). |
