Our initial meeting led to the following wishlist:

• Needed to be fairy tale inspired

  The classic pumpkin towed by a mouse was chosen.

• Had to transport the wedding party on the wedding day

  We wanted the bride to be presented from a blooming flower, so the protea was chosen as inspiration.

• Serve as a safe haven and a beacon at night

  Afrikaburn can be quite disorienting at night. We needed a beacon and a home base where you can find your tribe, even from the other side of the playa.

• Bring families together across languages and cultures

  We wanted the recreate the feeling of sitting around a bonfire. We wanted it to be an initmate enclosed space, whilst still being open to the outside world.

• Needed to be made of recycled materials as far as possible

  The majority of the materials used in building the camp and everything around the wedding was recycled materials, and much time was spent sourcing materials. Everything short of the electronics were recovered materials.

• The vehicle had to be capable

  The playa may seem flat, but sandy, dry river beds crossed the playa in various places. The vehicle needed to be able to deal with these conditions at night whilst carrying up to 15 people.

• Needed to be flammable

  We had a hard time choosing between a vehicle and burning an artwork, so why not both?

An initial model was drawn up using fusion 360 to play around with concepts.

After the initial design, I laser cut the pieces out of some modelling board to create a physical scale model.

The scale model was used during the entire build phase as reference, and travelled with us to the desert. It eventually met the same fate as its bigger brother.