Aerial view of The Temple 2027 at dusk: the lit timber spires and courtyard wall glowing on the playa, with Black Rock City's lights behind

Burning Man 2027 · Black Rock City, Nevada

A tree turned upside down, to hold what we carry.

The 2027 Burning Man Temple is being called simply The Temple, leaving room for the crew and community to bring their own meaning to it.

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01 Design Inspiration

Patterns that repeat at every scale.

Trees, rivers
& their tributaries

Nature is full of patterns that repeat at different scales. These forms follow basic mathematical principles to organize themselves beautifully and efficiently.

Zoom in or out far enough on any form or ecosystem and the pattern appears. Trees show it in their branching; rivers and their tributaries do too. This Temple explores those patterns to show how participants are connected through one powerful, common experience.

Five-step diagram: a single Y-shaped branch repeats at smaller and smaller scales until it forms a full tree canopy — Fig. 01 Branching progression. The same Y-shape, smaller at every step, grows a tree.

Branching diagram labelling each level of the Temple: trunk, bough, large branch, small branch and twig — Fig. 02 Branching diagram: trunk, bough, branch, twig.

i. Ten years on

Made from trees, speaking through trees.

2027 marks ten years since Steve co-led the 2017 Temple, which also used trees as its philosophical driver. There’s something about trees that makes them a strong center for the Temple. Perhaps it’s because the Temple is ultimately made from them, and they find expression as a vehicle for healing.

As a tree splits from trunk to boughs, branches and twigs, the form repeats, so the whole mirrors itself at every scale. The hope is that the Temple holds that same quality: a collective grieving, each part reflecting the whole.

ii. The turn

Stuck, until it was flipped upside down.

The first branching diagram made a tree: trunk at the base, canopy on top. But the shape was unstable and didn’t read as a Temple. Turning the concept upside down made it work. That was the final step from tree to Tree‑Temple.

Diagram showing the tree rotated upside down: the trunk becomes the Temple's central spire and the branches spread outward along the ground — Fig. 03 From tree to Tree‑Temple. The canopy becomes the ground plan, the trunk becomes the spire.

02 This Temple is an Experiment

Is the Temple itself one level of a larger fractal structure, one we can’t easily see?

Inside the Temple: people walk beneath branching timber columns, dappled light on the playa floor — i / ii Interior. Walking between the branches.

Inside the Temple's central chamber, looking up into the lattice dome with a small altar spire at its center — i / ii Interior. Walking between the branches.

Fractal branching is not only the shape of the Temple; it’s a philosophical experiment. If in fractal branching each branch reflects the greater whole, then a change at one level should echo across the whole as well.

What happens when the form of the Temple aligns with that unseen structure?

03 Renderings

From first light to last light.

Section perspective of the Temple in daylight: timber lattice spires over the playa — A Section perspective

Section perspective of the Temple at night, lit warm from within under a starry sky — A Section perspective

Aerial view of the Temple and its courtyard at dawn in a soft dust haze — B Aerial view

Aerial view of the Temple and its courtyard wall glowing at dusk with Black Rock City's lights behind — B Aerial view

Top-down site plan of the Temple: a hexagonal courtyard wall inside a triangle of construction lines — C Site plan

Top-down site plan of the Temple at night, the central chamber glowing — C Site plan

04 Get Involved

Raised by many hands.

Volunteer

Bring your hands, your skills, or simply your presence.

Our organization is growing the way the Temple does, one branch at a time. The crew mixes Temple veterans with first‑timers, so there is always someone to learn from and someone to teach. Construction begins in early spring 2027.

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Donate

Every board will carry someone’s story.

The Temple is cut, raised and finished by hand, then released to the fire at the end of the week. Your gift becomes timber, tools, transport to the desert, and meals for the people building it.

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