Our Burning Man Aluminet Shade Structure
Our Burning Man Aluminet Shade Structure
It's come to my attention that I've neglected to document our Burning Man Aluminet shade structure, for which I'm sorry. Bar none, this one addition to our homestead has made all the difference in living comfort and social ease. It debuted during Burning Man 2007, after only eleven years on-playa; the evolutionary next step after camping on the playa surface, under a military parachute, in a minivan, and finally in a recreational vehicle (RV).
What you see here is Ranger Lefty lunching under the completed shade structure. Features of note include the single-ply Aluminet nearest the van, double-ply nearest the camera (and the differences in the shade on the blue tarp), the side panels (which hold back the dust and give the area permanent shade, rather than the infamous "chasing a postage stamp of shade around as the sun moves across the sky" playa woes.
What is Aluminet?
Aluminet, properly known as Aluminet Thermal Screen Shade Cloth, is a loosely-woven shade cloth used primarily for protecting flowers and vegetables in greenhouses.
Aluminet keeps much of the harsh sunlight away while still allowing rain and breezes to pass. Aluminet is very strong, resists ripping in high winds, doesn't shred or become MOOP in the canonical ways. Compared to a traditional blue plastic shade tarp, it's fairly expensive, but that cost buys you silence (no snapping of fabric in wind), comfort (breezes passing through make for late-morning sleep-ins), and durability (we've used ours year after year, with minimal maintenance).
Technically, Aluminet is knitted (woven) fabric made of mono-oriented high-density polyethylene (HDPE) fibers which have undergone an aluminum metalization process and coated with an anti-oxidation layer, meeting the ASTN-D-3887 standard.
Aluminet comes in 30-70 per cent blockage, with our desert festival needing at least one layer of high-blockage fabric or (because our supplier screwed up our order) multiple layers of lower-blockage fabric. At least one online supplier offers a "Desert Festival Shade Cloth" special, consisting of "50% Aluminet shade cloth on the outside to deflect the intense sun and 50% White shade cloth on the inside to provide a light, cool environment."
Any Aluminet used in structures should be properly measured for the application and trimmed with professional-grade reinforcement tape and brass grommets.
Our shade structure, inspired by the Camp Howzit buildings, is a rigid metal structure of galvanized steel poles (to resist the corrosive playa alkalinity), held together by standard metal fixtures (specified below), anchored to the playa with long metal tent stakes and some easy-to-tighten knots, covered with Aluminet anchored to the frame with ball ties.
At right you see the structure in use as the common shade area in the Burning Man Kidsville piazza, with families coming and going all day and night. (LED light-strings around the edge of the metal frame makes for an inviting and usable structure all through the night; way better than those obnoxious lanterns.) IMPORTANT to note is the height of the vertical poles, which I designed to be eight feet tall; enough for tall people but reachable with any box or chair conveniently at hand.
This drawing shows a 20- by 20-foot concept; we wound up with a 20 by 50 reality. That's a lot of poles, heavy poles, made of galvanized steel (to resist the corrosive alkaline playa). Poles are inexpensively available at all major hardware stores. PLEASE NOTE that the drawing has horizontal poles just above the playa surface, whereas our actual structure doesn't (and seems no the worse for it).
We purchased "heavy-duty steel fittings" in 1-inch sizes from all4canopy.com; the BFG part numbers are their stock names. Spending the extra pennies on the galvanized fittings means you'll be reusing the hardware for years to come.
As to the Aluminet shade cloth, make sure yours blocks enough sun; I think the 50% should be a playa minimum. We've actually double-layered ours, so if I had to do it all over again I'd try for the 70% single-ply.
I can't recommend a supplier: the place we got ours screwed up the ordering, the taping, and then completely lost track of the shipment (which was of course the shipper's fault, but the paperwork was lousy on both sides). If you know of a good Aluminet supplier we'll be more than happy to work with them to evaluate their shipping product and add them to this page (given that supply questions are my #1 email request).
Well, I hope this page helps you construct your own sturdy, comfortable shade structure. Please feel free to ask any questions of me. To end, here's the shade structure in happy use. Bye!
[Thursday 16 July 2009]
PLAYA DUST WEB RING
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