Esoteria: Bazaar of the Mystics II // Journey

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(1) adj. occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a bounday or threshold (2) adj. rite of transitional stage

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Contents

II.IV When the Esoteric Builds

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Part III – To Decrypt Architecture’s Mysterium

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III.I Welcome to The Temple 16 III.Ia Background

17 III.Ib Timeline Overview 19 III.Ic Plan & Interior 25 III.Id Structure 29 III.Ie The 7.5m Module 35 III.If Facades 39 III.Ig Towers 47 III.Ih Esoteric Symbolism 49 III.II Mundania No More 55 III.IIa Humble Beginnings 57 III.IIb Site/Location 59 III.IIc Behind the Fire 61 III.IId Site Planning 67 III.IIe Programming the Esoteric 77 III.IIf Building the Esoteric 79 III.III Place for Culture 91 III.IIIa Background 92 III.IIIb Concept 93 III.IIIc To Borrow for Enchantment 95 III.IV ‘Welcome Home’ 101

Part IV – Programming for Enchantment in the Esoteric Space

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IV.I The Masters of the Esoteric Place 107 IV.II Program for Enchantment 129 IV.III Spatial Relationships 137

Part V – Place for Enchantment Context & Analysis

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Part VI – Space & Site Correlations

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V.I Dubai’s History of Enchantment 151 V.II Site Selection Criteria 157 V.III Site Description 183 V.IV Evolution of Festival City 195 V.V Regulations & Zoning Ordinance 197 V.VI Site Natural Characteristics 199 V.VI Site Contextual Built Environment 225 V.VII Social & Economic Impact 227

VI.I And Here, Esoteria Shall Thrive

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II.IV When the Esoteric Builds

Before we may ever take such an undertaking as building for the Esoteric, we must establish some criteria which the Esoteric Space must follow.

Let me remind you, fellow reader, that Esoteria is first and foremost a Bazaar, and thus it is inherently a dynamic and social proposal in nature.

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Tarot, Major Arcana, Card XIX: The Sun: “experiencing greatness, having a personal moment of glory, setting an example, demonstrating distinction, becoming the centre of attention” -Bunning

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Imperative to its success is the creation of a space which welcomes all and harbours a sense of gathering, such as the Cultural Complex in Luz, Sao Paolo, by Herzog de Meuron. Being a cultural center for performance and exhibition, the program is social in nature and successfully creates atria and programmatic sequencing that generate an active setting.

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However, Esoteria is not merely a social space, but it is also a whimsical one, and the presence of street performance, bustling activity, and most importantly, fun, fantastical atmosphere is necessary. Projects such as OMA’s 11th Street Bridge Park and Sou Fujimoto’s Beton Hala Waterfront Centre fulfill this need.

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Furthermore, one cannot overlook the significance of studying esoteric festival spaces, for even if their programmatic aspect proves very different from our intended proposal, there lies a spatial quality specific to the world of the enchanted that ought to be valued. More widely known is Burning Man Festival, which attracts hundreds of thousands of mystics yearly, and lesser known are the Lothlorien festivals ELFest and Wild Magick Gathering.

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And finally, what more does the Esoteric Place need than that numinous quality – that awe-inspiring moment of feeling the presence of the celestial. Antoni Gaudi’s La Sagrada Familia can be said to be the Mother of all Numinous spaces: The Temple. More modern and less religious interpretations of numinous architecture are many of the works of Sou Fujimoto, namely his regional proposal Particles of Light.

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Part III To Decrypt Architecture’s Mysterium

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III.I Welcome to The Temple

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III.Ia

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Background

It’s been waiting for you for 139 years.

Antoni Gaudi

Welcome to The Temple.

Originally conceived in 1882 by Francesco de Paula del Villar y Lorenzo, the undertaking of designing La Sagrada Familia moved to Antoni Gaudi’s hands only a year later in 1883. Little did he know, Gaudi would only see less than a quarter of his creation come to life before his death in 1925.

(Jones, 2013)

Francesco de Paula’s original design reflected church design of his time, with neo-Gothic elements such as ogival windows, buttresses, flying buttresses, and a pointed bell tower. Gaudi, on the other hand, took a different route, one that was more ambitious and revolutionary than anyone would have anticipated the 31-year-old to pave. He maintained the Latin cross plan drawn up by Villar and eliminated flying buttresses, replacing them with a system of angled columns and hyperboloidal vaults. (Jones, 2013) Gaudi drew inspiration from African mud architecture, and the Gothic, Expressionist, and Art Nouveau movements. (Harris & Zucker, n.d.) Zerbst Rainer, renowned critic, wrote ‘that it is practically impossible to find a church building anything like it in the entire history of architecture.’ (Akande, 2017) ✧

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Francisco Lorenze

Located in Barcelona, Spain, the traditional basilica cruciform plan is parallel to the diagonal orientation Barcelona is notorious for, rather than adhering to the typical east-west axis like nearly all other medieval cathedrals.

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Timeline Overview

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1883 Antoni Gaudi takes over the project while working on others 1885 Chapel of saint joseph inaugurated in the crypt and first masses held 1891 Work on the nativity facade begins

1882 Project designed by Francisco de Paula de Villar March 19 Bishop Urquinaona lay the cornerstrone of the Temple ✧

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1914 Antoni Gaudi begins working exclusively on the temple until his death

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1925 Saint Barnabas bell tower on the nativity tower is completed

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1926 Gaudi dies and his disciple Domenec Sugranyes takes over

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1977 Bell towers on the passion façade completed 1978 Construction begins on the facades on the side naves

1958 19 march The feast of saint joseph, a sculpture group representing the holy family by Jaume Busquets, is put in place

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1952 Staircases on the nativity façade are built and the façade is lit up for the first time 1954 Foundation laid for the passion façade

1936 The temple is vandalized during the Spanish civil war. Plans and photographs are burnt and the plaster models smashed ✧

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1986 Work began on the foundations for all the naves, the columns, vaults and facades on the main nave, transepts, crossing, and apse. The works were completed in 2010

2005 The nativity façade and crypt are named UNESCO world heritage 2010 On 7 Nov 2010, Pope Benedict XVI consecrated the basilica for religious worship and designated in a minor basilica

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2016 Construction begins on the towers of the evangelists, the virgin mary, and jesus christ. Work is completed on the western sacristy and cloister of our lady of dolours 2018 July, the cross is placed on top of the pediment of the passion facade

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2020 March stops construction due to covid October resumes 2021 Construction began on the shaft and it was covered in trencadis mosaic The twelve-pointed star will be placed on top of the shaft in December, which will illuminate the city of Barcelona (“History of the Basilica,” 2021)

The Temple is to be completed by 2026.

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Plan

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Interior

Although the plan of the interior cannot compete with the exterior in sheer complexity, it is still far from a humble division. The interior contains double aisles, an ambulatory, a chevet leading to seven apsidal chapels, a cloister which forms a rectangle encapsulating the entirety of the church and passing through the narthex of the three portals, which are wildly contrasting in structure and ornament.

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The Latin cross plan contains five aisles, while the transepts only have three.

The vaults of the central nave and side nave vaults reach forty-five and thirty meters respectively. The columns follow a 7.5m grid, and this module manifests itself all over the plan as will be examined later. The four central columns of the crossing, whose vault reaches sixty meters, support a hyperboloid surrounded by two rings of twelve more hyperboloids, and the apse is capped by another hyperboloid vault of seventy-five meters in height. If you’ve noticed the subtle mastermind at work, the vaults’ heights increase gradually towards the apse so that a believer standing at the main entrance would see the vaults of the nave and crossing flow up towards the culmination at the apse. There are three openings in the floor of the apse towards the crypt below.

A rush of emotions showers you as you enter La Sagrada Familia. As with other religious structures, you immediately feel dwarfed and insignificant as the majestic and mysterious interior overwhelms you.

One may venture to say that of a numinous space, it does not get more divine than at The Temple.

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Structure

The previous sample of Gothic medieval cathedrals relied on flying buttresses for their structural integrity. Gaudi did not follow and chose to go down a path of mathematical ingenuity instead. La Sagrada Familia’ structure, then, comprises of three-dimensional ruled surfaces, like hyperboloids, parabolas, helicoids, and conoids. This decision made for thinner and finer structural elements and a better acoustic and light quality. Not short of a genius, in order to calculate the necessary angles for the columns, vaults, and arches, Gaudi suspended a system of strings bearing weights from a projection of the plan of the Temple. The result was then studied and inverted to make up the structure, evident in the slanted columns on the Passion façade. (Jones, 2013)

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7.5m Module

A fascinating aspect to note about La Sagrada Familia is Gaudi’s 7.5m module which he used as a measurement both vertically and horizontally and the spiritual, somewhat esoteric meaning it beholds.

When he received the project, there were already pre-existing elements that have been constructed based on the old plan. Gaudi studied these in attempt to find a base module to give the rest of the construction a sense of order and proportion. He took the internal measurement of the apse, one of the most significant parts of a church as it contains the altar, as a base to generate a grid. The two potential outcomes of this would be either dividing the space into two, yielding an 8.7m module, or dividing it in three, yielding a 5.8m module. The former proved too big and the latter too small. Instead, Gaudi then looked at the external measurement of the apse, 30m, and divided it into four equal parts of 7.5m each, meaning the central nave would measure 25m and the side naves 7.5m, which proved suitable to Gaudi. Here is where the base module was born.

Aside from its application in the column grid of the plan, it was used vertically in section and other aspects as follows: (Serrallonga, 2017) The crossing: 15 x 15 m (7.5m x2) Railing for choirs: 15m (7.5m x 2) Vaults on nave sides: 30m (7.5m x 4) Vaults on crossing: 60m (7.5 x 6) Highest point of apse: 75m (7.5m x 10) Total length: 90m (7.5m x 12)

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There has always been this mysterious air around Gaudi and his works, which arguably fed into his great success and the world’s fascination with his architecture. His works are perceived as never just a sum of what they seem to be, and rather offer to the curious eye multiple readings beyond geometry and mechanics and into the vast world of esoteric symbolism.

In both Secular and Christian symbology, numbers are accompanied with corresponding meanings. The number 7 is associated with intuition, mysticism, inner wisdom, and inward knowledge, meanwhile the number 8 represents new beginnings. (“Secrets,” 2021) ‘There are 7 days of creation, 7 days in the week, 7 planets, 7 holy sacraments, 7 sayings of Jesus on the Cross, 7 deadly sins, 7 gifts of the holy spirit, 7 acts of mercy, 7 colours in the rainbow, 7 metals of antiquity, 7 musical notes, 7 piano scales, and 7 sages of ancient Greece.’ (Serrallonga, 2017) The number 8 is associated with the resurrection, baptism, and the infinite. Gaudi, then, choosing 7.5, may have intended to bring an intermediate symbolism between both of these numbers.

In other religions, 7 is a number of goodness and 8 of evil, and since 7.5 falls between those, it can be said to be above good and evil.

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Facades

La Sagrada Familia is famously known for three of its four facades which follow different artistic and architectural expression: the Nativity façade of the northeast, the Glory Façade of the southeast, and the Passion façade of the southwest.

Although one usually stumbles upon only descriptive material about the facades, as with the rest of The Temple, the façades carry an esoteric essence, even if the subject of the images they depict are orthodox in nature. Gaudi sought to manifest the architecture as an extension of nature; an image of it in its divine state. The facades are conceived with curved lines as, according to Gaudi, ‘straight lines did not exist in nature,’ and thus La Sagrada Familia ‘should not be constructed with straight lines.’ (Serrallonga, 2017) The facades, then, which depict Nature, Life, and Death, could be said to borrow their aesthetic spirit from the teachings of nature in reverence to it, as the esoterics always endeavoured to do.

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The Nativity Façade is the only one Gaudi lived to see through. This façade depicts the birth of Jesus in a naturalistic style characteristic of Gaudi, and holds four belltowers dedicated to St Barnabus, St Jude the Apostle, St Simon the Zealot, and St Matthew the Apostle, and range in height between 98 and 112 meters. (Harris & Zucker, n.d.)

It faces the rising sun as a symbol for the birth of Christ and is divided into three porticoes dedicated to Hope, Faith, and Charity: three theological virtues. Gaudi originally intended for this façade to be brilliantly polychromed, and each and every statue painted.

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Visible construction differences due to the length of the construction process

The Glory Façade of the southeast is the main façade and entrance of La Sagrada Familia and is dedicated to the Celestial Glory of Jesus. Underneath the staircase which leads to the portico of the Glory Façade lies an underground passage which represents Hell and Vice, decorated in demons, idols, false gods, heresy, and schisms. Tombs along the ground will depict death and purgatory. The base of the seven large columns of the portico represents the seven deadly sins, and the tops the seven heavenly virtues. All of this is to narrate a story to the visitor that those who deviate from God’s will are leading a path to Hell. (Harris & Zucker, n.d.)

The Passion Façade of the southwest is namely dedicated to the Passion of Christ, and its four towers to the apostles James the lesser, Bartholomew, Thomas, and Philip. But perhaps what sets this façade apart from all the others is the strikingly tormented faces of the sculpted characters adorning it, which include an emaciated Christ scourged at the pillar and a Christ on the cross.

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Passion Facade

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The Passion Façade’s austere and plain appearance stands in stark contrast with the extremely ornate nature of the Nativity façade.

Whereas the Nativity Façade was organic, this one is rigid and angular, and Gaudi hoped it would strike fear and show the severity of Christ’s sacrifice through the effect of chiaroscuro.

Opposite to the Nativity façade, the Passion façade faces the setting sun, symbolic of the death of Christ..

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There are three levels to the scenes on this façade: the first depicts scenes from Jesus’ last night before he was crucified and includes The Last Supper, Kiss of Judas, Ecce Homo, and the Sanhedrin Trial of Jesus, the second depicts the Cavalry or Golgotha of Christ and includes The Three Marys, St Veronica, St Longinus, and Christ, and the third depicts the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.

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Towers

As you approach La Sagrada Familia, you are greeted with eighteen extravagant spires or towers. Twelve towers represent the Apostles on each facade, four the Evangelists – topped in sculptures of a bull, a winged man, an eagle, and a lion – one Virgin Mary over the apse, and the central tallest Jesus Christ.

The pinnacles of the Evangelists’ towers are topped with winged tetramorphs: Luke is a bull, a symbol of a humble, calm beast of burden, Matthew is a winged man, both angel and human at once to highlight the humanity of the son of God, John is an eagle looking down on the world from a higher position, and Mark is a lion, a symbol of courage and royalty. (“The Pinnacles,” 2021) ✧

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The Tetramorph

Upon completion, the Jesus tower will be crowned with a large cross, culminating the church at 172m, just one meter short of the peak of Montjuic Hill, as Gaudi did not want his creation to surmount God’s. (Akande, 2017) As the towers taper towards a vanishing point somewhere in the vault of the sky, we are reminded ‘to have faith in the single, omnipotent presence of God.’ (Jones, 2013) ✧

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Esoteric Symbolism

The church is decorated with the belief in the esoteric power of words. It is sprinkled with words from liturgy, the towers are decorated with words such as ‘Hosanna,’ ‘Excelsis,’ and ‘Sanctus,’ the doors on the Passion Façade are carved with words from the Bible in different languages including Catalan, and the Glory façade with words from the Apostles’ Creed. But if this seems too regular still, let’s examine some esoteric symbols scattered around La Sagrada Familia.

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On the Passion Façade, there lies a Labyrinth symbol, which could allude to the sacrifice made by man to reach God but could also be a Masonic symbol interpreted as the way to achieve perfection. (“Some Question Marks,” n.d.)

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We also see sculptures of the Salamander, which is the symbol of Philosopher’s sulfur in alchemical terms. The salamander symbolizes mystery, courage, and strength. (“Some Question Marks,” n.d.)

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The Passion façade also contains a magic square, next to the sculpture of the Kiss of Judas. This 4x4 square consists of 15 numbers which, when added horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, sum up to 33, the age when Christ was crucified. But, the number 33 also appears in other Gaudi creations, such as Park Guell. An esoteric eye would tell you that 33 is the highest rank a freemasonist could reach, and Guadi was suspected of being one. (“Some Question Marks,” n.d.)

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‘The abundance of symbols that runs through [Gaudi’s] work has made rivers of ink run, because it is virtually inexhaustible.’ (“Unresolved,” n.d.)

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III.II Mundania No

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“Welcome to Nowhere…its name is whatever you name it. Its wealth is whatever you bring it. Next week it will be gone, but next week might as well be never. You are here now” -Motto from Journal of The Black Rock Gazette

Recall, fellow on this journey, how a festival space has cemented itself in our modern times as a new fertile ground for culture and spirituality to intermingle in an exceptionally social setting, one where the believers, the skeptics, the explorers, and the curious gather to be cloaked in whimsy and awe.

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Sarah Pike, hands-on scholar of neopagan festivals for over twenty years, describes the festival space as one that ‘both expresses and shapes the religious yearnings of participants who are searching for spiritual intensity and utopian community. (Pike, 2001) And so it is not only fair, but also imperative, to examine the modern festival space in its magickal allusions, esoteric space planning, and architectural investigations of the enchanted so that we may proceed with understanding how to build the fantasy – and what more magnificent of a festival phenomenon than Burning Man?

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Humble Beginnings

“Let’s put the cult back into culture!”

-Motto of Burning Man’s ‘Mysterium: The Secret Rites of Burning Man’ Edition

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Burning Man was not always such a huge spectacle as it is today, with the 2020 metaverse edition hosting over 500,000 festival goers.

It was 1986, Summer Solstice. Larry Harvey calls up a friend.

‘Let’s…

Let’s burn a man, Jerry,’ he says. He has to repeat it before Jerry is in.

They build an eight-foot Man out of scrap lumber, drag it to Baker Beach in San Francisco, and set it ablaze.

A curious crowd gathers to watch it burn.

First twelve, then twenty, then they triple, as spontaneous performances of singing and dancing start. (“Man on Baker Beach,” n.d.)

‘It was like a second sun brought down to this Earth, it was just… it transfixed us… and for a moment, it turned night into day.’ – Larry Harvey, 1997 Speech These are its humble beginnings; a community of twenty or so odd strangers spellbound around this enchanted ritual, ignorant to the exponential effects it would have on the future of magickal places and reigniting enchantment in a growing disenchanted world.

And so it began.

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Site / Location

It is first important to note that although the official website states ‘Burning Man is not a festival, [it] is a community, [it] is a temporary city, a global cultural movement,’ this is more on a philosophical rather than logistical note, and for the sake of this examination we will refer to and study Burning Man as an esoteric festival space.

The festival space is a sacred space, that much we have established.

So, how can one define a sacred space for hundreds of thousands of people? First, an appropriate site must be chosen. Since the sacred is often discovered on long arduous journeys absent from the rigors of mundania, it would only be appropriate for Burning Man to be held in a large expanse of nothing: Black Rock City in the deserts of Nevada – a pilgrimage worthy of over 70,000 hedonists and spirituals from all corners of the world.

Only a small budding gathering, Burning Man’s site was plainly hidden in the desert’s vastness during the early nineties where participants were directed to the gate station and given coordinates for the festival settlement. As the number of participants started steadily increasing, the organizers noted that this many attendees could not safely traverse this space between the gate and the festival as there were frequent whiteouts, thunderstorms, and reckless driving, and so the festival site was moved in 1998 to the southern end of Black Rock Desert. It has since been moved a few times due to negotiations with the BLM so as not to interfere with other recreational land users. (“The Magickal Symbols,” 2014)

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Behind the Fire

“We never say what the Man means… He’s just there to provide a unified focus for the community… he stands beyond the social circle, like a god or the prospect of war, something that unifies everyone.” -Larry Harvey, the mind behind Burning Man ‘A smoke screen, smoke and mirrors. A glamor.’ (“The Magickal Symbols,” 2014) The wonder of Burning Man never ceases to intrigue, its name on the tongues of hundreds of thousands and the fingertips to the screens of millions more. A festival shrouded in carefully calculated ambiguity and riddled with sacred insinuations so as much as one could almost entirely ditch the term ‘festival’ to describe it and substitute it for ‘ritual’ instead, and no one would bat an eyelash. (Rhey, 1995)

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‘The Burning Man [towers] over a spontaneous community, a miniature civilization’ where masses of people of all ages and races indulge their creative whims and impulses through costume, music, dance, sculpture, meditation, theme camps, and rituals. At Burning Man, you are so far removed from Mundania and you must forget the dictatorial division of ‘professional’ vs ‘amateur’ and ‘performer’ vs ‘spectator’ as in the here and now they are meaningless, and all is everything at once, a true feast for the senses.

By day Burning Man is a fantastical vibrant community of tents, flags, and banners waving you in, and by night it is an enchanted dreamscape ‘as artists craft light, sound, neon, and the primal element of fire into luminous spectacles.’

The mastermind Behind the Fire paints the image of the final rite as follows:

On the final evening of the festival, participants join in a grand promenade.

Dancers bearing torches lead them to the Burning Man along a pathway flanked by monumental spires. Clamour, cries, and high-pitched ululations are succeeded by a hush as the four-story figure is ignited. Then a wild pandemonium ensues as lapping flames engulf the torso in a solid sheath of fire. Mounting upward, they ignite a fuse: fountains of fireworks spew out of the giant’s head. Most animate now, at the moment of his demise, he soon shudders, and the three-quarter ton figure comes crashing to the ground.

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We would not be studying the modern music festival of Burning Man were it not related to esotericism in some form or another, and much to our pleasure, fellow reader, this festival is indeed rich with mystic allusions to ancient knowledge and ritual. Larry Harvey, artist, philanthropist, activist, and co-founder of Burning Man, unveils the esoteric significances behind this spectacle in the neo-mystic magazine Gnosis under the pen name Darryl van Rhey in 1995.

‘Yet to the student of religion,’ he says, the rites of Burning Man ‘suggest a time, a place, and a social setting that has precedents in ancient history.’ He takes us on a tale back to the classic period of Western civilization when mystery cults brought about a new order of the world.

In the early beginnings in Alexander the Great’s Roman conquests in the Mediterranean World, societal gaps and class divides became prominent where the rich were separated from the poor and the urban from the rural, ‘a world remarkably like our own.’ (Rhey, 1995) This environment kindled something within the people for change, and mystery cults arose, deriving inspiration from many cultures and religions of the past, and they brought about the worship of Isis and Osiris of Egypt, Mithra of Persia, and the Anatolian Great Mother.

Votive plaque depicting elements of the Eleusinian Mysteries c. 4th century BCE

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The Youth of Bacchus William Adolphe Bouguereau c. 1884 CE

One practice in common amongst these cults was the celebration of prehistoric agrarian fertility festivals teeming with theatrical parades and pageants where members within the cults felt a broad sense of equality with their fellow esoterics. These ceremonies began with pilgrimages away from mundania and towards a more sacred site, and thus began the festivities of singing, dancing to flutes and cymbals, strange and whimsical costuming… A central theme of death and rebirth was enhanced by highly theatrical performances around firelight at night. This lasted for many days, and as class distinctions were dissolved, the festival space became the antithesis of ordinary life which has been poisoned with exploitation, divide, bias, and political agendas.

We can therefore draw many parallels between the concept of Burning Man and Ancient Bablyonian Magickal Rites of Eleusis, borrowing elements of fire and darkness, costumes, masks, symbols, robes, ritual, rhythms, dancing, lights, exclusivity, and separation from the ordinary from the Dionysian Mysteries, and the ancient Druids, as Burning Man celebrates Summer Solstace, a Pagan and astrological event. (“The Magickal Symbols,” 2014)

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“Persons who are being initiated into the mysteries throng together at the outset amid tumult and shouting, but when the holy rites are being disclosed and performed, the people are immediately attentive in awe and silence.’ – Plutarch, the Eleusinian Mysteries One can even compare it to rituals of the neopagans which we have so thoroughly placed emphasis on throughout this journey, where wicker effigies would be set ablaze during the end of neo-druid festivities celebrating ancient Celtic holidays. (Snyder, 2016)

From Nothing to Nothing

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Harvey ties this rich history to his Burning Man as he concludes ‘the parallels are striking: fire, sacrifice, pilgrimage, visionary spectacle, egalitarianism, revelry, recruitment from an urban population, direct experience opposed to doctrinal belief, and central to it all, a myth of death and rebirth… the past and present rotate on a single wheel of time.’ (Rey, 1995)

Burning Man is simultaneously a very real and yet very ephemeral wonder, as annually it arises from vast emptiness and then vanishes completely.

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Site Planning

The circle-within-a-pentagon which hosts the wonder of Burning Man today has gone through many a design change fuelled by necessity and esoteric principles over the years. Held annually in Black Rock Desert, the site of Burning Man has been named Black Rock City accordingly. Black Rock City came to be after the Man’s burning was relocated from its humble beginnings in Baker Beach, San Francisco to Nevada in 1991.

As this location in the vast expanse of the desert was a pilgrimage of several hundred miles, and this year the gathering attendance rose up to 250 people, a camp was set up near the Man destined to be burnt to accommodate everyone. This began the camping tradition and later developed into the theme camps section of the site.

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The camp was in a circle formation, not through planning, but as people intuitively ‘circled the wagons’ as an instinctive urge to huddle up amongst the boundless desert around the traditional campfire and the Man. It became increasingly apparent that it was difficult to navigate towards this settlement in the great nothingness and those who exited often got lost, and so for practical reasons four avenues following the cardinal directions for ease of travel and navigation were created. Compass headings were notched into this circle to orient the goers in the stark emptiness of Black Rock Desert. In 1992, the BLM required an informal plan of the space to grant permission to camp as it rapidly evolved from a weekend to a week-long event.

In the coming years, Larry Harvey developed a centralized hub for services and gathering, and in 1996 a second circle called Ring Road offset from this. A No Man’s Land zone was placed in front of the gathering space to preserve a clear view of the Burning Man, and this was lined with theme camps and opened at around 60 degrees from the plaza towards the Man. At Centre Camp, they rightly dubbed this perspectival clearing the Keyhole.

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In 1997, the festival was moved away from the playa and to the nearby Hualapai Valley in Washoe County, and to comply with its county regulations, many one-off changes to the plan and site arrangement were made. It still followed a camp-centric scheme where the Man is ancillary to the camp, but further specified road and street names and urban amenities were added. Due to the site being sandwiched between a nearby zigzagging property line and the narrow shoreline of Hualapai Flat, the festival site was planned as an arc spread out laterally from the centre plaza.

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At the back it was bordered with thick brush and a long irrigation trench, at the flanks lie fence lines, and at the front was an impassable playa, and for the first time, these site conditions allowed for the creation of a secure entry point, the gate, which carried on to future site planning of Burning Man.

As attendance exponentially grew to about 15,000 participants, the plan was reworked to retain a sense of communal belonging and intimacy which the original camping circle harboured, and the goal was to create densities that would foster social interaction on a large civic scale in 1998. The large attendance meant extra attention was given by the site planning to ensure the smooth flow of people and supplies in and out, and the layout needed to be easily comprehensible and scalable for future expansion.

Breaking from last year’s camp-centric layout, the 1998 Black Rock City plan was arranged by placing the fixed point of a drawing compass where the Man would be and consequently arranging the city around him as the geographic centre. This arc would define a series of concentric streets which formed less than a semicircle and were further subdivided into blocks by a series of radial streets. In the centre of all this and facing the Man is the Camp Centre, like previous years. Thus, the Man became a unique identifier of festival goer’s position in this layout, ‘an icon and an environment in which it felt as if each participant was co-related – while united by some transcendent principal.’ ✧

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In 1999, the blocks were oriented annularly and as the theme was ‘Wheel of Time,’ the radial streets were now laid out in 15 degree increments and named as numbers of the clock. Combining this with the concentric street names made it an easy system of location, so although each year the theme of Burning Man changes, the time analogy is kept for street naming and site planning.

For the site design of the later editions which remains nearly unchanged to this day, planners sought to resolve some security issues they faced as attendance numbers rose to the fifty, sixty, and seventy thousands.

The issues were (a) minimizing the footprint to accommodate other recreational land users, (b) creating one controllable entry point to charge an entry fee, (c) protecting the Burning Man community from rogue vehicles in the playa, and (d) containing wind-born debris since Burning Man has a Leave No Trace policy.

The organizers went through a number of options before finally settling on an occultic pentagon to mark the boundaries of Black Rock City. First came the circle, but it was soon tossed out as it lacked straight lines of sight for security purposes. Then came the triangle or square which provided sight lines yet enclosed too much unused space. Six sides or more would have meant too many security points would be needed, and so by eliminating 0, 3, 4, and 6+ sides, the remaining logical solution was the five-sided pentagon. If you inscribe the pagan pentagram of the five elements into this space, the Man would be burned at the centre, Spirit would align with the Keyhole or line of vision of the annular site, and further inscribing a flipped occultic pentagram within the first pentagram would place Camp Centre at its head. Some sceptics go as far as to deduce that the annular streets comprise 66.6% of a circle, and they would not be wrong, after all, the organizers of this festival were esoterics themselves.

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Art laid out in Black Rock City c. 2019 CE The organizers attempted to create this magickal space not just by site planning, but also by placing large artworks outside the concentric streets to lure participants away from the settlements and to the great open space.

The open side of the circular layout holds a spiritual and psychological importance in inviting the natural world in, that ‘by glimpsing the minute place [they] occupy in the infinite, [they] will sense [their] unity with it.’ (Garrett, 2010) When it comes to building for enchantment, then, every detail counts.

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Programming the Esoteric

Aside from stages for music and performances, the biggest portion of the site dedicated to activities – excluding camping – is for the Merchant’s Row and the workshops. Notice the simple program of one of the earlier editions and compare it to 2008’s detailed plan to get more of an idea of the layout of the program at esoteric festivals like Burning Man. Other similar festivals such as Esoteric Festival’s program includes workshops about yoga, healing, movement, speech, dance, sound, drawing, flashmobs, liminal butoh dance, radical acceptance, healing, aerial acrobatics, chakra body art, meditation, craft, sound baths, conscious awakening, sustainable living, mandalas, crystal sound healing, dream spells, drumming, emotional alchemy, shamanic healing… (“Workshops,” n.d.)

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Building the Esoteric

Burning Man is widely known for its architecture, with endless pavilions scattered around the playa to instil a wondrous atmosphere to the festival. Most of the architecture is inspired by ancient diverse cultures and esoteric principles, sometimes combined with modern parametric principles, and the result is a sight beyond the imagination. One quick exploration into Burning Man Architecture will render hundreds of mystical pavilions situated in the vastness of the desert.

In 2020, the Burning Man Project announced a call for entries for a multi-disciplinary design challenge of Fly Ranch, which will host residences, gatherings, and projects. Some renowned architects even designed for Burning Man, such as in the 2018 edition where Bjarke Ingels designed ORB, one of the main attractions.

At a scale of 1/500,000 of our planet’s surface, the 85-foot diameter inflatable sphere is held above ground with an inclined steel mast, baseplate, and foundation anchors, is 30 tons of steel, and is rightfully described as ‘a mirror for earth lovers’ which reflects the expanse of Black Rock City.

“Burners will be able to use The ORB as a navigation tool like constellations in the night sky, or as a meeting ground, as they steer towards the colorful light formations reflected in the sphere.”

“Because of The ORB’s curvature, it will reflect the entire space and people around it, showing the social energy and exchange in an entirely new perspective—essentially turning public life into public artifact.”

- Ingels Following Burning Man’s principles, ORB was built and then deflated when the event was over, leaving no trace. (fazzare, 2018)

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The Temple is also burned at the end of the festival.

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Other esoteric festivals, such as Esoteric Festival, use magnificent tensile structures combined with lighting in order to provide the magical feel.

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If we’ve learned anything from Burning Man, it’s that building for enchantment comes with an all-encompassing plan and design to provide an overwhelming direct experience. At the centre of this is a clear esoteric inspiration for the space and site planning, providing rituals, performances, group activities, ‘sacred’ whimsical architecture, a sense of unity and equality, and an emphasis on fantasy and wonder.

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Place for Culture

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III.IIIa Background

The Beton Hala Waterfront Centre by Sou Fujimoto architects is a daring proposal for Belgrade, Serbia, which contrasts the pre-existing medieval urban fabric. This pedestrian square, which houses retail spaces, cafes, restaurants, exhibition spaces, and a viewing platform, is imagined to become the principle access point from the riverfront to the historic core of Belgrade. The idea is a bustling social space that is linked by the ferry terminal, tram, and busand connects Beton Hala, Fortress, Kalemegden Park, Sava river, the urban district… (“Beton Hala,” n.d.)

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III.IIIb Concept

The Waterfront Centre is a floating cloud; a tranquil proposal which blurs the connection between the skyline and the waterline. The cloud is meant to symbolize continuity and totality. The ring bridges flow in continuity from the castle wall to Sava river and Kalemegden Park – from the historical to the natural. “At the heart of the site is … [a] ring shaped bridge, extending from the surroundings, allowing smooth access to the commercial and exhibition spaces [and playing] a key part in Belgrade as an observation deck, providing a breathtaking panorama”. (“Beton Hala,” n.d.)

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III.IIIc To Borrow for Enchantment

The project is a vibrant and bold proposal which whole-heartedly encompasses the soul of a social space, one might even venture so as much as to call it numinous. A highlight of Sou Fujimoto’s proposal is its flexibility, where the pedestrian, or in our case, fellow journeyman, the wonderer, is given utmost attention and the space is shaped around her movement. In the Beton Hala Waterfront Center, this is enriched by the continuous rings which encircle the program, leading from one space to the next, forming a journey: a ritual. And to add to the enchantment of it all, the space opens up to the surroundings and is not enclosed into a clear ‘indoors.’

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Interior Render highlighting the visual connectivity between the visitors and each other, the visitors and the outside, the visitors and the functions...

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Elevations showing the connections

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Sections showing the rings and social experience

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III.IV ‘Welcome Home’

It is not through brick and steel that one finds oneself in the presence of enchantment. It is, rather, through a pilgrimage to the soul, through a clear boundary with mundania, and through carefully balancing the sacred and the profane.

It is through demanding the death of routine and the tyrannical disenchantment of the world and creating a new path which learns from the painful mistakes of our polemical past and prevents stumbling down that course again.

It is through forging a place where no judgement is passed. A place where your beliefs matter, and hers, and his, and theirs, and where none of you feel like the ‘Other.’

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Welcome Home.

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Part IV Programming for Enchantment in the Esoteric Space

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IV.I The Masters of the Esoteric Place

Esoterium is the fantastical sum of its parts, but it is so much more.

The Characters that command the Bazaar of the Mystics and their respective whimsical task and space requirements are spread out in front of you.

Fellow on this journey, use your hands.

Pick up the Cards, flip them over, and See the many Masters of Esoterium.

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Program for Enchantment

Following the analysis of the many characters which constitute an esoteric, whimsical place and the activities each shall perform, See The Program

of The Esoterics.

Preliminal PRELIMINAL LIMINAL Liminal Postliminal POSTLIMINAL

Rite of Separation from Mundania Rite of Transitional Stage Ceremony of Incorporation to New Realm

* For we are All the Apprentice

^excluding 15% area allowance for circulation, totaling 1583.55 sqm

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RITE OF SEPARATION RITEFROM OF SE RITE OF TRANSITIONAL RITE OFSTA TR CEREMONY OF INCORPORAT CEREMONY

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Each space is commanded by a Master of the Space and visited by specific types of Esoterics, believers and sceptics alike.

These presences shape Esoterium, and so it is imperative to study the potential relationships which may arise.

Master of the Space

Plausible Visitors Orbitting the Master

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The Sceptic

The Explorer

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The Practitioner

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Spatial Relationships

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“Earth my body, Water my blood, Air my breath, and Fire my spirit.”

The Fire is the Heart of Esoterium, and all other functions dance around its light.

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Part V Place for Enchantment Context & Analysis

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As we are proposing a daring Bazaar for Dubai, it is imperative to examine how Dubai’s history of chasing enchantment proves the proposal relevant.

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It is, thus, clear, that Dubai constantly endeavours to create and instill a feeling of wonder as it has historically placed an emphasis on taking the social space to a new level never before seen.

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ival

A common phenomenon in Dubai are annual ‘festivals,’ which are a conglomerate of social activities organized yearly.

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e Festival of Lite

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We can conclude, fellow reader, that the wondrous social setting is engrained into Dubai’s development both historically and in the trajectory of its future expansion.

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Site

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Selection Criteria

As this Proposed Project is both unprecedented yet social in nature, eleven sites around Dubai were carefully examined as per pertinent criteria.

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Social Hotspot Public Transport

Pedestrian Friendly Proximity to Landmarks

Available Parking

Potential for Future Expansion

Proximity to Natural Elements Proximity to Tourist Attractions

Cultural Diversity Suitable for a Bazaar Destination Visibility

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Site 1: Dubai Festival City Abandoned Parking 23k sqm

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Site 2: Dubai Festival City Waterfront 16k sqm

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Site 3: Dubai Festival City 24k sqm

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Site 4: Near Dubai Creek Tower 1.1m sqm

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Site 5: M arasi Drive 20k sqm

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Site 6: Business Bay 140k sqm

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Site 7: Dubai Design District 30k sqm

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Site 8: JBR/Blue Waters Bridge 20k sqm

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Site 9: Bluewaters Shore 20k sqm

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Site 10: City Walk 20k sqm

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Site 11: Dubai Pearl 155k sqm

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Selected Site: Dubai Festival City Abandoned Parking which overlooks festival city IMAGINE spectacle

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Site Description

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Buildings

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Streets

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Water

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Land

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V.IV Evolution of Festival City

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Before Dubai Festival City became the Middle East’s largest mixed-use development, the site was an empty plot of sandy land until 2003 when work on it began.

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2007 marks an important shift in DFC’s historical timeline as that is when Dubai Festival CIty Mall was completed. Since then, not much was built up in its immediate vicinity, but the mall did expand in 2017.

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V.V Regulations & Zoning Ordinance

The Regulations as provided by Dubailand & Makani government entities for the DFC area generally are as follows: Height: G+2+Unlimited Landuse: Show Rooms, Offices, Residential Setback: 10 ft Sides & Back Maximum Coverage: 70%

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Sun Position C 34.90< 33.42 31.94 30.46 28.98 27.50 26.02 24.54 23.06 21.58 <20.10

at Dry Bulb Temperature 20<C<35 C 47.00< 45.81 44.62 43.43 42.24 41.05 39.86 38.67 37.48 36.29 <35.10

at Dry Bulb Temperature >35

C 19.90< 19.13 18.36 17.59 16.82 16.05 15.28 14.51 13.74 12.97 <12.20

at Dry Bulb Temperature <20

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Year-Round

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Sun Path at Dry Bulb Temperatures above 35C with respect to proposed site to visualize worst sun positions and propose potential shading strategies

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Equinox

21 Mar 9 am

21 Mar 12 pm

21 Mar 3 pm

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Summer Solstice

21 Jun 9 am

21 Jun 12 pm

21 Jun 3 pm

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Winter Solstice

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21 Dec 12 pm

21 Dec 3 pm

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During the Equinoxes and Solstices, the site is not overshadowed nor shaded, remaining exposed year-round. Judging by the direction of the shadows the surrounding structures are casting, the proposed project’s height may cast shadows on the mall, so it shall be considered.

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Unfavourable winds Cold wind to be avoided during Winter m/s 22.60< 20.34 18.08 15.82 13.56 11.30 9.04 6.78 4.52 2.26 <0.00

During the coldest months December-February Average Direction: 194.06 Average Speed: 2.04 m/s Mostly Southern & Western winds

Favourable winds Used for Passive Cooling during Summer m/s 10.80< 9.72 8.64 7.56 6.48 5.40 4.32 3.24 2.16 1.07 <0.00

During the warmest months June-August Average Direction: 216.36 Average Speed: 3.52 m/s Mostly Southern & NorthWestern winds

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Average WindRose

m/s 22.60< 20.34 18.08 15.82 13.56 11.30 9.04 6.78 4.52 2.26

Year-Round Mostly Southern & NorthWestern winds

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Vegetation Greenery exists only in a few spots around the site, such as immediately surrounding the mal, in the golf park, and in the neighbouring residential communities.

Otherwise, the site is mostly deserted sandy plots.

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Site Contextual Built Environment

Mass & Void Total Area of Analyzed Portion: 858484.8 sqm Creek: 184418.8 sqm Mass: 65672.66 sqm Void: 608393.33 sqm Creek: 21.5% Mass: 7.65% Void: 70.87% Largest Mass is Dubai Festival City Mall , followed by Ikea, Intercontinental, Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, and smaller Scattered Structures Around but mostly Void, so to bring the Festival back in Festival City, densifying the site to create a Bilbao Effect shall be preferrable

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Axes on Site

Radial

Linear

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Circulation Within Site

Current flow of pedestrians and cars around the site Pedestrian Vehicle

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Airport Terminal 1 Stn 12 min

Emirates Stn 10 min

Access Rashidiya Stn 10 min

Al Jaddaf Stn 7 min

Festival Centre Stop 10 min IKEA Stop 16 min

Creek Stn 11 min

Pedestrian Ferry Car Bus then walk Metro then cab

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Landuse mixed-use governmental retail hotel industrial airport park business entertainment residential educational

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The Site is surrounded by relatively low structures scattered across unbuilt land. Since the site is proposed as a ‘Festival City’ of sorts, the largest mass is a three-floor social, public space - the Mall - followed by semi-public high rises.

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Building Heights

G G+2 G + 19 G + 35

Some Random Construction of One Floor The Mall of Two Floors Crowne Plaza of Medium Height Intercontinental of Tall Height

Public & Private

Public Semi Public Private

Public Entertainment and Retail Semi Public Hotels Private Industrial and Other

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Views from

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Views towards

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Surrounding Architectural Language

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Social & Economic Impact

As you’ve come to know, fellow on this quest, Dubai Festival City is the largest mixed-use development in the Middle East.

Despite this hefty title, it does not live up its name as the area is predominantly void of social and economic activity aside from the Mall near our site. As most of this activity concentrates around our site, Esoterium is a promising proposal to create a Bilbao effect and elevate the location back to match its title.

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Heatmap of Activity

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Part VI Space & Site Correlations

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VI.I And Here, Esoteria Shall Thrive.

Esoteria is a place for Wonder. A place for Enchantment. A place for Festivities. A place for Me, for You, and for Everyone and Everything in between.

Dubai Festival City was meant to symbolize that. It only half-lived up to its legacy. It is a place that has a high potential for harbouring the New, the Exciting, and the Social.

Here, Esoteria Shall Thrive.

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Once again, we must part ways, only for a moment, as we leave our liminal phase

For now, that your journey is at its end, fellow journeyman, prepare to wonder.

Note: This is Book I I of a Wondrous Trilogy.

You may now proceed to Book III.

Esoteria.

Journey.

Liminal.