SHADE
STRUCTURE
Shade
Structures
One
of the most important things to plan for surviving in the desert is some
kind of shade structure. What do you want your shade structure to do?
Well here's some important points to consider:
•Provide shelter from the sun! Sunstroke happens extremely F-A-S-T
out there.
•Provide shelter from the other elements (wind, rain, sand).
•Be big enough to fit you and your crew in it!
•Easy to transport.
•Fast and easy to assemble. This is really important when you consider
it can get up to 110 degrees in the shade!
•Cheap as possible! Unless you've already made your million, like
the guy who setup the cataclysmic mega-shear ranch ;)
• Is reusable!
•Looks awesome. This is an art event after all!
CLick under the photo on the right and you'll find all sorts of different
examples of shade structures that have different strengths and weaknesses.
Good building materials:
Shade netting (sometimes called ag-netting); available from local tarp makers. Its cheap stuff, light, available in different colors, widths up to 12', lets the wind flow through and is tough as hell so you can reuse it. Just make sure you get at least 80% coverage or you'll toast from the UV.
PVC pipe; available in differing lengths, wall thicknesses, and diameters.
Its cheap, light, flexible stuff that can be used to make all kinds of
arcs, curves and vertical structures. Its not very strong on compressive
strength though so figure that into your designs. If your careful you
can reuse PVC from year to year; though a proportion o it will sag and
melt beyond use.
Electrical Conduit; cheap, light and fairly easy to work with (once you get a $10 pipe cutter) its great for making buckyballs and can be curved to retain its shape. Like PVC pipe it's available in differing diameters, wall thicknesses, lengths. Reusable from year to year (as long as you dont step on it).
Wood; typically two by fours are seen out there. Compared to other things wood ain't that good for the desert. Its more expensive, tends to get dry out and warp in the heat, is heavy and harder to work with. Of course its stronger than most makeshift materials and it burns!
Scaffolding; scaffold sections make great, strong, multilevel temporary structures and (if you look carefully) can be cheap to rent. Course you have to rent them every year!
To
View Shade Structure Examples CLICK HERE.
Some good tips when designing your structure:
Let the wind flow through. This will reduce the temperature inside and stop you cooking like a pot roast. It will also help when those inevitable wind-storms come racing through camp and try to tear your house down. Guying your structure will aslo help enormously to resist wind; just remember to cap those guys with something highyl visible! Otherwise you and your camp mates could well end up with pierced feet.
Things not to forget in the rush to the playa:
Extra everything. Duct tape, rebar, nylone twine, screws, nails, tools, zip-ties, tarps, nylone rope, other stuff.