The seed for Ripple Project was planted the same week the state of Emergency was called in Maryland, a week when many structures, patterns, and securities were shaken. This was the beginning of Ripple’s unplanned adventure.

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While at home laid-off, several of our team members came together to find community through building a submission to the Land Art Generator’s 2020 Design Challenge to build regenerative works of art for Burning Man Project’s “Fly Ranch” in Nevada.

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A serendipitous connection with Geoship SPC, a Bioceramic dome start-up, became the seed of a concept for an off-grid base. Circular gardens surrounding the dome rippled throughout the landscape, spreading biodiversity and ecological knowledge in all directions. The vision was born.

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For the next seven months, the small transdisciplinary team of eco-tech designers, engineers, architects and horticulturalists poured their heart into what became known as Ripple.

Just weeks until the deadline for submissions, while scrolling on instagram, a teammate from Maryland made a new friend from Mumbai who made the beautiful design of concentric rings portrayed in the picture above come alive into the renderings you see all over the website.

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With one month remaining before the competition deadline, we met on ZOOM at all times of the day and night, through three time zones, in order to polish a submission.

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Minutes before the deadline, at midnight on Halloween, a 24 page narrative, 10+ renderings, and 3 layout boards were submitted by team Ripple.

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The opening lines of the narrative read: “The name Ripple was chosen to represent the literal and metaphorical effect of waves spreading outwards from a single drop of water. In this same way, waves of plants and wisdom ripple outward from our central drop of inspiration. An oasis for native plant propagation and cultivation, Ripple is a central point for the restoration of people and planet, and a safe, comfortable space for periodic habitation.”

Five months later, we had almost forgotten about our submission. That wasn’t until an email appeared from the creators of the Land Art Generator Initiative.

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“No matter what happens, we are all winners here,” the team agreed.

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Against all doubt, Ripple had been selected out of 185 submissions to be built as a permanent installation at Fly Ranch alongside 9 of the most evolutionarily astounding works of art the world has ever seen.

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The team was delivered the news on the picture of the Zoom call above, and everyone knew their lives were about to change. We promised each other to cherish this not only as an opportunity, but as a responsibility.

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After the announcement, our team tripled in size and self-organized into nine subteams- Communications, Dome, Education, Energy, Fundraising, Landscape-Construction, Plants, Regeneration, and Water.

By June, 13 fearless leaders travelled to Fly Ranch, Nevada to meet 5 of the other top LAGI teams and the Fly Ranch Crew. During this trip, a site for Ripple was chosen, and a democratic team structure was born.

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The team had never experienced a place as welcoming and comically beautiful as Fly Ranch. Still, dusty scrubland became fierce as winds and purple thunderstorms broke over the mountains. Wild antelope and horses drank from precious shallow pools of water, and the Black Rock desert stretched infinitely into the horizon.

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In touring the ranch, the team came to understand the intentions of the community there. They recognized an opportunity for their skills and hearts to build something far beyond their first drop of impact.

This May, we are boots-on-the-ground at Fly Ranch installing phase 1 of our installation, using a modest grant from the LAGI competition. 7,000 volunteer hours over two years led us to the present challenge of creating this garden in the punishing Black Rock Desert.

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A 500 willow tree fence is arranged to be planted in May 2022 around the perimeter of Ripple, as a woven shield to block wind on site. A temporary dome structure and solar trailer provide basic infrastructure for site operations and the launch of ecological restoration work at Fly Ranch.

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We are realizing day by day that Ripple Project is much more than a physical installation- it has become a community, eco-cooperative, and family in the making. It is the spreading of ecological, technological, and social infrastructure that will bring out the unlimited potential of our communities.

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Several of our teammates will be living at Fly Ranch for most of the Summer, and thoughts are being groomed for our long-term strategy.

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With a basemap in one hand, and a shovel in the other, we are moving forward to help build the first regenerative infrastructure at Fly Ranch, and there’s no looking back.

Follow us and come along for the journey to find out.