About the Project
Temple of the Heart was a large-scale temporary architectural installation and gathering space created for Midburn in the Negev desert, combining monumental sculpture, shade architecture and communal space within a single structure.
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At the center of the project stood a monumental 6×6 meter heart constructed from welded rebar steel, elevated 4 meters above the desert floor. A staircase led visitors upward and into the heart, transforming a simple symbolic form into a physical space that could be entered, occupied and experienced.
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Beneath and around the heart, approximately 500 m² of bamboo shade extended outward to create a large protected environment within the open desert, with many benches, it became an oasis. Rather than functioning only as a sculpture, the project was conceived as a place for people to gather, providing shade during the day and becoming a setting for music, meetings, performances, ceremonies and spontaneous encounters throughout the event.
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My role covered the concept, spatial design, structural development, detailing, fabrication and installation of the project. The heart and the surrounding shade structure were developed together as one system, balancing the expressive character of the sculpture with the practical requirements of building a temporary structure at significant scale in harsh desert conditions.
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The project explored the transition from symbol to structure to experience. From a distance, the heart operated as a recognizable landmark within the vast landscape. Up close, it became architecture: something visitors could approach, climb, enter and inhabit.
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What I did not anticipate was how strongly people would respond to it. The heart gradually became a kind of pilgrimage point for couples and visitors throughout Midburn, with long lines forming at the staircase as people waited for their turn to climb inside.
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Before the stairs, I placed approximately six cubic meters of cut wooden logs. Visitors began taking a piece of wood with them before climbing to the heart. Once inside, people used the moment in their own way—making wishes, setting intentions, renewing vows, getting married, proposing, or simply climbing up to experience the space and the view.
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The installation began to develop a ritual of its own, created not by the original design alone but by the people who occupied it. In a very literal sense, the heart opened up and became a container for thousands of personal moments, intentions and shared experiences.
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At the end of the event, as is traditional at Midburn, the entire installation was burned. The wood carried upward by visitors, together with the wishes and intentions attached to those moments, became part of the fire—eventually turning to ash and dispersing into the desert wind.
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Temple of the Heart was conceived as a temporary structure, but during its short life it became far more than an object in the landscape. It became a place of gathering, ritual, intimacy and collective experience, where sculpture, architecture and human participation merged into something I could never have fully planned in advance.
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Role
Concept · Design · Structural Design · Fabrication · Installation
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Event
Midburn
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Location
Negev Desert · Israel
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Heart Size
6×6 m
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Heart Elevation
4 m above ground
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Shaded Area
500 m²