Innovation Lab: Zonotopia | BASE Landscape

Zonotopia

The boundaries between art, mathematics and architecture

Project Description

This space is dedicated to our dear friend Rob Bell (1961-2019).

Rob was a visionary, a creator, an artist, a designer and an engineer. After over a decade of working as a professional software engineer, Rob started Zomadic, a design/build company focussing on the creative use of CNC technology and combining his skills as a programmer with his desire to also work with his hands and create real world objects.

Rob was also a futurist and a visionary figure in the realm of geometric art and architecture, pioneering the creation of zonohedron sculptures that captivated people at the Burning Man Festival and in the San Francisco Bay Area for over a decade. With meticulous attention to detail and a keen understanding of zonohedron geometry, Rob spent hundreds of hours designing, creating, and building these intricate structures, which he affectionately dubbed Zomes. Each zonohedron sculpture was created with interlocking mechanisms, like giant puzzles, which served as a testament to Rob's unwavering dedication to pushing the boundaries of artistic innovation, seamlessly blending art, mathematics, and communal expression. Through his pioneering work, Rob not only redefined the possibilities of geometric art but also fostered a sense of wonder and unity within the Burning Man community and beyond.

According to Rob, zomes are "a type of dome which is based on polar zonohedral forms rather than geodesic. Zomes have many fantastic properties which render them highly modular and easy to work with. In addition to being derived from higher dimensional geometry, zomes embody an organic and spiritual nature which all people identify with". From 2007 to 2019, Rob built multiple zomes.

Zonotopia was the family of all the different zomes. This was Rob's description for Zonotopia at Burning Man Festival: "I think of Zonotopia as an archaeological find that grows each year and blossoms into revealing forgotten secrets of mathematical wonders from a long bygone era. In 2012 the theme at Burningman is Fertility 2.0 and thus I am building Zonotopia and the Two Trees. All of my Zome structures will return to the playa to create an ancient courtyard in the center of which grow two zonohedral tree structures which symbolize the ubiquitous nature of duality in the Universe".

During the 2019 solstice, Rob died in a fire. The fire that took Rob's life also took all of the zomes as well as the design documentation. This page is a compilation of photos of Zonotopia to celebrate and honor Rob's life and creativity, to grieve, and document some of what was built with him and the Zonotopia crew. Beautiful forever!

For 9 years Patrica and Rob worked together designing and building zomes.

This space is also dedicated to the entire Zonotopia crew who contributed so much time, resources, effort, love and dedication to this projects. Your help and support made it possible.
Chris Palmer
Ian Winnigham
Garrett Mace
Megan Montanti
Hoodie Salinas
Annie Thibodeau
Valerie Star
Ana Rivero Rossi
Tanya Mia
Audrey W
Jesse Sizmo
Jeff Star
Stevie Miller
Soleil
Mad Dog
Ryan Stevens
Lorena Serrano