Sukkah City is an Architectural design competition[1] and work of installation art planned in partnership with the Union Square Partnership for New York City's Union Square Park in September 2010.
A committee of art critics and architects will select the 12 finalists from a field of entries. The twelve finalist sukkahs were constructed at Brooklyn's Gowanus Studio Space, and driven by truck to Union Square Park for display on September 19 and 20 from dawn to dusk.[2] The design chosen as "the people's choice" will stand, starting on September 22, for the requisite seven days of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.[3] Some entries will be selected for display at the Center for Architecture in New York City during the month of September.[4]
The competition is the brainchild of journalist Joshua Foer[5] and Roger Bennett. It is sponsored by Reboot, an organization that aims to catalyze innovation in Jewish culture, rituals, and traditions.[5][6]
A sukkah is the name given to a structure described in Torah. The Children of Israel were instructed to annually commemorate their Exodus from Egypt by dwelling for seven days every autumn in temporary structures reminiscent of those in which they lived during their 40 years of wandering in the desert before settling in the Land of Israel. Many Jews continue this practice to this day, and Sukkah City aims to re-imagine the sukkah in contemporary design.[4]
The competition will be documented in a book, Sukkah City: Radically Temporary Architecture for the Next 3000 Years, and some of the designs will be exhibited in the Center for Architecture in New York City in September, 2010.[4]
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The competition was launched with an announcement in May 2010. By June "hundreds" of architects, artists and designers had entered.[5] The deadline for entries was August 1, 2010.[4]
The jury includes Rick Bell, Executive Director of the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, Geoff Manaugh, a senior editor at Dwell magazine, architecture critic Paul Goldberger designer Ron Arad, architect Thom Mayne, winner of the Pritzker Prize, Michael Arad, Allan Chochinov, Matias Corea, Steven Heller, Natalie Jeremijenko, Maira Kalman, Thomas de Monchaux, Ada Tolla and Adam Yarinsky.[4][5][7] The rabbinic adviser is Dani Passow.[4]
Co-organizer Joshua Foer expects the entries to range from "the latest in digital fabrication to handmade craft techniques."[7]
During the period when the 12 winners stand in the park, visitors will be able to vote for their favorite design.[8]
The "people's choice award" sukkah was entitled Fractured Bubble,and was designed by Long Island City architects Henry Grosman and Babak Bryan.[9]
All of the entries are required to conform to the requirements of Jewish law, which stipulates that a sukkah design must be a temporary structure.[4] The roof must be made of non-edible plant material.[4] The roofing must be thick enough to shade those sitting inside in daytime, and thin enough so that stars are visible through the roof at night.[4] The walls must be at least 10 handsbreadth tall but can be made of any material; the body of a dead whale can serve as a wall.[4][7][10] The sukkah can also be built atop a live camel.[3][4][7]
According to competition organizer Joshua Foer, "The sukkah is a space to ceremonially practice homelessness.... In that sense it is an architecture of both memory and empathy—memory of the huts the Israelites dwelled in during their exodus from Egypt long ago, and empathy for those who live today without solid shelter over their heads. It goes up in the fall, just when it's no longer entirely comfortable to be outside.[10] His comments refer to the weather in New York: in Israel the weather is still very clement at this time of year.