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Sukkah City


Sukkah City was an Architectural design competition 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 selected 12 winners from a field of over 600 entries. The twelve winning sukkot 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. The design chosen as "the people's choice" stood, starting on September 22, for the requisite seven days of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. Some entries were also selected for display at the Center for Architecture in New York City during the month of September.

The competition was the brainchild of journalist Joshua Foer and Roger Bennett. It was sponsored by Reboot, an organization that aims to catalyze innovation in Jewish culture, rituals, and traditions.

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.

The competition was to be documented in a book, Sukkah City: Radically Temporary Architecture for the Next 3000 Years, and some of the designs were exhibited in the Center for Architecture in New York City in September, 2010. However, the book has yet to be published. Sukkah City, a documentary about the event, by Jason Hutt, is currently available at First Run Features.

The competition was launched with an announcement in May 2010. By June hundreds of architects, artists and designers had entered. The deadline for entries was August 1, 2010.


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