Sukkah City
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Sukkah City was 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 sukkah is a structure described in the Torah and used in celebrating the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. The Torah instructed the Children of Israel to commemorate their Exodus from Ancient Egypt by dwelling for seven days every autumn in temporary structures reminiscent of those in which they lived during their 40 years of wandering the desert before settling in the Land of Israel. Many Jews continue this practice. The Sukkah City competition and installation aimed to re-imagine the sukkah in contemporary design.[citation needed]
Journalists Joshua Foer[2] and Roger Bennett conceived the competition, and Reboot, an organization that promotes Jewish culture (and which Bennett co-founded), sponsored it.[3][2]
A committee of art critics and architects selected 12 winners from a field of over 600 entries.[4] The twelve winning entries were constructed at Brooklyn's Gowanus Studio Space, and driven by truck to Union Square Park for display on September 19 and 20, 2010, from dawn to dusk.[5] The design chosen as "the people's choice" stood, starting on September 22, 2010, for the seven days of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.[6] Some entries were also selected for display at the Center for Architecture in New York City during September.[citation needed]
Sukkah City competition was to be documented in a book, Sukkah City: Radically Temporary Architecture for the Next 3000 Years. However, the book has yet to be published.[citation needed]
Sukkah City, a 2013 documentary film about the competition directed by Jason Hutt, is distributed by First Run Features and is available for purchase or rental on YouTube, Amazon, Kanopy and other sources.