24 Sep
Culture, Latest, topics

The Sukkah Of Your Wildest Dreams

By Niv Elis Sukkot of 5771 may go down in history as the most architecturally innovative holiday in Jewish History, thanks to the Sukkah City competition in New York.  The competition, which was dreamed up by Joushua Foer, a journalist, and Roger Bennett, co-founder of the Reboot network, asked for submissions for re-imagined, modern-day Sukkot that followed all the biblical rules and traditions for building a kosher Sukkah.  Among them: it must have three walls, the roof (through which stars must be visible at night) cannot be made of anything conventionally functional, but a whale or living elephant may be used in constructing the walls. Although there were hundreds of submissions judged by an impressive panel of experts, a dozen Sukkot emerged the victors.  Erected in New York’s Union Square,...

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15 Sep
Uncategorized

A Sukkah for the 21st Century

By Symi Rom-Rymer When I think about sukkahs—which I admit is not that often—it is rarely in architectural or even creative terms.  As a child, around late fall, they would just  appear, typically made out of unbleached wood and long branches, in someone’s backyard or on the synagogue roof.  Pretty boring really.  The true excitement would come when the people arrived to fill it, arms full of dishes to share and enjoy with one another. Well, Sukkah City, an international design contest, is looking to change all that.  Playing with the paradox of transience and rootedness that the sukkah represents, they have invited architects from around the world to take the biblical design framework, place it in an urban setting, and propose a reimagined  sukkah.   The winning design will stand in Union Square Park in New York...

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