Biblical in origin, the sukkah is an ephemeral, elemental shelter, erected for one week each fall, in which it is customary to share meals, entertain, sleep, and rejoice

Sukkah City, www.sukkahcity.com, an ambitious global architectural contest that engaged the design, creative and architectural worlds to radically reinvent the ancient sukkah, today announced the twelve winners of the competition that will be on display in Union Square Park, ahead of the week-long festival of Sukkot. The selected designs will be built by their designers at the Gowanus Studio Space in Brooklyn and then driven by truck to Union Square for public display on Sunday, September 19 and Monday, September 20.

More than 600 entrants had to wrap their minds around the arcane rules of Halakah, Jewish Law -- which allows a sukkah to be built in a tree, on a wagon, or out of a living elephant. Entries came from 43 countries, including China, India, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Turkey, and Bosnia & Herzegovina.

“We asked some of the most creative people in the world to re-imagine and renew the sukkah, and the results are truly dazzling and inspiring,” said Roger Bennett and Joshua Foer of the cultural organization Reboot, which organized the competition in collaboration with the American Institute of Architects, Architizer, Dwell, the Union Square Partnership, and the City’s Department of Parks & Recreation. “This humble structure will come to life in twelve new forms that are bold, beautiful and quintessentially New York.”

A panel of judges, including Pritzker prize-winning architect Thom Mayne, The New Yorker’s architecture critic, Paul Goldberger, NYU Environmental Health Clinic Director Natalie Jeremijenko, and designer Ron Arad selected the winning entries during a recent session at the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. The winners (full list below) were selected in a blind review, and include the Brooklyn-based firms Matter Architecture Practice; Bittertang, winners of the 2010 Architectural League Prize; and Solid Objectives – Idenburg Liu, winner of the 2010 MoMA/P.S.1 Young Architects Program. One structure will be voted on by New Yorkers to stand and delight throughout the week-long festival of Sukkot as the “People’s Choice Sukkah.” The “People’s Choice” will be announced at a September 20 ceremony. Selected entries will also be displayed in an exhibit at the Center for Architecture in New York City during the month of September.

The process and results of the competition, along with construction documentation and critical essays, will be published in the forthcoming book "Sukkah City: Radically Temporary Architecture for the Next Three Thousand Years."

Sukkah City 2010 WinnersDale Suttle, So Sugita, and Ginna Nguyen - New York, NY
Gathering

Henry Grosman and Babak Bryan - Long Island City, NY
Fractured Bubble

Ronald Rael, Virginia San Fratello - Oakland, CA
Sukkah of the Signs

Kyle May and Scott Abrahams - New York, NY
LOG

Peter Sagar - United Kingdom
Time/Timeless

tinder, tinker - Sagle, ID
Shim Sukkah

Matthias Karch - Berlin, Germany
Repetition meets Difference | Stability meets Volatileness

Matter Practice - Brooklyn, NY
Single Thread

Volkan Alkanoglu - Los Angeles, CA
Star Cocoon

Bittertang - Brooklyn, NY
Bio Puff

SO-IL - Brooklyn, NY
In Tension

THEVERYMANY - Brooklyn, NY
P.YGROS.C / passive hygroscopic curls

The jury members

• Michael Arad
• Ron Arad
• Rick Bell
• Allan Chochinov
• Matias Corea
• Paul Goldberger
• Steven Heller
• Natalie Jeremijenko
• Maira Kalman
• Geoff Manaugh
• Thom Mayne
• Thomas de Monchaux
• Ada Tolla
• Adam Yarinsky