The sukka, a temporary outdoor dwelling, is constructed annually by practicing Jewish people during the Festival of Tabernacles. An autumn celebration, the holiday and its dwelling have many religious and mystical associations. One unusual aspect of the week-long festivity is dwelling--eating, studying, and sleeping--in a sukka, defined as a temporary edifice where you feel the wind and can view the stars through its shabby, temporary construction.
Innovative upholders of this ancient Jewish tradition are hosting a Sukka City contest in New York City, where they deployed some creatively modulated and adorned booths. The exhibit stands in Union Square Park until the close of the holiday, September 21st.
Of interest to us, of course, is the tensegrity-based booths that were erected this year. A stand out is the proposed bamboo structure, a 5 modules of a 3 strut tensegrity mast called "Pillar of Cloud, Pillar of Fire" by Andrew Sternad, John Kleinschmidt. They write in their artistic statement,
The structural system is inherently economical and achieves a height of 20 cubits with the absolute minimum of material. Additionally, the entire structure can be constructed horizontally on the ground and rotated up into position. It can also collapse into a single bundle with the removal of certain key components. The structure can be thought of as a stack of self-supporting modules, each made up of three rigid poles and a series of cables. The module resting on the ground uses perforated tubular steel poles (which contain led strip lights and mounted spotlights) and steel cable. The modules above together represent the roof and use only organic materials: bamboo poles and hemp rope. Sheer nylon fabric stretches taut between selected facets of the structure.
And the winner is: "In Tension" by the Brooklyn firm SO-IL won a prize for best sukka. It is a 3 strut tensegrity with mesh walls and seats inside. A local newspaper razzed the entry, objecting that SO-IL already displayed this structure elsewhere. See here.
While these booths may not meet traditional Jewish specifications, it is exciting to see the tensegrity structures deployed by modern people adhering to such a venerable, ancient faith. What next? A tensegrity pagoda?
Links:
Wikipedia on this type of temporary booth, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukkah
Sukkah city page featuring "Pillar of Cloud, Pillar of Fire" by Andrew Sternad, John Kleinschmidt,
Human Scribbles blogged about the Sukka city and posted photographs, http://humanscribbles.blogspot.com/2010/09/simple-complexity-and-complex.html
Florian Idenburg plea for $10 on Architizer, http://www.architizer.com/en_us/projects/view/sukkah-new-york/12770/?country=en_us
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