Architecture
Second Annual Chicago Sukkah Design Festival
The Chicago Sukkah Design Festival celebrated the launch of its second annual community event. The festival is organized and produced by Could Be Design, a Chicago-based design practice led by Joseph Altshuler and Zack Morrison, and Lawndale Pop-Up Spot, a museum that hosts exhibitions by and for the residents of North Lawndale, a neighborhood on the city’s West Side. The Chicago Sukkah Design Festival included six sukkahs that will be permanently reinstalled on the grounds of nearby community organizations that partnered in designing them.
Sukkot is a week-long Jewish holiday following Yom Kippur, and it commemorates the four-decade wandering of the Israelites following their exodus from Egypt. The sukkah, defined as a three-walled temporary shelter with a permeable roof that provides views of the night sky, is both an expression of those wandering years, and the huts that farmers would live in during the harvest.
Adjunct Assistant Professor Robert Becker, co-founder of Studio Becker Xu, paired up with the community organization One Lawndale Children’s Discovery Center.
One Lawndale Gathering Tree, designed by Studio Becker Xu and One Lawndale Children’s Discovery Center, brings the symbolic tree of life to the North Lawndale neighborhood, and each of its four sides features artwork by Lawndale youth.
Adjunct Associate Professor Chana Haouzi, founder of Architecture for Public Benefit, partnered with Trent Fredrickson and Mishkan Chicago with the community organization Lawndale Christian Community Church.
The A Season is Set for Everything pavilion, designed by Architecture for Public Benefit and Trent Fredrickson Architecture, with Mishkan Chicago and the Lawndale Christian Community Church and Legal Center, is a space of shared worship and learning with memorial plaques honoring young community members lost to gun violence.
Adjunct Assistant Professor Vincent Calabro, principal of Office of Things partnered with Akima Brackeen with the community organization I Am Able.
I AM BLOOMING, designed by Akima Brackeen and Office of Things, with I AM ABLE, a mental health service, celebrates the shared values and traditions of African, African American, and Jewish cultures with a meditative pavilion.
Photo by Brian Griffin for the Chicago Sukkah Design Festival