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Untitled Sukkah, is one of eight winning designs chosen to be built as part of Washington University’s Sukkah City this October. The design is based on the ancient concept of ‘Firmament’, which interpreted the night sky as a solid material from which light radiated through perforations. This meaning implied a material separation between the physical and spiritual worlds.

The material concept is relatively simple: one-angle cuts (60 degrees) and four possible orientations. When I began designing, I considered what the underlying principle of the Sukkah was. There are several rabbincal guidelines, but like any spiritual act, hewing as closely as possible to the 'rules' without consideration, diminishes the meaning that the act embodies. I thought of Sukkah's as simple structures, not necessarily in physical or material terms, but in regard to how they are made. A month before I had even heard of the competition I had taken some of my Summer Design Studio students to the DIA: Beacon. One exhibit in particular, Franz Erhard Walthers "Work as Action" had a deep impact on my own design agenda. Walther had created a series of sculptures, which were actually soft structures - fabrics that operated as clothing to bring strangers together in non-confrontational and somewhat domestic arrangements. Arranged in rows against two walls, each piece was intricately folded - deceptively so - and made of materials such as felt and canvas.While the actual act or wearing of there pieces was fun, it was the unfolding and re-packing of each piece that was the most interesting, as it required the exact same number of people to replicate the complex folding.

Similiarly, I wanted to think of the Sukkah construction process as a "practice" - a series of self-similar actions that are intended to make you consider the making of something. Hence, the simple rule of one angle and four orientations was born.