2024
The Sukkahs
SUKKAH TEAM 01
Twirl / Gira
Community Collaborator:
Street Vendors Association of Chicago
Design Contributor:
Sukkah as Communal Table
This sukkah design embodies the vibrant spirit of the African-American and Latine cultures in North Lawndale and nearby La Villita, serving as a dynamic space for community meals and celebrations. With an emphasis on connection, the parasol-like structure will be adorned with colorful community murals and handcrafted textiles that reflect the rich histories of its participants. By incorporating a table structure as an integral design component, the sukkah builds relationships by inviting diverse publics to break bread together. The stepped platforms provide multiple opportunities for rest and participation, encouraging communal meals, storytelling, dialogue, and cultural exchange. The colorful canopy contributes to a playground-like feel, welcoming youth and community members of all ages to reconnect with their identity and celebrate cultural heritage. After the festival, the sukkah will provide a communal table and cultural hub for the Street Vendors Association of Chicago.
SUKKAH TEAM 02
Sharing Sukkah
Community Collaborator:
Chicago Public Library – Douglass Branch and SAIC at Homan Square
Design Contributor:
Andrea Jablonski, Martha Bayne, and Sheila Sachs
Sukkah as Living Structure & Seed Exchange
This sukkah offers interaction, modification, and user-directed adjustments. Inspired by “The Living Cube,” a multi-use, nomadic structure concept developed by Ken and Jo Isaacs in the 1950s, the Sharing Sukkah specifically facilitates the everyday activities valued by its participants, including communal gathering, lending and sharing, art making, and reflecting. After the Festival, the sukkah will be installed at “The Branch,” a community garden space stewarded by the Chicago Public Library Douglass Branch and activated by artists from SAIC Homan Square. At the Branch, the sukkah will provide various functional amenities including a seed exchange, a green wall of ivy, seating with storage, racks for drying plants or hanging tools, a community bulletin board, and a participatory chalkboard for sharing art, recipes, notes, and announcements.
SUKKAH TEAM 03
Bring Your Own Brick
Community Collaborator:
Homan Grown
Design Contributors:
Sukkah as Brick Repository & Recycling Station
Inspired by the history of the Chicago common brick and its prevalent use throughout the city, this sukkah is comprised entirely of reclaimed bricks found throughout the North Lawndale community. While waste is often perceived as problematic and undesirable, Bring Your Own Brick offers new possibilities for communities to engage with the physical, social, economic, and ecological qualities of construction waste. It also signals a paradigm shift to address the increasing shortages of vital building resources such as sand, tin, zinc, and copper. By carefully re-manufacturing and refinishing each reclaimed brick, the sukkah breathes new life into artifacts of the past and challenges visitors to reconsider our perception of waste. After the Festival, the sukkah will provide a garden material recycling station for Homan Grown, a wholesale perennial & tree nursery offering landscape design/build services in North Lawndale.
SUKKAH TEAM 04
By the Book
Community Collaborator:
Open Books and Chicago Children’s Museum
Design Contributor:
Sukkah as Literacy Landmark
Let’s meet by the “book!” This sukkah is a haven, an inspiration, a playspace, and a landmark for the North Lawndale neighborhood and, especially, its children and their caregivers. By evoking weightlessness—book pages floating in midair—the sukkah design embodies the idea that reading transports the reader to another world, and emphasizes Open Books’ belief that reading can happen anywhere at any time. After the Festival, the sukkah will relocate to 16th Street near Hamlin Avenue, on a site that’s part of the Resilient Corridors Project. In addition to the sukkah, the site will also host a Playful Learning Landscape installation focused on nature, water, word play, and conservation. Playful Learning Landscapes is a nationwide initiative that transforms everyday public spaces into joyful learning opportunities. Together, the site interventions aim to define and activate a welcoming, purposeful hub for local residents to foster care and connection to each other and to their public spaces.
SUKKAH TEAM 05
Overstory
Community Collaborator:
Design Contributor:
Sukkah as Hospital Stoop
In the same way Sinai Hospital acts as the overstory—the protective layer—for the Lawndale community, this sukkah opens up to the neighborhood on all sides and welcomes us to gather under its elevated canopy. After the Festival, the sukkah will provide a community stoop for Sinai Chicago’s bustling campus. Under the canopy, seating takes a cue from the porches of nearby residential buildings along West 15th Place, offering a new outdoor space where everyone can reflect and gather. Just as the hospital has evolved to meet North Lawndale’s needs, this pavilion aspires to be a backdrop for the lives of those who give and receive care, as well as for the many people who continue to shape the Sinai campus and the broader Lawndale community.
Explore
The festival will take place at James Stone Freedom Square, located at the intersection of Douglas Boulevard and Millard Avenue (3615 W Douglas Blvd, Chicago, IL 60623) with sukkahs changing location afterwards to more permanent locations around the neighborhood.