Architecture Students Design a New Sukkah for Wesleyan U.

Wesleyan U. students designed this sukkah for use on the campus. (Wesleyan U. photo)

As a studio project, 15 architecture students at Wesleyan University designed a new sukkah that members of the university’s Jewish community will dedicate on October 3. A sukkah, a ritual structure erected each year for use during the eight-day celebration of Sukkot, recalls the nomadic huts used during the Israelites’ 40-year journey from Egypt to Canaan.

According to Jewish law, a sukkah must be located where it is open to the sky, and stars must be visible through its roof, which must be made of material cut from the earth. Observant Jews pray, eat, socialize, and sometimes sleep in the structures.

Working with Elijah Huge, an assistant professor of art, the students began by collecting information and meeting with the university’s Jewish chaplain, Rabbi David Leipziger Teva. Teams of students in the studio created designs for different locations on the campus, eventually settling on three options. A committee of Jewish leaders selected the final design, for a five-bay structure on Foss Hill, which overlooks a field on the campus.

The sukkah, designed to be put up and taken down every year, consists of a light steel frame covered by bamboo mats. The design has already won an award from Faith & Form, a journal of religious art and architecture. It is scheduled to be exhibited at the American Institute of Architects’ 2010 convention.

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