HUC-JIR Rabbinical Student Launches “16 Cubits” Sustainable Sukkah Design Contest

For second-year rabbinical student Ethan Blake, the upcoming holiday of Sukkot is not only "a celebration of agricultural abundance and neighborly love - it's also about public space." After all, he points out, the seven-day "festival of booths" is about families and communities building dwellings - sukkahs - where they come together for autumn's harvest.

Noting that the design of these "rustic tabernacles" needs to be within specific parameters prescribed by halacha, or Jewish law, Blake says he has always wanted to apply principles of sustainable design to the intentionality inherent to sukkah construction. He says this was something he became interested in long before he started rabbinical school at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion's New York campus.

"I majored in urban studies as an undergrad, and when I graduated, I thought I wanted to pursue architecture. But after seeing what the actual vocational outlook was like, I realized that I wanted to become a rabbi instead. But the desire for this craft and this passion stuck with me."

Blake says one thing he had found frustrating about contemporary architecture was that "there's less craft in the field today. Mainly you're designing with computers. It's become much more expensive in terms of both time and money to design with your hands, even though there's still a consensus that designing with your hands is going to get the most humane and beautiful kinds of design."

But once he was in rabbinical school at HUC-JIR, Blake realized that there was a way he could bring together his interests - by "applying the wisdom of the Jewish holiday cycle while having an ecological and social impact" - and that meant rethinking the usual approach to Sukkot. "Instead of just going to Home Depot the week before to get whatever materials you need, or ordering them for home delivery," he wanted to find out "how creative can we get with the design, while still being accountable to halacha."

And so, Blake joined forces with architect, urban planner, and ecologist Misha Semënov-Leiva to launch a new sustainable Sukkot design competition called 16 cubits, which runs from October 13-20. The event's name comes from the halachic requirement that a sukkah measure 4 by 4 cubits.

During the competition, teammates - whether they're college classmates, co-workers, or passionate hobbyists - propose novel sukkah designs that can be built for $3,000 in three days, with organizers encouraging the use of experimental, bio-based building approaches and materials like hemp concrete and mycelium insulation.

A panel of curators selected this year's three teams, who will get room, board, and materials during the one-week retreat at Berkeley California's Urban Adamah, an organization that provides farm-based community building experiences based on Jewish tradition, sustainable agriculture, and social action.

"Everything has to be built by sundown on Wednesday, October 16, because that's when Sukkot begins," Blake says, noting that competitors will continue to learn from their structures after the construction is done, as they dwell and sleep in them. "And of course, let's not forget the essential element of eating in the sukkah," Blake adds, noting that planning potlucks and open community dinners is part of the program.

On the last day, "we're having a big public symposium with public tours, events for kids and families, and lots of speakers" - including Blake himself, who will give a talk on how contemporary architectural theory relates to Mishna. Following the lectures, there will be a silent auction to find new homes for the sukkot, "whether they end up donated to a congregation for program space, or in someone's backyard somewhere, whatever it may be." Proceeds from the auction will go to Dandelion Kitchen, an organization that works to alleviate food insecurity and reduce food waste.

Blake, who is also a writer, musician, and ecological chef, says he expects the inaugural 16 cubits will be like "a remix of the Burning Man festival, New York's Sukkah City, and Domaine de Boisbuchet design retreat space in southwest France." Like those other convenings,16 cubits is based on the idea of driving social change by creating a space for creativity. "I'm convinced that, if you really want to shift things, the environment for the work has to be beautiful, and it has to be pleasurable." And that principle, he says, is at the heart of Sukkot.

"I think that Jewish tradition, Jewish cycles and the communal gathering aspect of it, lends such great potential for us to have these forums for how we can reimagine the world anew and have these laboratories for holidays."

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.